Noticing the generally lower-than-desirable English language proficiency level with which Spanish students start university, I considered trying a different approach in which the use of a familiar application would be introduced in the classroom. The main objective of this work is to explore Primary Education degree programme students’ attitudes towards the integration of YouTube in the English language classroom. To this end, 46 third-year intermediate-level students participated in the study. It adopted a mixed-method approach, using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. The results show that, although participants mentioned some drawbacks, they reacted positively to the use of the platform. Given these results and the benefits offered, the integration of YouTube in the foreign language classroom is highly recommended.
{"title":"University Students’ Attitudes towards the Use of YouTube in the EFL Classroom","authors":"María Victoria Fernández-Carballo","doi":"10.19183/HOW.28.2.624","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.19183/HOW.28.2.624","url":null,"abstract":"Noticing the generally lower-than-desirable English language proficiency level with which Spanish students start university, I considered trying a different approach in which the use of a familiar application would be introduced in the classroom. The main objective of this work is to explore Primary Education degree programme students’ attitudes towards the integration of YouTube in the English language classroom. To this end, 46 third-year intermediate-level students participated in the study. It adopted a mixed-method approach, using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. The results show that, although participants mentioned some drawbacks, they reacted positively to the use of the platform. Given these results and the benefits offered, the integration of YouTube in the foreign language classroom is highly recommended.","PeriodicalId":43460,"journal":{"name":"How-A Colombian Journal for Teachers of English","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2021-07-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43474275","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Martha Isabel Bonilla-Mora, Johanna Patricia López-Urbina
This study aims to understand the local and updated epistemological perceptions of the teaching and learning of English as a foreign language (EFL) in Colombia from the voices of English language university teachers. This qualitative research emerges as part of a hermeneutical perspective which allowed the authors to analyze experiences, perceptions, and understandings of teachers in the foreign language-teaching field. Data collection instruments included a literature review using framework matrices and semi-structured interviews. After data analysis, three categories emerged: Pertinence and Relevance of Teaching and Learning of EFL, Teaching and Learning of EFL, and The State of Bilingualism. The study concludes with the recommendation of promoting the teaching and learning of foreign languages based on contextualized necessities of Colombia. We draw attention to the cultural and linguistic diversity in our country. In addition, we raise awareness among preservice teachers towards an epistemological reconstruction that involves the ecology of knowledge, engaging them in critical knowledge and practices from outside the Eurocentric vision.
{"title":"Local Epistemological Perceptions that Underlie EFL Literature and Teaching Practices in Colombia","authors":"Martha Isabel Bonilla-Mora, Johanna Patricia López-Urbina","doi":"10.19183/HOW.28.2.598","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.19183/HOW.28.2.598","url":null,"abstract":"This study aims to understand the local and updated epistemological perceptions of the teaching and learning of English as a foreign language (EFL) in Colombia from the voices of English language university teachers. This qualitative research emerges as part of a hermeneutical perspective which allowed the authors to analyze experiences, perceptions, and understandings of teachers in the foreign language-teaching field. Data collection instruments included a literature review using framework matrices and semi-structured interviews. After data analysis, three categories emerged: Pertinence and Relevance of Teaching and Learning of EFL, Teaching and Learning of EFL, and The State of Bilingualism. The study concludes with the recommendation of promoting the teaching and learning of foreign languages based on contextualized necessities of Colombia. We draw attention to the cultural and linguistic diversity in our country. In addition, we raise awareness among preservice teachers towards an epistemological reconstruction that involves the ecology of knowledge, engaging them in critical knowledge and practices from outside the Eurocentric vision.","PeriodicalId":43460,"journal":{"name":"How-A Colombian Journal for Teachers of English","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2021-07-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46364272","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Karen Andrea Cuervo-Rodríguez, Jairo Enrique Castañeda-Trujillo
This article deals with the particularities two pre-service English language teachers have due to they have dyslexia. This study’s main intention was to understand how the participants constructed their identities as English teachers while dealing with discrimination, negative feelings, and not understanding teachers. We collected the data through interviews that served to write the two pre-service teachers’ narratives. The narrative analysis showed that pre-service English language teachers who suffer from apparently superficial difficulties must hide most of the time to avoid discrimination. We conclude that teacher educators’ role is essential in identity construction processes, especially when pre-service teachers face certain conditions that may affect their performance as language learners and as language teachers. Additionally, it was evident that resilient teachers can make strength from their weaknesses.
