The main objective of this research was to explore communication competence traits deemed as essential for initial teacher training of schoolteachers of language -- in both the Spanish and "Mapuzugun" -- by primary school teachers and university teachers who are familiar with linguistic diversity in the southern-central area of Chile in…

The qualitative study on which this article reports explored how senior leaders, mathematics and Spanish language teachers (N = 72) in four high-performing, high-poverty, public secondary schools in Chile enact performance-based accountability policies related to standardised assessments. These four public schools were selected because prior to…

This paper examines the strategies used by speakers of Spanish as a second language (L2) for marking Information Focus, a phenomenon found at the syntax-discourse interface. Sorace and colleagues have proposed the Interface Hypothesis, according to which the syntax-discourse interface poses unique challenges for bilinguals (Sorace, 2011). With…

This paper reveals and analyzes the cinematographic, political, and aesthetic transitions intersecting two Southern Cone films that premiered concurrently in 1991: the award-winning Chilean movie "La frontera" by Ricardo Larraín and the forgotten Argentine independent production "La redada" directed by Rolando Pardo. Despite…

The development of novel educational assessment models founded on item response theory (IRT), as well as software tools designed to implement these models, has contributed to the surge in computerized adaptive tests (CATs). The distinguishing characteristic of CATs is that the sequence of items on a test progressively adapts to the performance…

In this article, I explore practical implications of the theories of language of M.M. Bakhtin within university second language writing classrooms. Specifically, I examine the presence of Bakhtinian intertextuality within online intercultural exchanges involving the use of Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) technology. I describe a CMC exchange…

Pablo Larraín's film "No" (2012) has been widely viewed and reviewed both at home in Chile and internationally. Some reviewers have focused on the film's representation of the triumph of hope and optimism over tyranny. Others have criticized the film's historical inaccuracy, citing a list of details that the film either got wrong or left…

This study examined the effects of a script-based communicative intervention (SBCI) on psychological and cultural adaptation in students studying abroad in second language (German and Spanish) contexts. Regardless of language proficiency, students with exposure to the SBCI, relative to those without the intervention, exhibited higher well-being…

Young people are increasingly connected in a digital and globalized world, but technology-mediated interactions alone do not necessarily lead to a culture of meaningful participation and meaning making processes. Students from disadvantaged contexts are especially vulnerable to this. Drawing on the "Activity-Centred Analysis and Design"…

As texts enact historically situated ways of making knowledge, intertextual analysis through citation patterns can shed some light on a community's epistemologies. The present research seeks a deeper understanding of the theoretical trends, the influences, and the emerging disciplinary configuration of the writing studies community in Latin…

Chilean novelists born during the 1970s who experienced as children the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet are reappraising how the dictatorship may have harmed its second-generation survivors. Initially most of these writers ignored politics, focusing instead on blighted intimate relationships, and those few who did explore the aftereffects of…

Scientific reasoning competencies are relevant science competencies and therefore the development of assessment instruments for scientific reasoning competencies has become an integral part of science education research. However, some authors have questioned the validity of the instruments available so far, since their psychometric quality has not…

This current study focuses on the effects of neoliberalism on the Chilean sociopolitical period of postdictatorship (1990-2010) by studying a new generation of filmmakers in the work of Alberto Fuguet. In the trilogy of "Se arrienda" (2005), "Velódrom" (2010), and "Música campesin"a (2011), Fuguet reviews the…

Traditionally in the United States, study abroad has been regarded as the primary source for meaningful interaction with members of the target language (TL) community, particularly at the postsecondary level. Today, more than 300,000 college students study abroad every year, and most of them do so in short-term island programs (defined as programs…

This experimental study tests the Interface Hypothesis by looking into processes at the syntax-discourse interface, teasing apart acquisition of syntactic, semantic and discourse knowledge. Adopting Lopez's (2009) pragmatic features [[plus or minus]a(naphor)] and [[plus or minus]c(ontrast)], which in combination account for the constructions of…