This paper reports an exploratory and descriptive qualitative study on speaking assessment approaches in a teacher education program at a Colombian university. The study aimed to explore how four in-service English language teachers approach the assessment of students' speaking skill. The data were gathered through classroom observations,…

This research has the aim of highlighting the importance of motivation in the process of learning English as a foreign language. For that purpose, some factors that affect motivation are described, using as a starting point the answers obtained from a questionnaire given to students in their fourth year of compulsory secondary education. The main…

Stemming from a study of what it is like to teach English in rural Colombia considering both English language teaching policy and social challenges of these contexts, this paper explores different locally grounded English language teaching practices. Through the analysis of teachers' narratives and field observations, four examples of such…

This paper is about the impact of systematic reading selection used to promote English as foreign language learning in adult students. A qualitative action research methodology was used to carry out this project. Ten class sessions were designed to provide students an opportunity to select texts according to criteria based upon their language…

This article reports on a study carried out in a foreign language school at a Colombian public university. Its main purpose was to analyze the extent to which the use of authentic materials and tasks contributes to the enhancement of the communicative competence on an A2 level English course. A mixed study composed of a quasi-experimental and a…

This article reports the findings of a qualitative research study conducted with six first semester students of an English as a foreign language program in a public university in Colombia. The aim of the study was to implement task-based language teaching as a way to integrate language skills and help learners to improve their communicative…

Seventh grade teachers at a Colombian public school chose cooperative learning as a strategy to improve student's social performance and as a tool to get learners to enrich their academic level. This article reports on an action research and innovation project focused on the results eight students obtained in their written performance in English…

The main objective of this paper is to briefly present roles of different teacher supervisors according to distinct models, highlighting the importance of collaborative dialogues supported by video recordings. This paper will present results from a qualitative study of an English as a foreign language teacher education course in Brazil. The…

Learning a foreign language may be a challenge for most people due to differences in the form and structure between one's mother tongue and a new one. However, there are some tools that facilitate the teaching and learning of a foreign language, for instance, new applications for digital devices, video blogs, educational platforms, and teaching…

The present study concerns the activities teachers develop and ninth-graders' participation in responses to those activities. The objectives of this study were to identify and describe the types of teaching activities developed and how students respond to them and to show how the target language is used in the classroom. The data collection was…

The aim of this article is to inform on research intended to find out how pronunciation instruction of English as a foreign language was handled in the language classroom with elementary students and also understand if pronunciation instruction had an impact on students' confidence when using it. In order to do this, a qualitative case study was…

We report on an action research project aimed at developing oral communication in first-graders, using songs as a strategy for young learners to use and enjoy English. It was developed at a Colombian public school over three months. The teacher-researchers attempted to encourage students using simple and amusing songs to help them learn new…

This article reports the findings of an action research study on a professional development program and its impact on the classroom performance of in-service English teachers who worked at a language institute of a Colombian state university. Questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, class observations, and a researcher's journal were used as…

Academic writing in English in our context is a significant aspect that can be innovative when a convergence model of writing stages is used along with collaborative work. This article reports on a study aimed at analyzing how collaborative work relates to undergraduate electronics students' academic writing development in English as a foreign…

This article presents a case study research with aims to find out which activities, methodological and textual aspects used in a reading strategies course were causing a group of students difficulties when analyzing critically written information. We conducted the study at Universidad de Córdoba (Colombia) with seventh semester students from the…