{"title":"Dyslexic Individuals’ Narratives on their Process of Becoming English Language Teachers","authors":"Karen Andrea Cuervo-Rodríguez, Jairo Enrique Castañeda-Trujillo","doi":"10.19183/HOW.28.2.621","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.19183/HOW.28.2.621","url":null,"abstract":"This article deals with the particularities two pre-service English language teachers have due to they have dyslexia. This study’s main intention was to understand how the participants constructed their identities as English teachers while dealing with discrimination, negative feelings, and not understanding teachers. We collected the data through interviews that served to write the two pre-service teachers’ narratives. The narrative analysis showed that pre-service English language teachers who suffer from apparently superficial difficulties must hide most of the time to avoid discrimination. We conclude that teacher educators’ role is essential in identity construction processes, especially when pre-service teachers face certain conditions that may affect their performance as language learners and as language teachers. Additionally, it was evident that resilient teachers can make strength from their weaknesses.","PeriodicalId":43460,"journal":{"name":"How-A Colombian Journal for Teachers of English","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2021-07-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43932027","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Angélica María Pita-Castro, Yury Alicia Castiblanco-Rincón
This research study is about the way pre-service English language teachers’ levels of reflectivity, proposed by Van Manen, give an account of the construction of their identity as language teachers during their pedagogical practicum in a BA program of English Language Teaching at a private university in Bogota, Colombia. This study follows the principles of narrative research to explore the way the participants live their pedagogical practicum experience. Data were collected from the participants’ reflective journals and audio-recorded semi-structured interviews. Findings reveal that pre-service English language teachers possess a level of reflectivity, although they are unaware of it at the beginning of their pedagogical practicum. Thus, their identities as language teachers are constructed depending on the context, the people that are around them, and the specific time; hence, the levels of reflectivity as proposed by Van Manen are set in an incognito manner.
{"title":"Pre-Service English Language Teachers’ Levels of Reflectivity during the Process of Identity Construction in Pedagogical Practicum: A Snowball","authors":"Angélica María Pita-Castro, Yury Alicia Castiblanco-Rincón","doi":"10.19183/HOW.28.2.562","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.19183/HOW.28.2.562","url":null,"abstract":"This research study is about the way pre-service English language teachers’ levels of reflectivity, proposed by Van Manen, give an account of the construction of their identity as language teachers during their pedagogical practicum in a BA program of English Language Teaching at a private university in Bogota, Colombia. This study follows the principles of narrative research to explore the way the participants live their pedagogical practicum experience. Data were collected from the participants’ reflective journals and audio-recorded semi-structured interviews. Findings reveal that pre-service English language teachers possess a level of reflectivity, although they are unaware of it at the beginning of their pedagogical practicum. Thus, their identities as language teachers are constructed depending on the context, the people that are around them, and the specific time; hence, the levels of reflectivity as proposed by Van Manen are set in an incognito manner.","PeriodicalId":43460,"journal":{"name":"How-A Colombian Journal for Teachers of English","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2021-07-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44533834","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The present qualitative study with an action research orientation focuses on the strengthening of students’ oral fluency in English through the implementation of six theme-based teaching workshops. The participants were students of an EFL pre-intermediate English language course in the institute of foreign languages at the Technological University of Pereira, in Risaralda State, Colombia. Besides the implementation of theme-based teaching, this study includes the speaking phases of rehearsal, performance, and debriefing to impact students’ oral fluency. This project emerged from an exhaustive needs analysis which showed that the university’s students, as future professionals, had difficulties with their oral performance i.e. their being unable to speak about topics related to their university life in English; hence, the need of including themes aligned with their academic contexts was highlighted with the purpose of helping them improve their oral fluency in English. The findings indicate that the students improved in their oral fluency in terms of vocabulary, intonation, and a reduction in the number of long pauses when speaking in English.
{"title":"Theme-Based Teaching to Promote Oral Fluency in a University in Colombia","authors":"Angela Patricia Velásquez-Hoyos","doi":"10.19183/HOW.28.2.555","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.19183/HOW.28.2.555","url":null,"abstract":"The present qualitative study with an action research orientation focuses on the strengthening of students’ oral fluency in English through the implementation of six theme-based teaching workshops. The participants were students of an EFL pre-intermediate English language course in the institute of foreign languages at the Technological University of Pereira, in Risaralda State, Colombia. Besides the implementation of theme-based teaching, this study includes the speaking phases of rehearsal, performance, and debriefing to impact students’ oral fluency. This project emerged from an exhaustive needs analysis which showed that the university’s students, as future professionals, had difficulties with their oral performance i.e. their being unable to speak about topics related to their university life in English; hence, the need of including themes aligned with their academic contexts was highlighted with the purpose of helping them improve their oral fluency in English. The findings indicate that the students improved in their oral fluency in terms of vocabulary, intonation, and a reduction in the number of long pauses when speaking in English.","PeriodicalId":43460,"journal":{"name":"How-A Colombian Journal for Teachers of English","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2021-07-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49182531","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Editorial","authors":"Edgar Lucero-Babativa","doi":"10.19183/how.28.2.657","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.19183/how.28.2.657","url":null,"abstract":"Editorial","PeriodicalId":43460,"journal":{"name":"How-A Colombian Journal for Teachers of English","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2021-07-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45734859","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This research article on feminism gives an account of the interaction between a female teacher and her students at a public university in Tunja, Colombia. The study aims to evidence features of feminism within an English as a foreign language classroom by analyzing the transcriptions of the teacher’s discourse using the Feminist Poststructuralist Discourse Analysis. As a result of the study, it can be stated that feminism is not determined by gender, but rather, it is an individual choice that is socially constructed and transmitted through power relationships. Findings suggest that being female or male does not guarantee having a definite position towards feminism; instead, it is mostly demarcated by the specific situations and circumstances that each individual experiences within a society.
