scholarly journals Level of English in Colombian Higher Education: A Decade of Stagnation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jorge E Benavides
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Teacher Training ◽  
Education Policy ◽  
English Language ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Language Education ◽  
The State ◽  
Ministry Of Education ◽  
Language Education Policy ◽  
Training Methodology

This article analyzes the results of the Saber Pro, the state exam for students completing higher education, during 2007–2017 concerning the English language section. This analysis uses the reports and databases from the Instituto Colombiano para la Evaluación de la Educación (ICFES) repository and explains the policy in its historical context. The results warn of a quite worrying picture between the goals established by the Ministry of Education and the final achievements. The level of English of future Colombian professionals is not only very low but also without improvement from its beginnings in 2007 to 2017. As a conclusion, it would be necessary to review, from the universities’ perspective, the language education policy and propose bottom-up structural alternatives that allow a sustained impulse in teacher training, methodology, and curricular and pedagogical organization.

scholarly journals Level of English in Colombian Higher Education: A Decade of Stagnation

2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-73
Author(s):  
Jorge Eliecer Benavides
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Teacher Training ◽  
Educational Policy ◽  
English Language ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
The State ◽  
Ministry Of Education ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Training Methodology

This article analyzes the results of the Saber Pro, the state exam for students completing higher education, during 2007–2017 concerning the English language section. This analysis uses the reports and databases from the Instituto Colombiano para la Evaluación de la Educación (ICFES) repository and explains the policy in its historical context. The results warn of a quite worrying picture between the goals established by the Ministry of Education and the final achievements. The level of English of future Colombian professionals is not only very low but also without improvement from its beginnings in 2007 to 2017. As a conclusion, it would be necessary to review, from the universities’ perspective, the language educational policy and propose bottom-up structural alternatives that allow a sustained impulse in teacher training, methodology, and curricular and pedagogical organization.

CULTURAL IDENTITY PLANNING IN CHINA: A DIACHRONIC STUDY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION POLICY

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Liu Yuanyuan ◽  
Deng Fei ◽  
Zhao Ronghui
Keyword(s):  
Education Policy ◽  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Curriculum Design ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Education ◽  
Language Education Policy ◽  
English Language Education ◽  
Cross Cultural Communication ◽  
Year 2000

This paper, by applying Discourse-Historical Approach [Wodak & Boukala, 2015], makes a diachronic analysis of 38 English Language Education Policy (ELEP) documents mandated in China since the 1980s, with the aim of generalizing the changing trajectory of cultural identity planning in China context of teaching English as a foreign language. It finds that ELEP before the year 2000 had a strong instrumentalism orientation, where a scientific planning of Chinese cultural identity is missing; then after the year 2000, cross-cultural communication ability is emphasized and learners’ Chinese cultural identity has been brought to the foreground. Currently, the policy discourses are mainly on defining foreign language talents and optimizing curriculum design with an aim to cultivate “dialogical communicators” [Gao Yihong, 2014a, b]. The paper concludes that cultural identity construction through top-down policy implementation would be a prolonged and challenging endeavor.

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