The integration of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in the academic context caused a change in the way teaching and learning is carried out. It also broadened the usually formal educational contexts and the way these are accessed. Nonetheless, gaps can still be found concerning the inequality in the access to ICT resources and…

The present study utilized metaphor analysis to examine the core values of Colombian medical students. The entire 9th semester medical class of 60 students was invited to respond to a structured questionnaire. It asked participants to state their preferred life-metaphor, whether they had always preferred this metaphor since childhood or…

This article reports the results of a study whose goal was to determine the views of undergraduate students regarding the English as a foreign language courses they must take as a requirement for graduation at a public university in Colombia. One hundred and thirty students from 10 undergraduate programs were surveyed and their responses were…

The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which Chinese and Spanish translations of the College Student version of the MUSIC® Model of Academic Motivation Inventory (MUSIC Inventory; Jones, 2012) demonstrate acceptable psychometric properties. We surveyed 300 students at a university in China and 201 students at a university in…

Higher education Institutions have incorporated into their educational processes the virtual learning platforms use, in their search to answers to the dynamic and changing needs of young students, thus students have practical training in the use of information technologies and communication (ICT) in their curses. However, few studies have been…

This paper presents the results of an Action-Research cycle conducted at Universidad del Valle, which aimed at fostering learner autonomy in freshmen from a foreign languages program, within an English course. The study established the freshmen's entrance profile regarding learner autonomy, and implemented a course based on the development of…

In the field of applied linguistics, for the past fifteen years, there have been discussions about language assessment literacy (LAL)--the knowledge, skills, and principles related to assessing language ability--(Davies, 2008; Fulcher, 2012). However, the field lacks research on the professional development of language teachers, particularly…

This article examines how four second language (L2) teachers' discursive practices changed as they attempted to implement dynamic assessment (DA) in their classrooms. Classroom artifacts, lesson recordings, and reflections from two pre-service teachers and two in-service teachers, both before and after a professional development series on DA, were…

Program evaluation is a process of carefully collecting information in order to make informed decisions to strengthen specific components of a given program. The type of evaluation an institution decides to undertake depends on the purpose as well as on the information the institution wants to find out about its program. Self-evaluation represents…

This paper reports an action-research study on language learning strategies in tertiary education at a Colombian university. The study aimed at improving the English language performance and language learning strategies use of 33 first-year pre-service language teachers by combining elements from two models: the cognitive academic language…

This action research study examines the effect of self-evaluation on grammatical range and grammar accuracy on the English speaking performance of 27 foreign language university and pre-university students enrolled in three different language centers, in three different cities in Colombia. Participants were asked to record themselves answering…

This paper reports the results of a group intervention based on strategies derived from the systemic therapy model--brief strategic therapy. These strategies aimed at decreasing the anxiety levels commonly found in oral performance tasks related to L2 learning. Thirteen students from different semesters who belonged to two foreign language…

This research seeks to gain deeper understanding of learner autonomy in English as a Foreign Language students from different cultures through the identification and analysis of similarities and differences between Chinese and Colombian students from two public universities: Tianjin Foreign Studies University in China and Universidad Surcolombiana…

This study contributed to the continuing dialogue of quality language programs and student outcomes for classroom language learning and assessments within the standardized testing era to language learning programs within Colombia. The particular purpose of this one-phase, embedded, mixed-method study examined students' and teachers' beliefs about…

This article analyzes the various types of information that alternative assessment and traditional assessment practices provided in an English foreign language (FL) reading course for graduate students at a public university in Medellín, Colombia. This study followed the principles of qualitative research, and a case study was used as a research…