The Role of Genre-Based Activities in the Writing of Argumentative Essays in EFL

This article presents the findings of an action research project conducted with a group of pre-service teachers of a program in modern languages at a Colombian university. The study intended to go beyond an emphasis on linguistic and textual features in English as a foreign language argumentative essays by using a set of genre-based activities and the understanding of writing as a situated social practice. Data were gathered through questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, class recordings, and students' artifacts. The results showed that genre-based activities supported the participants throughout the experience and boosted their confidence, resulting in a positive attitude towards essay writing. The study highlights the importance of dialogic interaction to provide scaffolding opportunities, of understanding writing as a process, and of the use of samples and explicit instruction to facilitate writing.

Key words: Argumentative essay writing, genre-based teaching, scaffolding, situated social practice.

http://www.scielo.org.co/scielo.php?pid=S1657-07902013000200009&script=sci_arttext&tlng=es

Encouraging Students to Enhance their Listening Performance

Spanish-speaking students constantly complain about the difficulty they have comprehending spoken English. It seems teachers do not often provide them with strategies to alleviate that. This article reports on a pedagogical experience carried out at a Colombian university to help pre-service teachers at an intermediate level of English to improve their aural comprehension. The students were given the task of designing listening activities to be worked on as micro-teaching sessions and were asked to describe their experience by answering a survey. The results showed that students developed the ability to think critically since they needed to make the best decisions regarding the audio level and the design of the activities. They also appeared to have become more autonomous as they realized they could be responsible for their improvement in listening. Additionally, there were evident changes in the teachers' roles.

Key words: Autonomy, critical thinking, teacher's role, teaching listening.

http://www.scielo.org.co/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1657-07902013000200013

Lectura y escritura de las representaciones sociales: hacia la conformación de una postura crítica en la educación superior. En: Revista Enunciación

El presente artículo es producto de las investigaciones originadas en el ejercicio de la docencia en el campo de  la escritura y de la lectura, las cuales son analizadas desde la teoría de las representaciones sociales. Se pro-mueve la lectura crítica como un camino para mejorar las habilidades de lectura de los estudiantes. Además, la  escritura se concibe como un escenario de acceso a la configuración de las representaciones. Para el abordaje  de dichas rutas se presenta una reflexión inicial sobre el concepto de representación y su lectura crítica en los  medios de comunicación. Se muestran algunas acciones de investigación realizadas en este campo y, poste-riormente, se analiza el papel de la escritura como escenario de configuración de las representaciones sociales.

Palabras clave

representaciones sociales, lectura, escritura, educación superior, medios masivos.

http://revistas.udistrital.edu.co/ojs/index.php/enunc/article/view/4237

Análisis léxico-semántico del argot de las reclusas de la cárcel “El buen Pastor” de Bogotá.

http://revistalenguaje.univalle.edu.co/index.php/Lenguaje/article/view/2345

Estratificación socio-económica del uso de los prefijos re- y super- en los jóvenes de Bogotá: acercamiento a un estudio diacrónico.

http://www.scielo.org.co/scielo.php?pid=S0123-46412015000100003&script=sci_abstract&tlng=es

Lectura de textos impresos en formato digital: primeras aproximaciones de los docentes a la cultura digital en la universidad. Revista Zona Próxima.

http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=85339658016

Acciones para la construcción de una política de lectura y escritura universitaria

http://revistas.pedagogica.edu.co/index.php/RF/article/view/2951

Narrative Events of Pre-Service Teachers at the End of their Teaching Practicum with Regard to their Pedagogical Advisor: Learnings Reported

This article reports results of a qualitative study which aimed to inquire about meaningful narratives of 184 students of a teaching degree in Modern Languages in a private university in Bogotá. The study intended to identify and characterise different aspects (linguistic, social, cognitive, pedagogic, emotional, or else) which pre-service teachers narrated as being meaningful for their learning once they finished their foreign language teaching practicum. Narrative events were collected through a self-evaluation instrument that was submitted by the students of different cohorts (I-2009 to II-2012) at the end of their teaching practicum. The article focuses on pre-service teachers’ relationship with their pedagogical advisor during their practicum period. Analysis of the data showed that pre-service teachers established a close bond with their pedagogical advisor in which the advisors’ support, experience, attitude, and knowledge are highlighted, particularly related to the role pre-service teachers acquire as didactic agents and not merely as pedagogical educators. 

Keywords: pre-service teachers; teaching practicum; pedagogical advisor

http://www.scielo.org.co/pdf/signo/v35n68/v35n68a03.pdf

Profiling Academic Research on Massively Multiplayer On-line Role-Play Gaming (MMORPG) 2000-2009: Horizons for Educational Research

Profiling Academic Research on Massively Multiplayer On-line Role-Play Gaming (MMORPG) 2000-2009: Horizons for Educational Research

Language Teaching Materials as Mediators For ICC Development: a Challenge for Materials Developers

Autor: Carlos Rico Troncoso ;  

  Figure 4 

The scheme of Intercultural Communicative

Competence in FLT

Signo y Pensamiento 2012, XXX (60)

Profiling Academic Research on Massively Multiplayer On-line Role-Play Gaming (MMORPG) 2000-2009: Horizons for Educational Research

http://www.scielo.org.co/scielo.php?pid=S0123-48702013000200006&script=sci_arttext

Perfil de la investigación académica sobre Juegos Masivos en Línea para Múltiples Jugadores (JMLMJ) 20002009: Horizontes para la investigación educativa

Harold Castañeda Peña¹
Adriana Salazar Sierra²
Nadya González Romero³
Luis Ignacio Sierra Gutiérrez⁴
Alfredo Menéndez Echavarría⁵

Juego y cultura digital… ¿Qué se traen los juegos en línea?

González Romero, Nadya;Salazar Sierra, Adriana;Velásquez Perilla, Alcides Juego y cultura digital... ¿Qué se traen los juegos en línea? Signo y Pensamiento, Vol. XXVIII, Núm. 54, enero-junio, 2009, pp. 369-376 Pontificia Universidad Javeriana Colombia

El artículo se deriva de la investigación en curso Estado del arte de la investigación sobre Juegos Masivos en Línea de Múltiples Jugadores (jmlmj) , donde se pretende construir un marco descriptivo teórico y metodológico de los jmlmj que sintetice el conocimiento generado hasta el momento acerca de este fenómeno cultural, sus principales formas de abordaje y problemáticas dignas de estudio. El equipo de investigación está compuesto por profesores de cuatro grupos de investigación de la Facultad de Comunicación y Lenguaje; Lenguaje y cognición, Ciencia de la Información, sociedad y cultura, Comunicación, medios y cultura y Aprendizaje y Sociedad de la información.