{"title":"Feminism in a Female Teacher’s Discourse in an EFL Classroom","authors":"Monica Patarroyo-Fonseca","doi":"10.19183/HOW.28.2.619","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.19183/HOW.28.2.619","url":null,"abstract":"This research article on feminism gives an account of the interaction between a female teacher and her students at a public university in Tunja, Colombia. The study aims to evidence features of feminism within an English as a foreign language classroom by analyzing the transcriptions of the teacher’s discourse using the Feminist Poststructuralist Discourse Analysis. As a result of the study, it can be stated that feminism is not determined by gender, but rather, it is an individual choice that is socially constructed and transmitted through power relationships. Findings suggest that being female or male does not guarantee having a definite position towards feminism; instead, it is mostly demarcated by the specific situations and circumstances that each individual experiences within a society.","PeriodicalId":43460,"journal":{"name":"How-A Colombian Journal for Teachers of English","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2021-07-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45742582","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Critical exploration of socio-political issues has been a topic strongly carried out in English classrooms in the last decades. This article is the result of a research study that shows what the use of political cartoons reveals about the promotion of critical reading in an EFL classroom at a private university in Colombia. The study was developed with fourteen students under a qualitative case study method. Workshops, teacher journals and focus-group interviews were used to collect data. The emerging categories show the positive results of using political cartoons and the change that the students had in their thoughts and actions in both the academic and social context. In the results, the students portray how they have perceived the ELT classroom, the importance of being a critical reader of texts and contexts, and how the different activities helped them construct their own critical awareness concerning social and political issues.
{"title":"Promotion of Critical Reading through the Use of Political Cartoons","authors":"Willian Alexander Mora-Menjura","doi":"10.19183/HOW.28.2.564","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.19183/HOW.28.2.564","url":null,"abstract":"Critical exploration of socio-political issues has been a topic strongly carried out in English classrooms in the last decades. This article is the result of a research study that shows what the use of political cartoons reveals about the promotion of critical reading in an EFL classroom at a private university in Colombia. The study was developed with fourteen students under a qualitative case study method. Workshops, teacher journals and focus-group interviews were used to collect data. The emerging categories show the positive results of using political cartoons and the change that the students had in their thoughts and actions in both the academic and social context. In the results, the students portray how they have perceived the ELT classroom, the importance of being a critical reader of texts and contexts, and how the different activities helped them construct their own critical awareness concerning social and political issues.","PeriodicalId":43460,"journal":{"name":"How-A Colombian Journal for Teachers of English","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2021-07-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43152310","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article examined two English teachers’ professional identities based on a series of interviews conducted in two universities in Bogotá, Colombia. This paper examined their experiences and discourses regarding language pedagogy. Accordingly, the study adopted a narrative methodology from a decolonial lens to put some tension on the normative conception of the traditional/hegemonic notions of pedagogy and teacher identities configured in the Colombian English Language Teaching (ELT) context. Findings revealed that teachers enact their language pedagogies by merging their personal selves with their professional ones. As a result, identities and ways of knowing are validated in negotiation between doing and being. This posture towards teaching exposes their ontological and epistemic struggles for humanizing their pedagogy.
{"title":"Language Pedagogy and Identity. Learning from Teachers’ Narratives in the Colombian ELT","authors":"Diego F. Ubaque-Casallas","doi":"10.19183/HOW.28.2.604","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.19183/HOW.28.2.604","url":null,"abstract":"This article examined two English teachers’ professional identities based on a series of interviews conducted in two universities in Bogotá, Colombia. This paper examined their experiences and discourses regarding language pedagogy. Accordingly, the study adopted a narrative methodology from a decolonial lens to put some tension on the normative conception of the traditional/hegemonic notions of pedagogy and teacher identities configured in the Colombian English Language Teaching (ELT) context. Findings revealed that teachers enact their language pedagogies by merging their personal selves with their professional ones. As a result, identities and ways of knowing are validated in negotiation between doing and being. This posture towards teaching exposes their ontological and epistemic struggles for humanizing their pedagogy.","PeriodicalId":43460,"journal":{"name":"How-A Colombian Journal for Teachers of English","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2021-05-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44859174","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Editorial","authors":"Edgar Lucero-Babativa","doi":"10.19183/how.28.1.634","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.19183/how.28.1.634","url":null,"abstract":"Editorial","PeriodicalId":43460,"journal":{"name":"How-A Colombian Journal for Teachers of English","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2021-02-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49520288","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}