Master's Program in the Teaching of English as a Foreign Language

Our course in research methods in applied linguistics offers a theorised, structured overview of the discipline of applied linguistics, focusing particularly on that large part of the field which is concerned with language learning, language teaching and related areas of study and practice (including such areas as language policy, sociolinguistics and language study per se). As well as helping students to identify likely areas of personal interest for their Master’s Report (Trabajo de Grado), it encourages students to broaden their conceptions of the possible areas of research open to them and to begin to see themselves as members of an international community of academic discourse and professional practice.

The course begins by laying out the range and variety of research areas available within this very broad discipline. Students can opt to carry out the traditional kind of classroom-based research on learning and teaching, of course, but very many other options are open to the teacher-researcher. Within the area of language and linguistics, you might wish to look at discourse analysis, conversation analysis, accent and pronunciation, culture/pragmatics in language, translanguaging and language practices, linguistic variation, World Englishes. Sociolinguistic areas for research might include national or regional language policy (e.g. Colombia Bilingüe), English as a Lingua Franca (ELF), the ‘linguistic imperialism’ debate, attitudes to English, intercultural awareness, language and gender/class/sexuality. Research into learning and teaching, meanwhile, might focus on areas such as: Young Learners, coursebook analysis, curriculum design, assessment, methodologies and theoretical approaches, materials development, the role of L1 in the classroom, teacher identity, CLIL and EAP, the use of corpora – in short, almost anything to do with English and English language teaching, whether in the classroom or outside it. Everyone is encouraged to think broadly, and to choose a research topic that they feel genuinely curious about.

Taken together with Research Methods II, this course aims to provide a thorough training in research in ELT and applied linguistics, and in particular, to guide students through the process of formulating, researching, writing and publicly defending their Master’s Report.

In Democracy and Education, American philosopher John Dewey wrote about the importance of developing individuality for democracy. That is that democratic societies, as opposed to other types of political regimes, must provide all individuals with opportunities for self-realization. He argued that any limitations placed on self-realization by either private or public institutions contradicted society’s democratic character. For Dewey, the classroom and the school were therefore ideal settings for the development of compassion, critical thinking, and opportunities for the student to reach self-realization.

Today, education faces a crisis. Martha Nussbaum has spoken about the move towards education for profit, rather than for democracy. As teachers and educators we must ask ourselves if our classrooms and schools encourage our students to develop their individuality and freedom, and provide tools to think ethically. Are we promoting autonomous and critical thinking, both of which provide the basis for democracy? How do ethics fit into our work as educators? How do we encourage responsible citizenship among our students? These are some of the questions we will have the opportunity to engage in this class, guided by our collective reading and discussion of authors such as Aristotle, Martha Nussbaum, and Amartya Sen.

What are we actually teaching and assessing when we teach and assess ‘speaking and listening’? To what extent does the spoken language of coursebooks match real, unmediated speech? What sort of models of speech should we offer to our students, and why? Is it desirable or necessary to encourage learners to aim at native-speaker-like pronunciation? Is there such a thing as ‘standard English’ in speech? This critical, wide-ranging course, based firmly in contemporary linguistic and sociolinguistic research and theory, engages from the start with these kinds of essential, practical, classroom questions. It then uses them as the starting point for an exploration of, among other things, correctness and standardness in speech, intelligibility and comprehensibility, translanguaging, conversation analysis and language repertoires. By the end of the course, students will have gained a new and challenging perspective on what it means to ‘speak English’, and a correspondingly new, informed idea of what it means to ‘teach speaking and listening’.

Students can choose to take a course offered by the program, or courses offered by other programs either from the School of Education Sciences, or from other Schools at the University. This provides curricular flexibility as students can take courses from other areas that fit the interests. Credits can also be counted when students decide to do double-degree programs.

As the world grows ever more interconnected, physically and virtually, it has never seemed more necessary to be able to function in more than one language. And in Colombia, as elsewhere, this means that there has been growing public and governmental interest in bilingualism and bilingual education. But what are the fundamental issues around bilingualism that teachers need to understand? What principles underlie bilingual education, and how should they be applied? This wide-ranging introduction to the study of bilingualism considers topics such as the L1 as a learning resource (should the English classroom be an English-only space?); the behaviour of bilinguals – code-switching, code-mixing and translanguaging; language rights and the treatment of native and indigenous languages. Students will learn to develop and evaluate bilingual curricula, and to find effective responses to the challenges raised by bilingual classrooms.

Students can choose to take a course offered by the program, or courses offered by other programs either from the School of Education Sciences, or from other Schools at the University. This provides curricular flexibility as students can take courses from other areas that fit the interests. Credits can also be counted when students decide to do double-degree programs.

As the world grows ever more interconnected, physically and virtually, it has never seemed more necessary to be able to function in more than one language. And in Colombia, as elsewhere, this means that there has been growing public and governmental interest in bilingualism and bilingual education. But what are the fundamental issues around bilingualism that teachers need to understand? What principles underlie bilingual education, and how should they be applied? This wide-ranging introduction to the study of bilingualism considers topics such as the L1 as a learning resource (should the English classroom be an English-only space?); the behaviour of bilinguals – code-switching, code-mixing and translanguaging; language rights and the treatment of native and indigenous languages. Students will learn to develop and evaluate bilingual curricula, and to find effective responses to the challenges raised by bilingual classrooms.