This paper develops a two-voiced self-dialogue with some compelling ideals of critical pedagogy advocated by Paulo Freire: reflection, dialogue, "conscientização," (conscientization) praxis, critical engagement, and transformation. This dialogue, as a critical pedagogy encounter, has allowed me to go through a process of self-criticism…

The following pedagogical proposal seeks to understand what types of reflections Modern Languages students reveal about educational issues when analyzing artwork within their context. We worked with twelve Modern Languages students in their fifth and sixth semester at a public university in Colombia. The students began by analyzing four murals…

Throughout time, the predominant use of certain languages has allowed some nations to take control over others and assure for them a privileged position. This study unveiled how certain practices and ideologies in regard to bilingualism have influenced teachers' professional development. Data were collected through discussion group sessions,…

This study reports the contextual Language Assessment Literacy (LAL) of five Colombian English language teachers. Two semi-structured interviews and reflective journals were used for data collection. The findings show that the teachers used varied traditional and alternative assessment instruments, assessed language and non-language constructs,…

This paper shows the results of a pedagogical experience with a group of pre-service English teachers during their first semester of teaching practicum. The data were collected by means of reflection papers written by them, and then the resulting papers were analyzed under the principles of codification of grounded theory. The results show that…

This article explores the reflections of critical incidents of eight beginning English as a foreign language teachers and one of their trainers in Mexico. Based upon narrative inquiry and through the use of journals, critical incidents and how they have impacted beginning teachers in their thinking were specifically looked at. From the data we…

This qualitative action research study explores the role of reflection on teachers' personal and professional growth through the methodology used in the Materials Development Seminar in the Master's Programme in Education with Emphasis on English Didactics at a private university in Colombia. The project was carried out with 31 English as a…

The incorporation of reflective practices in the arena of education has been discussed in different studies in order to understand the development of "practitioners" in a target setting. This article reports on a study aimed at describing the way ten foreign language student-teachers from a public university in Colombia construct their…

This paper, as its title suggests, introduces some reflections on the importance critical pedagogy as well as awareness-raising practices have in education today, especially in language teacher preparation programs, and how they provide a new opportunity for pre-service teachers to re-think their pedagogical experiences for social transformation.…

Due to the role language and literature play in the construction of social, economic and cultural systems, reading comprehension has become a growing challenge. This study examined how the relationship between English as a foreign language reading comprehension and life experiences while using the "Sight Word Strategy" could prove…

This article describes an action research project in which the members of a basic English class for adults over 50 at a Colombian public university undertook the mission of discovering their potentialities as autonomous learners. By means of the reflective use of the language portfolio, the members of this course guided the planning and execution…

This study describes an investigation we carried out in order to identify how the specific roles that 7th grade public school students assumed when they worked cooperatively were related to their development of speaking skills in English. Data were gathered through interviews, field notes, students' reflections and audio recordings. The findings…