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Children have the right to be educated regardless their abilities or disabilities, social status, religion and so forth. Unfortunately, over the years, people such as blind children have been excluded from society depriving them of their right of education (McCarthy & Shevlin, 2017). In the context of this study, few opportunities are given to blind students to improve the speaking skill. Moreover, I had a puzzle about teaching English to blind learners studying English in regular classrooms. Then, I need to understand how Differentiated instruction works within a regular lesson to promote oral interaction to blind students. Accordingly, this study aimed to explore teacher´s understanding of differentiated instruction for developing blind learners’ oral interaction. This exploratory practice study was carried out observing my own practice implementing differentiated instruction for teaching 3 blind students within a regular classroom from a public school in Monteria. Findings from this study evidenced that to ensure a coherent planning for all I must provide instruction that caters for all students. Besides, I must locate the challenges I faced in this process turning them into learning opportunities.

Technology has brought many advantages in people's lives and it has supported many fields, including the educational field. Teachers and students have been benefited with the inclusion of technology inside the classrooms. There have been several studies related to the benefits that technology has brought for the schools. However, there is still a need for more phenomenological research in our context about English teachers’ lived experiences about the use of technology in their classrooms. Particularly, the limitations that they have faced during their teaching practices. The purpose of this study was to explore and understand English teachers’ lived experiences about the use of technology in the EFL classroom. Seidman (2006) three series of interviews model was used to collect the data. The data analysis was carried out through Colaizzi’s (1978) method of seven steps for descriptive phenomenology. The analysis process provided four themes: (a) The Transcendence of Being a User, (b) Awareness of a Value, (c) The Experience of Being Technology-illiterate, and (d) The Smoothness of Communication and Sense of Improvement. The findings of this study provide accounts of the participant’s experiences about the significance of being a user, sense of improvement and value and the limitations inside the EFL classroom, and also the experiences gave meaning to the inclusion of technology in the teaching-learning process.

Con la reforma al sector salud en 1993, se introdujeron elementos regulatorios como el Plan de Beneficios y la Unidad de Pago por Capitación (UPC), la UPC es definida por el Ministerio de Salud y Protección Social como el valor que se reconoce por cada uno de los afiliados al Sistema General de Seguridad Social en Salud (SGSSS) para cubrir las prestaciones del Plan de Beneficios, en los Regímenes Contributivo y Subsidiado. El Estado calcula la UPC, como fija por un año, fundamentada en variables actuariales que consideran la edad, el género y la región, como principales vectores de cálculo.

The environmental problem is an issue of concern worldwide and although various strategies have been implemented to counteract, it has not been possible to stop this situation. Environmental education immersed in the curriculum of natural sciences, becomes an integrating field of knowledge, habits, skills, attitudes and values, so that it reflects that the content addressed, contribute significantly to the teaching-learning process, linking the human being with the environment and the context in which he is, allowing an integral formation of the students, which is expressed in their action towards the environment, respect for their environment and an adequate intervention of the present environmental problems. In this sense, the need arises to propose a study that allows designing a didactic unit mediated by learning landscapes to strengthen environmental competencies in seventh grade students in a rural context, promoted from the learning of natural sciences. The methodology was based on an interpretive paradigm, qualitative research, with a phenomenological approach, the participants were twelve (12) students. As results we have, in the diagnosis it is evident that the students moderately manage the competences of recognition of the environmental problem, (knowing how to know), acceptance of responsibility (knowing how to be) and responsible and informed action (knowing how to do), they manifest certain varied knowledge about the environment, but they lack to be more active and persistent when giving solutions to environmental problems. Subsequently designed the didactic unit, taking into account what was found in the diagnosis made and the documentary analysis carried out, with this it was possible to propose a structure for the didactic strategy, propose contents and activities to strengthen environmental competences, resulting in a significant process in which students have the possibility to contribute, learn, understand, strengthen and transform skills and learning habits. Likewise, the validation of the didactic unit mediated by learning landscapes is achieved, through experts in environmental issues, who presented their assessments after applying interview and focus group, evidencing that the planning and structuring of the unit is focused on strengthening the competencies in the students.

