Capital Letter 7 - UQ eSpace [PDF]

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T H E DEPA RT M E N T'S PUBLICA TIONS

FOREIGN LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT, NACIONAL DE COLOMBIA B OGOTÁ D.C., C OLOMBIA - 19 TH M AY 2005

Issue 5 had contributions from Brazil, India, Slovakia, and Ukraine as well as from our country. We are sure, this will give us the chance to get in touch with a wider community so that we can examine our thoughts and local teaching conditions and contrast them with what happens elsewhere.

TRABAJO The recent legal dispositions issued by the Consejo Superior Universitario in its Agreement 001of 2005 regarding the partial modification of the Agreement 101 of 1977 which deals with the Students’ Regulations (Reglamento Estudiantil) have been submitted to the academic community without further discussion. M ore dialogue on the topic concerning the changes in conception and development of the Monograph Projects developed by students at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia had been expected.

Once more, you are kindly invited to send your papers for our coming issue. You can find the guidelines for contributors in PROFILE No.5. And remember, you can visit our website to learn more about this publication: www.humanas.unal.edu.co/profile.

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Mayor infor mación: [email protected] www.anonyma1.ya.st

IN D E X

Encuentre el último número en la fotocopiadora del Departamento de Lenguas Extranjeras

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DE G R A D O

The current edition presents two perspectives on the subject of monograph projects. The first one deals with research done in our Department with respect to the monograph projects as they were carried out before the issue of Agreement 001, 2005. The authors reflect on the role of research in the undergraduate program of Philology and Languages with its three options, EnglishFrench-German, show partial results, and overall conclude about the participants and the processes involved in research endeavors at the Foreign Languages Department of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia.

Cartoon designed by Juan Carlos Becerra The topic in question is by no means unfamiliar to teachers and students. It has always been present in the discussions held in the Foreign Languages Department’s The second outlook is provided by a student who analyzes the meetings, among teachers; among students; between teachers and pros and cons of the reform. Her article identifies the nonconformity students because of its meaning and importance in the professional with the current state of affairs as the capacities of people are not development of our current and future graduate students. being challenged. Only the future will let us know if the measures taken were the appropriate ones in a country that is seeking eagerly for a change in paradigms that will hopefully benefit all Colombians.

Estudiantes de Ciencias Humanas interesad@s en trabajar en los comités de redacción de inglés, francés y alemán de la Revista de Filología e Idiomas Anonyma.

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The PROFILE Journal has continued sharing the results of classroom research projects and reflections in the area of English language teaching. This is done through articles written by teacher educators and guest teachers willing to disseminate innovations and research findings.

Revista

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Page Editorial ....................................................... 2 Exams ............................................................ 3 Research ....................................................... 4 The reform ................................................... 5 The French Corner .................................... 6 New Technologies ....................................... 7 Language Acquisition ................................ 8 Epistemology ................................................ 8 Travelling ..................................................... 9 Bilingual Education .................................. 10 Education .................................................... 11 Literature .................................................... 12 Entertainment ............................................ 13 Research in Progress ................................. 13 Learning ...................................................... 14 Extension Activities .................................. 14 Russian ........................................................ 15 Japanese ....................................................... 15 Opinions ...................................................... 16 Linguistics .................................................. 17 Endings ........................................................ 18 Our Presence, Recent Events ................. 19 The Department’s Publications .............. 20

ED U CA TION The majority of the authors who contributed with the present edition centered their discussions on topics concerning the educational field. Their interests range from the early conception of education in our country to the latest possible advances with the introduction of new technologies of information and communication. The teaching and learning of foreign languages also entails interesting debates such as the conception of bilingual education and the conceptions and misconceptions occurring when learning/acquiring a foreign language.

