I present here the results of a qualitative research study on the impact of a curriculum that connects learning events in Spanish and English in authentic communicative performances during its first year of use in a private school in a medium-size Colombian city. I did discourse analysis of interviews with participating teachers and class…

This article aims to establish the effects of masked priming by translation equivalents in Spanish-English bilinguals with a high-intermediate level of proficiency in their second language. Its findings serve as evidence to support the hypothesis that semantic representations mediate the mental association among non-cognates from a speaker's first…

In the past two years, several Latin American nations have begun celebrating their bicentennials of independence, turning attention to questions of national identity and the legacy of independence in the twenty-first century. This reflection is sure to continue into the coming decade. This article offers a few practical suggestions for bringing…

This study evaluates 39 different phonetic inventories of 16 Spanish-speaking children (ages 0;11 to 5;1) in terms of hierarchical complexity. Phonetic featural differences are considered in order to evaluate the proposed implicational hierarchy of Dinnsen et al.'s phonetic inventory typology for English. The children's phonetic inventories are…

In this article we present the results of a qualitative research study on the pedagogical factors that influence English teaching in four public schools of Medellín, Colombia. Twelve teachers were interviewed regarding three linguistic principles: communicative competence, native language effect, and interlanguage. The data analysis led to the…

This article proposes a new test (called the EQEBI) for the measurement of epistemological beliefs, integrating and extending the Epistemological Questionnaire (EQ) and the Epistemic Beliefs Inventory (EBI). In Study 1, the two tests were translated and applied to a Spanish-speaking sample. A detailed dimensionality exploration, by means of the…

As a consequence of a substantially revised national curriculum in New Zealand, all schools are now required to provide opportunities for students in school Years 7 to 10 (age 11+ to 14+) to learn an additional language. There are, however, very few intermediate school (Years 7 and 8) teachers who are additional language 'subject specialists'.…

Previous studies have drawn some results concerning the way in which second language (L2) students use their first language (L1) when producing texts in their L2. Therefore, this study examines the influence L1 written structure has on L2 written structure when students are asked to carry out assignments in the L2. To answer this question, twenty…

This article aims at contributing to the ongoing discussion about how bilingualism is understood in the current National Bilingualism Plan (PNB for its initials in Spanish). Based on previous research and discussions held at academic events, it is evident that the promoters of the PNB use the term "bilingualism" in a rather…

Thoughts on a dialectological study in Colombia. (SK)

As an EFL Student teachers' advisor, I had constantly perceived that they regarded using the target language with their pupils inside their classroom as a challenge. That is why I became interested in investigating how thirteen student teachers in Tunja public schools faced this issue. While participants were involved in a reflective teaching…

This article aims to provide researchers interested in using Ryff's Scales of Psychological Wellbeing with additional information to make an informed decision on the scales and items to use. It builds on the discussion in the literature on the six factor structure of this measure. An alternative shortened version of this wellbeing measure (Van…

This article is the result of a theoretical investigation and a reflection guided by a revision of literature and a set of interviews conducted of two members of the Nasa community: Adonias and Sindy Perdomo, father and daughter who belong to a Nasa sub-community located in Tierradentro, Cauca, southwestern Colombia. The article addresses three…