Corrective feedback (CF) constitutes an opportunity for teachers to work on students´ errors and mistakes during oral communication activities since it provides the correct strategies. This study sought to explore the use of corrective feedback strategies for correcting 9th graders’ errors in oral communication in EFL classes at a secondary public school in Montería, Córdoba. Data was collected through direct observation, a teacher diary, a stimulated recall, and a semi-structured interview. The results revealed that the teacher used repetition to boost self-correction and peer-correction rather than recast and clarification requests which were also used during three online meetings; This study suggests that the effectiveness of CF will depend on the teachers’ knowledge and consciousness about the different techniques that can be implemented when providing feedback and the learners’ uptakes to each one of them.

This qualitative action research aimed, firstly, to examine whether or not the implementing game-based conversational activities enhance oral interaction in a group of 5th grade students from a public school of Montería taking into consideration the advantages of games to develop speaking skills. Secondly, to know students’ opinions regarding the deployment of games based conversational activities in the class. The data collection was done through the implementation of production tasks (game based conversational activities), active observation, audio-visual recordings, focus groups and semi-structured interviews; besides, it was carried out thematic analysis to generate the categories of this study. The results showed a slight increment on students’ oral interaction after the implementation of games, also, it was observed a positive impact on students’ engagement, reduction of negative feelings related to expressing ideas orally during the English class, while students also seemed to enhance their confidence to speak in English, as well as collaborate more with peers. Future studies of games-base activities should consider the adaptation of games frameworks taking into account students’ context and communicative approaches, strategies to minimize disruptive behavior, the relevance of non-verbal communication as complement during oral interaction as well as the impact of games to reduce the use of the L1 during L2 learning.

Teachers are requested to develop students' reading comprehension ability, so they can understand, debate and propose ideas based on texts they read in class. However, in some of our school contexts and during our observations we could recognize that students tend to perceive texts as long and boring, Moreover, activities students engage in are mostly to search for literal information and vocabulary answers in texts. This research focused on addressing students’ needs concerning reading by using genre-based pedagogy and mangas as texts in an EFL context. This study also sought to describe the possible affordances that might be observed on 8thh graders´ after being taught with GBP and mangas, as well as exploring how it provoked some changes in students´ negative feelings towards reading in the EFL class. Results from the study showed that knowledge of genre and interaction with its components helped students understand the story in the Manga, read a new manga by their own and answer genre questions about it. The study also showed how some of the students felt comfortable when reading after being taught with GBP.

This research seeks to explore how eight-grader students from a public school located in a rural area from Lorica, Córdoba dispel from judgment and stereotypes concerning cultural differences through authentic material inserted in the IMAGE model approach. This study also attempts to give an answer to the following question: How might authentic materials and the IMAGE model help secondary school students to de-center from judgment and stereotypes regarding cultural differences? To achieve this, this study used a qualitative research method and it applied the action research cycle. The instruments used were participant observations and written tasks. The findings showed that students were able to move from making generalizations and having prejudices to being mindful of cultural differences concerning the English language, especially in terms of where it is spoken, its variety of accents and people who speak this language. The present research project showed that the integration of a cultural lesson throughout the IMAGE model approach and real materials helped secondary school students to change their perceptions into positive ones based on the new knowledge they were capable to acquire during the process and with the exposure to cultural and rich content that they coped with in the classes.

Listening is undoubtedly a fundamental language skill to develop when learning a foreign language due to its constant use by the L2 learner. However, in classrooms students feel frustrated because the listening activities designed for its development are not understandable for them and become reluctant to work in classes on this skill; as a result, most students usually find EFL learning uninteresting or boring. The purpose of this exploratory case study was to explore which aspect of the listening skill students developed the most when implementing MALL (Mobile-Assisted Language Learning) and what were their perceptions towards the use of smartphones in EFL lessons. In order to meet that end, this study employed a diagnostic and final test, listening tasks, students’ diaries and a questionnaire to answer which listening skill aspect students develop the most and their perceptions towards MALL. Coding and descriptive analysis helped to analyze the data gathered. The findings of this study suggest that MALL is an efficient strategy to develop listening skills in the L2, especially concerning the identifying expressions and set of utterances that act to create meaning aspect. Additionally, MALL can also be used as a different strategy to learn a foreign language in an interesting and dynamic way.