FOREIGN LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT

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O U R PRESENCE

Head of Human Sciences Faculty: Professor Germán Arturo Meléndez Acuña Academic Vice-dean: Professor Olga Restrepo Vice-dean of Bienestar Universitario: Professor Zulma Cristina Santos. Director of Divulgación Académica y Cultural: Professor Francisco Montaña Ibáñez Head of the Foreign Languages Department: Professor Norma Chavarro Casas Director and editor: Professor M. Claudia Nieto C. Graphic Designer Consultant: Clara Inés Clavijo R. Editorial Committee Proofreading Alitia Best, Maria Elisa Moorwood and Nicholas Spencer Capital Letter Staff Lina María Conde A. Mariluz Ortiz Bibiana Hernández Javier Augusto Rojas Dayana Andrea Osorio E. Graphic Reporter: Juan Carlos Becerra

Participants in the Talleres de Redacción

C U R S O 10 - IED ALFREDOIRIARTE INDIFFERENCE IS T H E N A M E O F T H E G A M E -EDITORIAL

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O ne of the questions we usually ask ourselves is why things are the way they are. There should be more peace, moresecurity,more courses, moreprocesses going on, moreresearch, more changes … and endless list of other things. What are we doing to contribute to the construction of that better society we all envision and desire? Have we contributed in the creation and provision of peace, security, study opportunities or research processes for ourselves and the others? What has been our performance as individuals and as groups? What have our results been? The Universidad Nacional de Colombia is a place rich in human resources. Students and teachers have been given the chance to exchange and spread knowledge. However,we always complain about lack of opportunities to develop the writing skills and when the occasion comes we take no notice of it. The case of the present discussion originated from theindifferenceregarding the invitation extended to the community to attend the Talleres de Redacción planned and scheduled by the staff of Capital Letter.Justtoexemplify,inthe first workshop there were 21 people, from which 14 were students of industrial engineering, 2from the Geography Department, and just five from the Department of Foreign Languages. It would be very unfair to say that people in general were indifferent to our proposals. W e met people who aretirelessly working to improve themselves as well as those people around them. The greatpityisthattheywere very few.Abigpercentage of the population isindifferentlyobservingthingshappening,justhappeningtofacelessandnamelesspeoplein emotionally distant scenarios, even if located on the same campus. I am forced to ask just as that Mexican program which was broadcast many years ago: ¿Qué nos pasa? Maybe, the fact is that Indifference is the name of the game.

Mission: to be a channel of communication among the members that make up the academic community of the Foreign Languages Department.

G REETINGS

The Writing Staff: Alexandra Arango S. Véronique Bellanger Isabel Buitrago Felix Burgos Melba Libia Cárdenas B. Ronnall Castro Q. Jorge Celis S. Lina María Conde A. Ligia Cortés N. Raúl Enrique García L. Mauricio Joven B. Dario Andrés Leal Diego Andrés Marín C.

David Martín Yudiht Martin Camilo Morales N. M. Claudia Nieto C. Mariluz Ortiz Dayana Andrea Osorio E. Yira Pastrana Díaz Juan Carlos Rodríguez R. Javier Augusto Rojas Antje Ruger Edgar Milton Santa G. Sergio Daniel Solórzano R. Jalver Uyaban C.

Also collaborated: Carolina Segura, LOLO (cartoon) and Xatlí Zuleta Printed by Sección Publicaciones, Dirección Nacional de Divulgación Cultural Sponsors: Dirección de Bienestar de Sede and Facultad de Ciencias Humanas Coordinator of Publications for the Human Sciences Faculty: Verónica Bermúdez

Vision: togrow as a publication, as individuals, as a group, and as members of the academic community.

E-MAIL [email protected] The articles, texts and opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect the position or policies of Capital Letter.

Dear friends,

W e are very pleased to present this seventh edition to you, made with very hard, yet rewarding team efforts. This product comes as a result of the contributions made by members from our Human Sciences community which wants to share their varied interests with you. W e hope you enjoy this edition which is expected to raise healthy discussions that may eventually render issues for future publications. Our very best wishes, Capital Letter Staff

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EV E N T S Fête française à l’Université Nationale

National Elt Conference Follow up

Ligia Cortés Naves Coordinatrice - Section Française

Last April 22 the National Elt Conference Follow up took place in Corferias in the frame of the Book Fair. The Universidad Nacional de Colombia was represented by professor Martha Camargo. Professor Camargo developed a workshop on the topic of intercultural communication. The full name the proposal presented by professor Camargo was Communicating interculturally: becoming competent. Capital Letter wants to congratulate professor Camargo for having the name of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia present in the mind of the participants to this important event.

