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This study describes the factors that enhance students’ argumentation when participating in culture-based discussions at an undergraduate EFL British Culture course. The research was conducted in a Foreign Languages Teaching Degree at a university in Northwestern Colombia. The objective was to identify the components that aided participants to build and elaborate arguments in culture-driven discussions. Socratic questioning was an integral element of the discussions. To attain the purpose of this research, a qualitative case study design was employed. Findings showed that the factors that facilitated the construction of argumentative processes in culture discussions can potentially be peer scaffolding, previous knowledge, inquiry, activism, and connection to participants’ reality.

High school students in Colombian classrooms have been shown to lack autonomous spoken production in English (Gutierrez, 2005; Bocanegra & Ramirez, 2018). One of the causes may be the inappropriate strategies for teaching the skill (Herazo, 2012; Fuentes, 2013). The present study addressed this issue through the innovative Genre-Based pedagogy model, reading to learn (R2L). Reading to learn is an instructional approach that uses texts as a starting point of instruction. Research in R2L (Becerra et al. 2020; Herazo et. al., 2021) has shown that this approach leads students to become autonomous creators of meaning. Emerging research on R2L for spoken communication has proven that this methodology effectively develops oral interactions in L2 classrooms. This research study examined the impact of a Reading to learn model adapted to spoken communication on learners’ production of descriptive reports in a 6th-grade EFL Colombian class. The study followed a case study-mixed method design to encompass the complexity of learners’ production development. The data were collected through two spoken tasks (pretest and posttest), observations, and interviews with the students. The quantitative and qualitative analyses of the data were integrated with a joint display. Findings suggest that R2L significantly affected the learners’ spoken production of descriptive analysis and is a valuable tool for developing students’ ability to create meaning in English.

Reading to learn (R2L) is based on a set of strategies intended to qualify teachers to support their students during their learning process, in order to lead them to independent and successful creation of texts. This methodology has been implemented and researched around the world, considering different curriculum contexts, languages, and content areas. Nevertheless, the main concern of these studies has been learners’ reading and writing improvement based on this Genre-based pedagogy, paying less attention to teachers’ learning and implementation of R2L. This study presents an in-depth analysis of one in-service teacher’s appropriation of R2L for teaching spoken discourse in English as Foreign Language (EFFL) classroom. Specifically, the study describes the challenges and changes that might take place in teachers’ praxis as a result of this process. The study was conducted following a qualitative formative interventions (FI) design. Data were gathered through interviews and lesson observations. Analysis was carried out through activity systems analysis. Findings revealed changes in the teacher’s praxis referring to the object and tools and the contradictions she experienced when learning R2L that propelled such changes. This study will inform future professional development programs in R2L as well as expand our understanding of how R2L can be used for supporting learners’ spoken meaning-making in foreign language contexts.

This study aimed at implementing the writing process-based approach (WPBA) in Padlet to improve writing skills, particularly in the genre of personal narratives. A classroom action research, was conducted to achieve this purpose with 7 students of 10th grade in a private school in Monteria for 4 months, enrolled in activities as extracurricular classes. A diagnostic activity and two cycles were implemented to improve e learner’s writing using the WPBA approach. Data was collected from writing tasks, the diary of the researcher, and class observations. Findings showed that the implementation of WPBA in padlet can be useful in the development of students’ writing skills in personal narratives. students’ writing performance improved particularly in terms of vocabulary use, grammar accuracy, coherence, and sentence structure, as well as the general structure of the personal narrative texts.