This report describes the internship carried out at the University of Cordoba in the Foreign Language Teaching Program under the mentoring program piloting stage. This program aims to preclude student dropout as well as to diminish the level of desertion to keep and arouse the permanence of the students in the program. A population of 15 participants from upper intermediate level in Communication 5 enrolled from first to fifth semester, were diagnosed and presented academic problems in terms of language acquisition which were mainly focused on mispronunciation and misspelling new words; they also had some difficulties memorizing the new vocabulary learned in class. Add to this, they did not have self-confidence when conveying their ideas because of the lack of vocabulary, and sometimes, were not able to understand what other people were saying, specifically when questions were asked, showing insecurity and hesitation when responding. The methodology applied in the mentoring sessions was founded on using realia in real contexts as main strategy to accomplish the expected objectives and learning communicative outcomes while implementing an eclectic approach which let the mentor teach English depending on the students’ skills and the purpose of the lesson. The results demonstrated that a good number of mentees enhanced their academic records and improved their English language performance, which gave the mentor great personal and professional satisfaction to make part of their peers' learning achievement.

The present study analyzes, from the perspective of pre-service teachers, the learning opportunities that may arise as well as the challenges they face during the application of TBL in relation to students' speaking development. The concepts that guide this research are Speaking, which is explored from the perspective of Bailey (2000), who understands it as an interactive process seeking to create meaning to the message transmitted. Also, the TBL approach and its framework proposed by Ellis (2014) with 3 phases: Pre-task, During-task and Post-task, as well as the concept of Learning Opportunities which, according to Grabbe (2003) is the access to favorable learning circumstances. For the implementation, a task on Power and Justice was applied in a public school in Monteria, in tenth graders. The qualitative approach under the case study method was followed. For data collection class observations, researchers' and students' journals and artifacts were used to answer the question. In terms of findings, two categories were pre-established: learning opportunities and challenges. From the above, the opportunities of: Providing input in terms of language and new knowledge to encourage students to speak in class, negotiating meaning between students and teacher during the lesson and Provoking student thinking on the topic of power and justice, emerged. As well as the challenges of Coping with the overuse of L1 and the linguistic difficulties, The Inclusion of demanding topics such as Power and Justice and Fulfilling the head teacher's demands regarding the course's syllabus (content and time). This study concludes that this approach offers the opportunity to use language in meaningful ways such as developing critical thinking, using, and acquiring new knowledge but the fear of making mistakes may limit student’s participation and the demands of following grammar-focused content and time limitation may hinder the demands of TBL application.

This internship report highlights the main insights I have gained from my experience as a student intern in a public school, teaching English to children and performing some administrative activities. I also report the results of this experience in three main fields of improvement: students' academic achievements, my personal and professional growth. This report also addresses the results I obtained by using some basic practices to promote my students' opportunities to interact in the EFL classroom. Finally, some of the difficulties I experienced will be carefully explained.

Diabetes mellitus is a chronic disease, which occurs when high blood glucose levels are present. An unbalanced diet has been found to be an important risk factor in the prevalence of chronic non-communicable diseases, including diabetes mellitus and the complications that can occur as the disease progresses. Therapy for this disease is mainly focused on glycemic control, leading to diets that reduce carbohydrate intake. The objective of this review was to search for and analyze information on functional foods used for the prevention and treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus and other chronic non-communicable diseases, for which a bibliographic search was carried out in different databases, where a large number of articles and documents related to the subject were obtained and to which certain criteria were applied to be used in the writing of this document. The main conclusions were that the adverse effects of carbohydrate consumption are absent when these are of complex character, with a considerable presence of resistant starches and slow digestion, capable of lowering the glycemic index, for this functional food uses processes that can produce beneficial changes in the structure or composition of food, within these processes we have mainly physicochemical treatments such as moisture and heat, chemical treatments and microbiological treatments.

El presente trabajo de investigación se realizó con el objetivo de determinar la Prevalencia del uso de analgésicos (Diclofenaco, Tramadol, Dipirona, Hioscina simple y Hioscina compuesta) en el servicio de hospitalización en el cuarto piso, en pacientes atendidos en la Clínica Montería, durante el periodo del mes de noviembre del 2019. Se realizó una investigación de tipo observacional, descriptiva, de corte o trasversal, observacional y con enfoque cuantitativo; para la obtención de datos se le hiso el cálculo a través de una herramienta estadística dando como resultado una muestra de 61 historias clínica, las cuales 48 cumplieron con los criterios de inclusión. Los datos recolectados demuestran que los pacientes con mayor incidencia en el servicio de hospitalización pertenecen al género femenino con un 54.17% y el rango de edad 41- 64 años con un promedio de 45.83%. se observó que el medicamento de mayor uso en el servicio de hospitalización es la dipirona con un 38.8% y el incumplimiento de los perfiles fármaco terapéuticos en comparación con la literatura.