[email protected]

C ’est devenu une tradition! Le vendredi 18 mars, la section de français du DLE célébrait une fois de plus la journée internationale de la francophonie, occasion d’honorer les pays qui la constituent (63 officiellement), la langue française (qui reste la deuxième du monde sur le plan de l’importance politique), et plus généralement les francophones à travers le monde (264 millions de personnes ont le français en partage en tant que langue maternelle, langue seconde ou d’apprentissage et, plus largement, 600 millions de personnes vivent dans les Etats et gouvernements de l’Organisation internationale de la Francophonie.) Rappelons que le terme de francophonie apparut pour la première fois en 1880. C’est le géographe français Onésime Reclus (1837-1916) qui l’a employé pour désigner les espaces géographiques où la langue française était parlée.

40th ASOCOPI National Conference and ELT Anual Conference

A l’Université, ce fut une journée bien chargée. Au programme, pour commencer, un exercice bien français : dictées organisées par Martha Martínez et Eric Naves. Toutes nos félicitations aux lauréates : Carolina Mora pour le niveau avancé et Liz Johanna Buitrago pour le niveau intermédiaire. Ensuite, parallèlement ou successivement : exposition de photos avec Orlando Salgado, chansons interprétées par les étudiants, présentation du projet Portraits de la Colombie en français sous la direction de Véronique Bellanger, dégustation de crêpes, karaoké encadré par Javier Reyes et Juan Guillermo Duque, projection de films (Les invasions Barbares avecle Básico V d’Enrique Orjuela, Astérix et Cléopâtre avec Ena Alvarez), présentation d’une pièce de théâtre par Liliana Guzmán et Juan Carlos Rodríguez (Alaplacedel’autre), et organisation de jeux de société (Questions pour un champion, sous la responsabilité de Fabio Hugo Ortiz, et Monopoly et visite de Paris avec Alexandra Ocampo).

T he 40 th ASOCOPI National Conference will be held this year in association with the ELT Organization. The event will take place in October, from the 14th to the 17th in the premises of Agustiniano Salitre School. The presence of teachers belonging to primary, secondary and tertiary education is expected. For more information, contact : http://www.asocopi.org/Conference.html

THANKS CapitalLetter wants to thank the Vicedecanatura de Bienestar Estudiantil for their invaluable support. Our special thanks to professors Alitia Best, Maria Elisa Moorwood and Nicholas Spencer for their help in proofreading the material submitted in English. We also want to thank Juan Carlos Becerra who contributed with his expertise in the creation and selection of some graphic material. Thanks to Clara Inés Clavijo R., graphic designer from the National Direction of Divulgación Cultural, who has always advised the publication in its several issues. Thanks to participants to the Talleresde Redacción and to the third version of the Unplugged Festival.

Finalement, ce fut une journée riche en événements, où chacun a pu participer selon ses goûts et son niveau… Cette fête doit beaucoup de son succès à ses principales animatrices: Karine Rubillon et Ena Alvarez. Encore merci à elles, et à toutes celles et à tous ceux qui ont mouillé leur chemise.

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ENDINGS

EXA M S

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Have we really opened our minds?

A New Stage in the Linguistics Scenery

W e arrive in this way to an interesting observation: What it is that enables a person to open his/her mind is something beyond the acquisition of a foreign language. Wecancallithereacriticalattitude towards our biased ideas.

with differentiable semantic, syntactic, phonological and phonetics components as it is possible today in the case of discretidad. All this evidence contrasts with the assumptions that prevail in the current linguistic scenery that postulate state the presence of a biological module inserted in the human brain that distinguishes humans from animals. Lakoff (1999) better opposes this belief by saying: “Ifsyntax(language)isto characterize the essence of human nature, if it is to define what distinguishes human beings from the apes, then it could have not been present in any form of the apes…it must come all at once, by genetic mutation, not gradual selection”6.

It stands to reason therefore that the lack of awareness or attitudes has led us, students and teachers of foreign languages, to three misconceptions that can be posited in the following way: a) You open your mind simply through the acquisition of communicative competence in a second language. b) To open your mind you must imitate another culture. c) A person who knows more than one language is perse an open minded person.