A concern about the contributions of an EFL Outreach Program to the participants´ lives arose among its proponents and stakeholders. Even though they recognize the linguistic influence of the Program on children, there isn´t any systematic study yet that delve into the contributions of the Program to student-teachers’ development and empowerment. This study aims to explore how an EFL Outreach Program contributes to student teachers’ professional development, specifically to their technical-pedagogical field, and how during its implementation, the Program brought about teacher empowerment. Through this qualitative study I intend to answer the questions: How does the “Bilingualism for Peace” program contribute to student teachers’ technical-pedagogical field? And, how does the “Bilingualism for Peace” program bring about teacher empowerment during the implementation process? Data was collected through a semi-structured interview, questionnaire, observations, and lesson plans reviews. Such data was analyzed carrying out a thematic analysis. Findings suggests that the outreach program contributes to improve the students-teachers’ development of pedagogical competences while conducting the teaching/learning process. The participation in the program also helped them to make decisions, improve their teaching abilities to promote learning, increase their autonomy, among others. This study raises awareness on the contributions of bilingualism outreach programs on the pedagogical education offered by undergraduate programs and the improvements a Program like this could make to give potential to these types of outreach programs as appropriate contexts to carry out undergraduate students’ practicum. RESUMEN Surgió una preocupación entre sus proponentes y partes interesadas acerca de las contribuciones de un Programa de Extensión de ILE a la vida de los participantes. Si bien reconocen la influencia lingüística del Programa en los niños beneficiados, aún existe la necesidad de profundizar en los aportes del Programa al desarrollo y empoderamiento de los estudiantes-docentes. Este estudio tiene como objetivo explorar cómo un Programa de Extensión de ILE contribuye al desarrollo profesional de los estudiantes-docentes, específicamente en su campo técnico-pedagógico, y cómo durante su implementación, el Programa generó empoderamiento docente. A través de este estudio cualitativo pretendo responder a las preguntas: ¿Cómo contribuye el programa “Bilingüismo para la Paz” al campo técnico-pedagógico de los estudiantes-docentes? Y, ¿cómo el programa “Bilingüismo para la Paz” logra el empoderamiento de los docentes durante el proceso de implementación? Los datos se recopilaron a través de una entrevista semiestructurada, un cuestionario, observaciones y revisiones de planes de clases. Dichos datos fueron analizados realizando un análisis temático. Los hallazgos sugieren que el programa de extensión contribuye a mejorar el desarrollo de las competencias pedagógicas de los estudiantes-docentes al desarrollar el proceso de enseñanza/aprendizaje. La participación en el programa también les ayudó a tomar decisiones, mejorar sus habilidades docentes para promover el aprendizaje, aumentar su autonomía, entre otros. Este estudio da a conocer los aportes de los programas de extensión del bilingüismo en la formación pedagógica que ofrecen los programas de pregrado. También informa sobre las mejoras que un Programa como este podría tener para potencializar este tipo de programas de extensión como contextos apropiados para llevar a cabo la práctica pedagógica de los estudiantes de pregrado.

This research maps the use of Genre-Based Pedagogy (GBP) and manga to picture possible changes and improvement in students reading comprehension abilities. An initial reflection within the action research design led to the understand students’ needs and school educational system towards reading as an important skill. Analysis of the problem showed that the study of new emerging and popular trends, such as genre- based pedagogy, can be assertive tools in the learning of a L2. It was also found there are gaps in studies related to manga that could illustrate its use in education and EFL/ESL context. Because of its nature, this investigation is qualitative using action research design. An action plan using GBP, manga and multiple genres was carried out to improve reading comprehension levels. Results showed that there were multiple changes perceived by all actors of the study and that were substantiated by a series of instruments that revealed important data; improvement of students’ reading comprehension levels, changes of class mechanics when reading.

Picture Story Books (PSBs) is a pedagogical tool consisting of text and illustrations that allow students to develop the process of pre-reading skills, emergent literacy, and comprehension skills. This research study attempted to use Picture storybook strategy (PSBs) as a tool to encourage students’ listening comprehension development. The issue addressed the lack of materials teachers use in preschool to teach English as a second language, therefore, teachers implement strategies that do not consider specific students learning' needs. Furthermore, there has not been sufficient data that describes the use of strategies drawn to stimulate children’s foreign language listening development during the preschool years. The purpose of this Action Research study was to describe how the use of Picture Story Books favors or not on students’ listening comprehension in preschool levels in a private bilingual school in Monteria. In addition, the study described how the use of the strategy contributes to the professional development of English as a Foreign Language Teachers (EFL). In order to accomplish the objective of this Action Research, some interventions were carried out based on students’ needs and the development of their listening comprehension skills. Moreover, this Action Research follows a model of four steps; Plan, Act, Observe, and Reflect. Analysis of classroom observations, students’ artifacts, and teacher’s diary were used to collect the data and reflect on the practical ways teachers provide to assist the specific situations in the classroom.

This research proposal was directed to the teaching of the English language, specifically in the teaching-learning process of oral production; where “morphological, phonological, syntactic knowledge, […] and pragmatic competence” (De la Barra et al., 2018, p. 114) were pedagogically mediated from a Culturally Relevant Pedagogy (CRP) to reach “academic success” and “cultural competence” (Pilotti et al., 2021). The students who participated in this research proposal presented difficulties in orally expressing their opinions, desires, likes, or dislikes when participating in English classes. Therefore, this study aimed to research on how culturally responsive pedagogy could develop oral production in 7th-grade students of a public institution with 22 students, who were the participants. For that end, pre-and speaking task, three focus groups, and the design of two lessons plans were used to collect data. The results revealed that: First, students' development in oral production was observed due to CRP, and second, significant changes in students' oral production were noted in the implementation of CRP. And thirdly, it was related to the perception of students towards the use of CRP classes, all focused on improving oral production. In this way, assignments were no longer just a matter of performing an isolated activity; rather, they could share familiar cultural experiences and tasks where the student felt comfortable and meaningful learning was achieved. Keywords: culture, CRP, speaking ability, oral production

