The illusio of the foreign language standard in a Colombian university

Rigoberto Castillo; Alexandra Pineda-Puerta

doi:10.5294/7189

Authors

Rigoberto Castillo Author Universidad Distrital Francisco Jose de Caldas
Alexandra Pineda-Puerta Author Universidad de Caldas, Colombia and S.E.N.A, Colombia.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5294/7189

Keywords:

College, foreign language, needs analysis, program evaluation, standards

Abstract

The Ministry of education in Colombia set a policy for higher education in which graduates should achieve an intermediate proficiency level (B1) in another language; and by 2025 it expects that they leave college with an upper intermediate level (B2). This report deals with a private college that attempts to participate in the policy, yet the college has a requirement, not a foreign language policy. It offers their students 160 hours in which they hardly attain a high beginner level (A2). The Board of Directors of the college conducted a satisfaction survey that became
the first cycle of the action research study reported here. The sample of 624 EFL learners expressed dissatisfaction with the program and frustration with the approach and with the results. The situation mirrored what Bourdieu (1995) defines as the illusio, the belief that the “game” we collectively agree to play is worth playing, that the fiction we collectively elect to accredit constitutes reality. The authors conducted a second cycle to establish the source of dissatisfaction, and to identify the needs and wants of the stakeholders. The results indicate that the administrators expect that English reinforce disciplinary knowledge, while learners expect to learn to speak it, and teachers expect to teach grammar. A third cycle has been planned to propose a curriculum proposal that reconciles the allotments of resources of time, space, staff, content learning and language learning with a standard that meets the needs and expectations of the program. In other words we expect to make a proposal that corrects the collective misperception of reality
which constitutes a reality in itself.

doi: 10.5294/laclil.2016.9.2.8

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Author Biographies

Rigoberto Castillo, Universidad Distrital Francisco Jose de Caldas

Professor.

Doctorado Interinstitucional en Educación

Rigoberto Castillo holds a Ph.D in Foreign Language Education fron the University of Texas at Austin. He teaches at the Doctorado Interinstitucional en Educación, Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas in Bogotá. Has lectured and consulted for several organizations in Latin America. His book on Strategic Learning was nominated to the British English Language Teaching award (ELTons). Recipient of the National Award of the Colombian Association of Teachers of English.

Alexandra Pineda-Puerta, Universidad de Caldas, Colombia and S.E.N.A, Colombia.

Ms. Alexandra Pineda is an M.A candidate at Maestría en Didáctica del Inglés. She has coordinated a language center, has taught in higher education and has developed educational materials. She presented at the 2015 conference of the Colombian Association of Teachers of English, ASOCOPI.

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