This study adopted an action research design to analyze the contribution of the Elevator Pitch technique on English as foreign language learners' oral fluency. Six 11th graders in a rural at-risk context in a vocational public high school in Hualqui, Chile participated in this study. The Elevator Pitch technique was implemented during seven…

During the last decades, global interest in learning English as a foreign language has increased, encouraging countries to include it in school education. This trend was followed by the Chilean Ministry of Education, which suggests teaching English based on a communicative approach starting in early childhood education. To foster students'…

In this paper we analyze the semantic and pragmatic properties of a colloquial interrogative construction attested in European Spanish, which we label invariable "qué" questions (IQQs). In doing so, we contribute to the better understanding of a relatively understudied phenomenon in Spanish, given that IQQs have been mainly approached…

This study was designed to understand the multi-layered aspects and conflicts that shaped the identity development of English language pre-service teachers in Chile. This longitudinal, multiple case study research investigated the identity trajectories of seven EFL Chilean pre-service teachers over an 18-month period. Data were drawn from a range…

This qualitative case study first examined middle school teacher perceptions of practice regarding L2 listening instruction and, from these, proposes guidelines to favour L2 listening development. Novice middle-school teachers from Chile (n = 14) were guided within semi-structured interviews to reflect on their own L2 listening teaching practices…

Internationally, there is increasing interest in the value of incorporating core practices into second language (L2) teacher education programs. This article reports on a research project that investigated how a set core practices are integrated into the Methods courses and practicums in Chilean language teacher education programs for English as a…

Since the mid-90s, a growing concern has emerged regarding text comprehension from a multimodal perspective. In the Chilean educational context, multimodality has been highlighted in the official programs of the Ministry of Education. The present study examines one of the official Chilean ELT school textbooks, investigating whether its reading…

This study examines the impact of explicit and implicit pronunciation instruction on the segmental pronunciation accuracy of phonemes /s/ and /z/ in an EFL classroom of 11th-grade Spanish-speaking students. The research focuses on transparent and non-transparent words containing the grapheme <s> and the phonemes /s/ and /z/ and was conducted…

Action research is characteristically used to provide research experience for late-stage, pre-service teachers as a means of breaching the perceived divide between theoretical knowledge and contexts of practice. However, aside from the considerable methodological challenges of enacting action research itself, pre-service teachers also enter…

This action research centered on features of oral fluency among Chilean higher education students, focusing on the 'describing picture strategy' innovation. Set in the context of the Advanced English II course, the study determines the effects of the strategy in boosting oral fluency. The intervention of this investigation was enhanced by…

Purpose: The professional experiences of teachers of languages and cultures, along with the learning experiences of their students, are embedded in educational contexts, which themselves are informed, and constrained, by national language policies. This study aims to explore 51 English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) secondary teachers' perceptions of…

Playback controls or audio/video control (AVC) buttons are common in technology-enhanced listening materials but are often overlooked in CALL theorizing and research. It is unclear how language learners use AVC buttons when they independently access computer-based L2 listening materials. This qualitative case study aimed to understand how…

English is an international language which has acquired a prominent place in the Chilean language curriculum. English as a foreign language has become a mandatory subject at schools beginning in the fifth grade (students 10 years old) following the plans of the Ministry of Education. Despite being a mandatory subject, the gap between what is…

Managing student participation is a key interactional and instructional task in any classroom. This is even more relevant in language classrooms, as students need to demonstrate understanding, knowledge and proficiency through the production of lexical, phrasal, clausal or sentential elements. Question-Answer-sequences have been the focus within…

Modern Foreign Language (FL) instruction has recently called out for a language-culture-technology (LCT) nexus that could engage learners in transnational dialogue and interaction. This study focuses on the views of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers in Chile and their classroom practices in relation to an LCT nexus. The Chilean EFL…