It is undoubtedly a fascinating debate. Despite the fact that Linguistics has reached momentum within the academic and scientific scenario during the last years, the author of this text is certain that Linguistics is still a very incipient science. In any case the development of linguistics should not and must not lead us to a dogma of human features but to the scientific findings attached to man as an evolutionary being. It is necessary to expand the debate that Linguistics is currently undergoing. It is time to lessen the importance and promulgation the generative tradition has had in our theoretical panorama so we can engage ourselves in the statement of a theory much more aligned with the current task of Linguistics and open a discussion among the student population. This might lead to great and unexpected results. Departments of Linguistics should now embark on new projects distant from the lightly delimiting Chomskyan tradition. Under any circumstance theorists must not surrender to the charm of philosophical assumptions, which though extremely important in other sciences, must not rule the roots of a science such as Linguistics.

I will, in the confines of this essay concentrate briefly on the third point: The person who knows more than one language is considered an open minded person because s/he has acquired the instrument with which to communicate with other peoples of the world. What is more, s/he is considered a bridge that eases communication among different cultures. Yet, that globalizing concern has led us to forget that the most effective way of demonstrating that we are willing to overcome the superficiality of our stereotypes and prejudices is through daily interaction. Nothing better than the direct contact with the people we meet every day to demonstrate that we have stopped labeling them apriori according to racial, sexual, political and social prejudices to mention but a few. If we want to demonstrate that we have opened our minds the place is here, the moment is now.

1 Cartesian Linguistics . page 7. (Courdemoy cited by Noam Chomsky). Harper & Row publishers. New York & London. 1966.Noam Chomsky. 2 El Lenguaje y La Vida Humana, page 14. Mauricio Swadesh. Fondo de Cultuta Económica. Ciudad de México, 1982. 3 The biology and evolution of language, page 14. 1984. Editorial, city. 4 English terminology for these ideas is still unknown to me. 5 It is worthy clarifying that I use the expressions “now”, “these days”, “nowadays” and similar to refer to the current stage of human evolution. 6 Philosophy in the flesh. The embodied mind and its challenge to waste thought. Chapter 22, page 476. George Lakoff. 1999. Harper Collins Publisher. New York & London.

Thus, we think that learning English is not so harmful, as some people might think. If we take advantage of English it will be to our benefit. And finally, to our knowledge, you do not need to have a massive native-Englishspeaker community in Colombia to start learning English, a language which has reached even the most remote areas of the world, including China, Japan, and Taiwan, up-and-coming emerging world powers9.

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Native language vs. Foreign/second language All in all and in view of the information we have provided, we think that Ipiña Melgar,Patiño Rosseli, De Mejia and Iriarte-Esguerra are right. It seems to us that it is vital to bear in mind that teaching a second/foreign language demands respecting the student’s native language. Furthermore, we acknowledge that a bicultural policy plays a very important role in the bilingual educational process of any community.

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However, we also consider that it is also significant for us, as foreign language teachers, to remember the importance of the English language, since the world, fortunately or not, is more and more internationalized. Moreover, the English language besides being the most powerful and widespread in foreign language education in Colombia, is an international language (so was Latin two thousand years ago), used to carry out research in areas such as science and economics.

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www.cvc.cervantes.es/obref/congreso/valladolid/ponencias/unidad_diversidad_del_español Salvat Universal, Diccionario Enciclopédico. Barcelona: Salvat Editores, S.A., 1997. Bolivian professor who has been Education and Culture Minister of Bolivia, Senator from Chuquisaca. He finished his politic career being Human Development Minister and one of the educational reform’s authors put into practice by his country’s government. Revista de la Academia Colombiana de la Lengua, Número 6 (Julio del 2004). Professor from La Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá. Professor from La Universidad del Valle, Colombia. She supports this statement in view of the fact that some schools teach Natural Sciences in L2 and Religion and Arts in L1. IRIARTE-ESGUERRA, Genoveva. Bilingüismo y Sociolingüística. En, Memorias del Seminario: Bilingüismo, Función Cognoscitiva y Educación. Bogotá: Fondo de Publicaciones del Gimnasio Moderno, 1997. VILLAMIZAR, Rodrigo y MONDRAG Ó N, Juan Carlos. Lecciones de los países del Asia-Pacificoentecnología, productividad y competitividad. Bogotá: Editorial Norma S.A., 1995.

but two of them did not have outstanding results. They were the programs of Mathematics and French at teacher’s colleges.

Is ECAES a mirror of excellence at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia?

One of the reasons for the low results is that there were few students evaluated in comparison to other programs. Another one is that the curricula at these colleges are still conforming to the requirements of the Ministry of Education. Moreover, there were open questions on the questionnaires –the other program with open questions was architecture, while other tests only had close ones-6.

