This qualitative interpretive study carried out with four EFL teachers in an English for Academic Purposes (EAP) course at a private university in Bogotá, Colombia addresses the disconnect that exists between curricular content and the life of students in education. From our understanding of literacy as a sociocultural practice, we proposed a…

In student-teachers' education, it is fundamental to foster the intercultural communicative competence for them to express their views on cultural concepts and phenomena in written and orally, with native and non-native speakers of a foreign language. In the same vein, future foreign language teachers, particularly at an early stage of their…

Self-assessment for accreditation purposes requires follow-up of graduates and feedback with academic programs. As part of the improvement actions, this study was done to characterize graduates' methodologies in English language teaching. The data, gathered through questionnaires, showed that graduates privilege the communicative and eclectic…

This longitudinal, 2-year study explored the experience of a cohort of seven in-service teachers in an English Language Teaching master's program as they carried out action research studies to determine the impact of the stages of the research process on the various components of their pedagogical content knowledge. The research design followed a…

From the current available research, it is evident that further evidence is needed to understand Second Language Acquisition (SLA) processes under planned bilingualism approaches in English as a Second Language (ESL) environments. This study employs an explanatory single case strategy to investigate the oral proficiency and SLA experiences of a…

With the advent of communicative methodologies, the promise to develop both fluency and accuracy was made as a goal for teaching and learning English as an international language. However, it did not happen (Richards, 2008). In an attempt to equalize students' both semantic and syntactic competence, this study investigates the impact of Swain's…

The National Bilingual Programme was launched in order to promote English learning in Colombia. The failure of this programme and subsequent iterations is well-documented, and research has also examined some of its negative effects for different societal groups. However, a comprehensive study of the social justice implications of Colombia's…

This article presents partial results of research exploring links between language teacher identity and queer identity in English language teachers working in Colombia. Three gay male teachers participated in a narrative research project framed within a poststructural perspective on identity. I conducted and recorded semi-structured interviews…

To investigate whether the type of keyboard used in exams introduces any construct-irrelevant variance to the TOEFL iBT Writing scores, we surveyed 17,040 TOEFL iBT examinees from 24 countries on their keyboard-related perceptions and preferences and analyzed the survey responses together with their test scores. Results suggest that controlling…

This research sets out to unveil the potential enrichment of initial narrative writing processes in a group of EFL 5th graders through the implementation of picture books as useful tools which can be used to shape the natural ability of telling an event or a sequence of events systematically of EFL students at this level. In this qualitative…

The aim of this study is to gain insights into students' language use on social media as part of the specific linguistic activities of second language (L2) learning, including development of sociopragmatic competence. Two Facebook groups were introduced in different English-as-L2 classes that were part of an international collaborative project…

This article reports on an action research study about the exploration of local communities to enact agency and value rural identity. Thirty-three students from a rural public school in Colombia participated in the study. Our aim was to examine ways in which students enacted agency as a result of participating in local community inquiry to realize…

This article presents the preliminary results of an enquiry on the work experience of Colombian language teachers who have entered the workforce in foreign countries. The study aims at unveiling aspects of the personal and professional experience of those graduates that might be relevant for pre-service teachers in local degree programs ahead of…

The objective of this paper is to report the preliminary results of a telecollaborative project between a Brazilian university (UTFPR) and a Colombian university (Universidad de Pamplona) that both offer a Licentiate degree in English. The project had two purposes: a pedagogical one to show student-teachers how they can develop their communication…

The present reflective article aims to describe some challenges that psychology programs in Colombia must face in the future, in order to let their students achieve an international professional profile and to improve their academic quality. First of all, psychology programs need to implement a bilingual curriculum, with many basic and…