Educational practices are increasingly required to address the needs and promote quality and equitable learning environments for learners with different race, ethnicity, gender identities, religious and cultural backgrounds. Representation is key when our goal is to make all students feel included and catered for. Thus, in educational settings, materials become fundamental resources for our everyday endeavor. Ideally, English learning textbooks should be sensitive and inclusive to cultural diversity, and ensure representations that reflect multiculturality, especially in contexts like Colombia where factors such as gender, ethnicity, race, religion, and family backgrounds find a way in our classrooms. Because of this, students’ identity may be affected when they do not feel identified with the representations portrayed in English textbooks if they do not reflect traits or establish connections with students’ own culture. This study aimed to identify the way ELT textbooks used in different private schools from Montería represent diversity and the way representations are interconnected with students’ own context. To gather the data in this research project, three different textbooks from Cambridge publishing house were evaluated. The textbooks were analyzed in terms of race, gender, disability and cultural representations. Elements from content analysis were used to draw conclusions about the way diversity is portrayed and represented in these materials. Findings indicated that the representation of diversity in ELT textbooks is partially represented. English textbooks still hold stereotypes regarding whites dominance, afro-descendant engendered roles, Latinx and Asian stigmas, and ethnicity and disability invisibility.

Through the National Bilingualism Program, the National Ministry of Education have sought the achievement of B2 level at the end of school throughout the country. To this end, bilingual projects and materials have been created for improving and fostering English learning everywhere. However, given the multiculturalism, diversity, geographical and socio-economic conditions of each region of Colombia, disparities have perpetuated (Cardenas, 2006). Those differences maintain the latent need to develop or adapt new EFL materials and resources that elicit initial communication in learners, reach peculiarities of these regions, and adapt to the students’ learning needs. This project aims at describing the characteristics that EFL material for rural fifth learners from Lorica, Córdoba should adopt, considering the pupils’ cultural and learning needs, to develop listening and reading skills in English as the beginning of communication understanding. This qualitative study relies on a case study design, implementing a needs analysis method; a questionnaire, focus group interviews and documentary data are the instruments used to collect information. The participants involved are fifth graders and elementary teachers from five rural schools in Lorica. A sample of EFL material design emerges from the findings. The researcher implements a conventional content analysis method for interviews and documentary data and a statistical method for the questionnaire. The results suggest a content graded to their language level, an active role of learners creating their own material for classes, a culturally well-known vocabulary with enough audiovisual support to enhance receptive skills and special attention to English pronunciation and its connection to listening skills to enhance speaking skills.

In recent years listening, especially active listening as part of the interpretive mode of communication, has had a significant interest in language research that it seems not to have in the past. Interpreting audio texts has become a difficult task for second and foreign language students. Students feel frustrated when they do not interpret, comprehend or infer ideas or situations from authentic texts. This study focuses on the development of interpretive skills not only to comprehend but to interpret ideas or situations. At the same time, it brings multimodality up, one of the emerging theories which benefit language learning. This study aims at using interpretative tasks based on movie trailers as multimodal texts to promote interpretative skills in the language classroom. The methodology used in this project embraces a qualitative design in which students' interpretative actions and multimodality role will be explored. The participants for this research are teenagers of a public high school in Colombia. Data was collected taking in consideration the stages of action research (plan, act, observe and reflect) and the analysis followed thematic data analysis procedures. The implementation of interpretative tasks based on movie trailers as multimodal text promoted interpretative actions concerning movie trailer story and students’ real life; critics about society's stereotypes and meaningful reflection concerning human behavior; in addition, students described their experience in terms of the methodology, materials implemented, and the role of multimodality. In the same way this study could be an opportunity for researchers to add to the field of multimodality and explore learners as meaning makers.

Learning to read and write different types of texts is essential for English foreign language (EFL) students and required in all educational contexts. That is why this study was applied in a bilingual school, where fifth grade students faced great difficulties to understand texts when reading and organize their ideas when writing. Students were unable to make sense of texts, organize and connect ideas, and write independent texts. Therefore, the purpose of this qualitative study, rooted in an action research design, was to promote students’ reading and writing skills in their second language by incorporating Cartoons as multimodal texts and following the sequence of the reading to learn (R2L) pedagogy. R2L is an approach that enables students to develop their reading and writing skills. Through R2L, students can make meaning of texts and construct independent texts based on the analysis and co-construction of a model text. Data was gathered through a diagnostic task, participant observation, two reading tasks, students' writing samples, audio-recordings, a teacher’s journal, and a focus group. Results showed significant changes in students' ability to understand and write biographies and revealed that the use of cartoons as multimodal texts were essential in student's understanding and written production.

