This article contains a description of a research project carried out with a group of English Language Pre-service Teachers (ELPTs) of a state University in Bogotá, Colombia. The purpose of the study was to portray the experiences, feelings and insights the ELPTs went through as English language learners. Autobiographies was the instrument to…

English Language Teaching (ELT) in Latin America and elsewhere in public schools and higher education and parts of the private sector has long been failing badly. The coronavirus pandemic should focus minds on changing that situation. Going back to Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) business as usual should not be an option. In this…

There has been a rapid global expansion of English instruction in the early grades in public school curricula. Particularly in so-called developing countries, the increase of and its shift from exclusively private to public education is linked to the idea that acquiring English promotes personal, social, and economic development. The author takes…

The National Bilingual Programme was launched in order to promote English learning in Colombia. The failure of this programme and subsequent iterations is well-documented, and research has also examined some of its negative effects for different societal groups. However, a comprehensive study of the social justice implications of Colombia's…

Self-assessment for accreditation purposes requires follow-up of graduates and feedback with academic programs. As part of the improvement actions, this study was done to characterize graduates' methodologies in English language teaching. The data, gathered through questionnaires, showed that graduates privilege the communicative and eclectic…

This paper contributes to recent discussions of levels of agency in Language Policy and Planning (LPP) research. It specifically aims to understand the role and importance of meso-level actors as arbiters of policy implementation. It argues that, whilst understanding of both macro- and micro-agency has grown over the past decade, little is…

This article reports on a study aimed at exploring inclusive policies in the teaching of English as a foreign language in Colombia, as evidenced in the articles published in the "PROFILE" Journal by Colombian authors. The use of the documentary research method and critical discourse analysis showed that some policies--mainly The National…

This paper problematizes the meaning of subjectivity constructed by Colombian English Teachers in response to a National Bilingual Program and its system of reason to produce English teachers' identity and promote bilingual education. The double-side character of subjection/subjectification (Foucault, 1982) is used to analyze English teachers'…

Many successful piloted programs fail when scaled up to a national level. In Kenya, which has a long history of particularly ineffective implementation after successful pilot programs, the Tusome national literacy program--which receives funding from the United States Agency for International Development--is a national-level scale-up of previous…

Following the trend of much of the Western, non-English speaking world, Colombia has tirelessly strived for spreading English education in an effort to augment economic benefits. This paper aims at providing a critical account of foreign language education policy in Colombia, with special attention to English. It outlines the impact of its…

This article reviews the background of the foreign language bilingualism in Colombia, as well as the Colombian bilingualism plans and the policy launched between 2004 and 2016. Then, these plans and policy are analyzed taking into account the most common criticisms from the academic community. In this sense, aspects such as the lack of continuity,…

The paper examines the recent national programme of English language instruction in the Mexican public primary schools, called the "Programa Nacional de Inglés en Educación Básica" (PNIEB). The programme, initiated in 2009 by the Ministry of Education as part of the national curriculum, represents the largest expansion of English…

This is a study on high school English as a foreign language Colombian teacher identity. Using an interpretive research approach, I explored the influence of the National Bilingual Programme on the reconstruction of teacher identity. This study focuses on how teachers feel about language requirements associated with a language policy. Three…

In an effort to become more competitive in the global market, Colombia, as many other Latin American countries, has declared English the dominant foreign language to be taught in schools and universities across the country. To support this measure, in the last 16 years, the government, through its National Ministry of Education, has launched a…

For the past few years, TPACK has become a hot issue in the research fields of teacher education, integration of Information Technology (IT) and curricula as well as teacher knowledge. Besides, more and more concerns have been on TPACK of teachers in different subjects. Based on the TPACK Theory, the author uses questionnaires and interviews to…