English language education in Colombia has been improved because the teachers have organized professional associations and have received assistance and support from the Colombian and United States governments to improve teaching methods, teacher preparation, and teaching materials. With the help of the University of California at Los Angeles, the Colombian American Linguistic Institute was founded to train Colombian English teachers in the fields of linguistics, phonology, morphology, syntax, contrastive analysis, audiolingual methodology, and audiovisual aids. Through such teacher education, the grammar translation method and the direct method of language teaching have been abandoned for an audiolingual or structural approach. (VM)