Teachers’ talks impact students from various dimensions, content, interaction, motivation, and empathy. For this reason, they have in their words the power to set up or mitigate solidarity construction and peace building. A few studies have delved into the critical analysis of teachers’ interactions with students and how discourse served to improve inclusive educational policies. However, little is known about the analysis of classroom interactions to explore power relations, and teachers’ agency when promoting inclusion in EFL contexts with diverse learners. This qualitative study involves a hybrid approach including both critical discourse analysis and multimodal discourse (MCDA). It aims to critically explore how the interaction derived from an EFL teacher’s discourse promotes or hinders inclusive solidarity relationships in mainstream classrooms and informs inclusive education efforts in educational sectors, particularly mainstream classrooms on the potential effects of discourse analysis and multimodality to intervene in social injustice and learning of EFL for all. This study addressed the following questions: How does teachers’ discourse promote or fail to promote inclusive solidarity relationships while interacting with diverse students in a mainstream EFL classroom? In what ways does a teacher's reflection of her discourse generate opportunities for Inclusive solidarity relationships between the teacher and the students? To this end, it employed observations, semi-structured interviews, and stimulated recall to critically unveil teachers’ discourse when interacting with diverse students in the mainstream classroom. The outcomes of this research include: (1) Teachers’ demonstration of solidarity and (2) demonstration of lack of solidarity (3) teachers’ reflection on her discourse. Implications of this research may encourage teachers’ self-reflection on their discourse in order to reshape it into a more inclusive practice.

Discourse embodies significant tools that contribute to transform social practices, building critical interactions, and having voice in daily issues. Consequently, inadequate uses of discourse might lead to perpetuation of violence and end in ratifying negative issues such as violence, racism, bullying or segregation. In educational settings, teachers are not always aware of the potential impact of their discourse, adopting forms of communication that bring about negative effects such as marginalization or exclusion of students. Thus, we should know about the power of discourse in educational and social settings to positively build societies instead of using power to discriminate or perpetuate violence. This qualitative study is grounded on activity theory in order to inform about the effects of PDA in a formative intervention program to mobilize processes of inclusion for all in EFL classes. The research involved an English teacher from a public school in Monteria. Results from this study were divided into two main moments: initial results of the participant’s activity system and some changes in her activity system after the formative interventions with PDA. Initial findings showed some need concerning Maria’s initial discourse and contradictions in her activity system. It also showed how formative interventions helped Maria reconstruct some aspects of her discourse, particularly in the AT elements object, subject and mediating artifacts to build more inclusive interactions with the learners. Findings from the study suggest that formative interventions serve as community building strategies for teachers and researchers to collaboratively build on their teaching needs.

While many scholars agree on the influence and importance principal leadership has on some school processes, still little is known about how principals influence or shape school processes, leading to debate about the degree of impact they might have. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to examine how school principals go through school processes such as achieving school outcomes, playing leadership roles, and making school improvements Through this phenomenological study of 5 participants at an urban public school I intended to answer the phenomenological question, “How do central stake holders make sense of their leadership in a public urban secondary school in a city in Colombia? The study employed seven step Stevick-Colaizzi’s--Keen method of phenomenological analysis and a descriptive approach to phenomenology. Data was collected through in-depth, semi-structured interviews, and reflective diaries. Six themes emerged from the data: 1) The power of connectedness, 2) The wholeness of communication, 3) Awareness of a sense of community, 4) A sense of practicalness in education, 5) The uniqueness of a leadership style, 6) Awareness of a commitment to a mission. The findings from this study provided a deeper understanding of the influence principal leadership has on school outcomes and they added to the current body of research regarding the relationship between principal leadership and school improvement.

Drawing on the concepts of teacher agency and language policy enactment, this qualitative case study reports how three secondary teachers from two state schools in Colombia enacted the National English Suggested Curriculum for Secondary (ESC) (MEN, 2016). Teachers’ trajectories of action were analyzed as these were influential in ESC adaptation. Semi-structured interviews, teachers’ narratives and lesson observations were used as data sources. By adapting Priestly et al. (2015) ecological model of agency as a reference framework, I situated teachers’ actions within projective, iterational and practical evaluative dimensions of agency. Rather than evaluating the effectiveness or ineffectiveness in ESC adaptation, the current study provides insight into the agentic moves made by the participant teachers, presenting their own teaching frameworks for action. In this study, I provide additional dimensions, which emerged from the analysis and can help to expand theoretical and empirical knowledge in the field of teacher agency.