SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP ON SOCIO-POLITICAL CONCERNS IN LANGUAGE TEACHING AND LEARNING IN COLOMBIA

coordinador: Jaime Usma Wilches (Universidad de Antioquia) email:jusmawilches@hotmail.com

The field of foreign language teaching and learning Colombia has experienced
a time of profound transformation and agitated debate since the government
proposed the National Program of Bilingualism 2004-2019 (Colombia.
Ministerio de Educación Nacional, 2005; 2006a; 2006b; 2006c; 2007). Through
this policy, state officials have initiated a number of reforms, including the
introduction of the concept of Spanish-English bilingualism; the designation of
the British Council as a leading organization in the formulation and
implementation of the plan; the adoption of the Common European Framework
of Reference for Languages (Council of Europe, 2001) in Colombia; the
definition of standards to normalize teaching, learning, and professional
development according to the guidelines provided by the foreign consultants;
the promotion of international standardized tests to determine and certify
teachers’ and students’ competence; and the continuous regulation and
deregulation that favors the consolidation of a private market. Through this and
other accompanying reforms, the government is not only determined to shape
the national school system according to transnational expectations, but also to
appear more competitive now that bi-national trade agreements are being
negotiated with countries such as the United States and Canada, and different
cities in Colombia are presented as development poles for foreign economic
investment (Usma, 2009).

In this new scenario, the purpose of this special interest group is to open
space for critical analysis and proactive thinking. Participants in this group will
engage in critical analyses of current reforms in Colombia; the social,
economic, cultural, and political implications of these plans in different
educational settings; and their connection with other economic and political
agendas. Additionally, this interest group will encourage participants to share
their experiences and proposals in order to qualify the analyses of all the
participants and support the work that all of us do around the country. The final
goal of this group will consist of revisiting our actions and beliefs as teachers,
students, or administrators, and thus contribute to create an academic
community interested in the creation of a more equitable society through our
professional actions.

SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP ON LITERACIES IN ELT

coordinador: Raúl a. Mora Mora (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) email: raulmora@illinois.edu

Literacy as a concept is rather fluid and linked to the evolution of societies and
their historical significance (Kaestle, 1988). Recent changes in society,
technology, media, etc., have caused literacy researchers to rethink what text
means and looks like on a daily basis (New London Group, 2000). It is also a
reality in the field of ELT that some traditional notions of literacy (which usually
reduce literacy to reading comprehension), while still necessary for our
students’ overall development, are not fully responding to the world views and
technological needs and uses of the teachers and students in middle and high
schools today. The notion of text itself is one that some of the literacy
paradigms that have surfaced in the last 15 years are challenging and
expanding. Text is more than a few sentences on paper. Text now combines
multiple modes of meaning (Cope & Kalantzis, 2000; Kress, 1997, 2000) and
combines words with audio, signals, or video. The new texts that the online
media are promoting, for instance, actually require different reading
comprehension skills that differ from traditional reading (Leu, et al., 2007).
However, there is also a growing concern about the inclusion of technologies
and whether or not these technologies lead to systematic efforts to
problematize text and produce meaningful literacy practices in the classroom.
The Colombian ELT community and our professional association, ASOCOPI,
cannot stay away from these conversations. There is still much to learn and say
about how the new context of these New Literacies (Lankshear & Knobel,
2003) affects what we are doing in schools and colleges of education. This is
the right time to engage in these conversations.
I have in mind two main objectives for this SIG:  
(1)        To provide a space for the discussion and dissemination of reflections
and research efforts geared toward multifaceted views of literacy practices.
(2)        To initiate a conceptual discussion about how ideas related to new
literacies, critical literacy, multiliteracies, multimodality, etc. need to be
operationalized in the Colombian context of ELT.
The second goal is particularly important. As a former ELT teacher, I faced
moments where what looked like great ideas on paper failed in our
classrooms because there was not enough reflection on addressing the
needs of the local contexts. Given the relevance that the local context has in
these literacy paradigms, the discussion about the Colombian context is
relevant, necessary, and expected.

SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP ON INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION
TECHNOLOGIES (ICT)

coordinador: María Eugenia López Hurtado (Universidad Nacional de
Colombia) email: melh2005@gmail.com

The upcoming of the era of technologies to the education field has posed new
challenges to educators. The Special Group on ICTS aims to generate
reflection upon this issue and also become a support for language teachers
who are engaging for the first time in the use of these new educational tools. In
this sense, this group intends to undertake actions to help strengthen their use
as an additional aid to the teaching and learning of English as a foreign
language in Colombia.  
Some of the actions that this group will take involve:
1. Description of current profile in terms of technology use on behalf of English
teachers and students found by means of a national survey.
2. Decisions and actions about online workshops to get English teachers and
students updated in this field.
3. Design and implementation of proposals where English teachers and
students integrate the use of ICT tools in English language classrooms.
4. Socialization of pedagogical and investigative experiences related to the
implementation of ICT tools at different academic forums, mainly at the
ASOCOPI Congress and the publications that the Association issues.
These as well as other actions will make part of the agenda that this group is
setting up for the years to come.

SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP ON TEACHING ENGLISH TO CHILDRENcoordinador: Claudia Yolanda Becerra (IED Colombia Viva) email:claudiayolandab@yahoo.com

English Language Teaching is a broad and growing field that is engaging every
time more different populations of language e learners worldwide.  This
Special Interest Group (SIG) focuses its efforts on the teaching of English to
children as one of the populations that is being targeted as primary receivers of
foreign language instruction. Under the implementation of the Bilingualism
policy in our country, the teaching process of a foreign language from a very
early age has become a vital component at public and private schools. This
raises a myriad of issues that are worth exploration, analysis and reflection.
Based on this Interest Group pursues the following objectives:
•        To create a base line study that facilitates ASOCOPI to recognize the
academic background, interests, and worries of primary English teachers
around the country.
•        To provide a space for pre-service and in-service English teachers who
work with children to share their beliefs and reflections in regards to language
learning, research processes, and classroom practices.
•        To open space for periodical meetings in order to learn about updated
classroom practices that help teachers grow at the personal and professional
level.
•        To foster the use of diverse communication means so that we can spread
the conclusions, reflections and courses of action derived from the
discussions and the meetings of this group. This will be a way for teachers
who work with children to make their voices heard and achieve recognition in
the academic community.
This is an open invitation for every English teacher who wants to join us. The
goals and actions will be discussed in our first meeting at the ASOCOPI
Congress this year.

SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP ON LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATIONcoordinador: Adriana González (Universidad de Antioquia) email:agonzal@quimbaya.udea.edu.co

The professional development of language teacher educators is an area of
new academic interest. Those who educate the teachers have been
traditionally considered as a group that may have enough knowledge,
experience, and expertise to face the challenges of pre-service and in-service.   
However, a closer look at different publications in the field of teacher education
shows that this group has its own concerns regarding the education of
teachers and their professional growth.  Issues related to teachers’ work such
as research, knowledge-base, language proficiency, program accreditation,
educational policies, networking, and so on, may have a different perspective
for teacher educators.

In Colombia, teacher education reflects the same concerns stated at an
international level. González & Sierra (2005) found that language teacher
educators in the country rely on teaching, doing research, reflecting on their
own practice and attending professional conferences to improve their job.  
However, university-based professionals call for spaces of collaboration to
socialize their thoughts and search for alternatives to improve their teaching.  
Many agree that knowledge gained through research and study is important,
but may not be enough to support the work of language teacher educators in
our context.

This interest group will focus on topics related to the work of language teacher
educators in pre-service and in-service programs in Colombia.  It intends to
become an academic scenario where self-study, reflection, discussion, and
decision making around the teaching of teachers take place. The group will
work as a network to support the professional growth of language teacher
educators creating local knowledge that may contribute to the analyses held in
ESL/EFL settings.