Dayana Andrea Osorio E. English Student - VII Semester [email protected]

T he results of ECAES (Examen de Calidad de la Educación Superior) have been a point of controversy at different Colombian universities. “Some universities are considering the ECAES as a requirement for graduate students, and some professional associations are using them as requisites for the issue of a professional card. However, it is still the prerogative of the institutions all over the country”1 said Daniel Bogoya, director of ICFES (Instituto Colombiano para el Fomento de la Educación Superior).

On the other hand, although ECAES was a point of controversy for the students of the undergraduate program of Philology and Languages at our University last year -since it was believed that the questionnaire of ECAES did not reflect the nature of our curriculum, Bibiana Marcela Martínez Piraquive had the highest score nation wide. Definitely, the attitude of the students towards the ECAES has changed. In November last year only 7 students took the Exam. It is expected that this number will increase this year.“The satisfactory results of ECAES were not only mine, they were the result of the whole program. In the same way, my partners did very well because they were also among the best students nation wide” Bibiana said.

In general, the results of these exams show that public universities do better than private universities. The Universidad Nacional de Colombia (U.N.) sees the ECAES as one more element to evaluate excellence. Although the U.N. did well on the exam, its students got the top positions in 29 undergraduate programs, the University still considers the ECAES “a very theoretical exam since it raises hypothetical cases and does not take into account real and effective practice”.2 According to Daniel Bogoya, the idea of this exam is not to classify institutions and students as excellent, good, mediocre or bad. He goes on to say that the results are not absolute, and therefore, they can have a lot of interpretations depending on the programs and the items the exams evaluate. For instance, the results reveal the capacity that an institution can develop in general terms. They also allow researchers and evaluators to do systematic and detailed analysis with respect to similar programs run by other institutions.

According to Bibiana, the main components of this exam taken into account to evaluate our program are: a pedagogical component, which includes the Ministry’s policy on education; a reading comprehension section, which is the major component of the exam; and a language component, which is 50% of the test. Bibiana also thinks UN students’ weaknesses lie in the fact that they have limited knowledge in the educational field. This is due to the few subjects concerning pedagogy that the Philology and Languages program offers. Their strengths are their knowledge in linguistics and reading comprehension. Even though the education component in the Philology and Languages curriculum is not as complete as those at other Teachers' colleges, it is still very good.

The exam has been conceived as a test that will report results in order to shed light on other issues. For instance, it can provide authentic information about each undergraduate project and its social impact, and the possibilities of improving the programs. Another way to use the exams is to conduct more research based on their results. One important correlation drawn from the results of ECAES 2004 was that the eight universities with more research groups registered in the CvLAC, (Currículum Vitae Latinoamericano y del Caribe)of Colciencias, were the same eight that had more students with top scores on the exams3 .

Nevertheless, she also thinks the ECAES itself has weaknesses. For instance, the fact that these exams are very theoretical and do not take into account the practical component. They either take into account the cultural component of the foreign language in question, which in our case is the British and American culture. Finally, she advises students to be calm when taking the exam since “it is not something to be afraid of, if we have been studious”. However, she considers it is necessary to reinforce the weaknesses mentioned before.

However, the coverage given to the results of ECAES by the media pointing out the first places generates an unconscious but natural categorization of institutions4. In spite of that, these results do not assess the academic performance of the students, which is the true purpose of the exam. In some ways, the results of ECAES show a crisis brewing in higher education since the students were only able to answer 40% of the questions correctly. Moreover,thestudents of top universities could only get a maximum of 53%. These results question the belief that high fees at private universities are synonymous with excellence in education. The results also show that most universities have not been able to get away from the pedagogy that still praises the recollection of information by memory as in primary and high school5.

W e can conclude that ECAES is not a mirror of excellence at the Universidad Nacional because it only takes into account certain aspects of education like theory, and it does not include creative ways of thinking and real practice. However,theseexams confirm that the U.N.isoneofthebest universities in Colombia since it is a leader in many fields of knowledge. In spite of that, the Universidad Nacional needs to go beyond the Colombian borders and compare its educational level internationally in order to be competitive. 1

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And… How did the students of the undergraduate program, Philology and languages, do?

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A ccording to Victoria Diaz, coordinator of the PRI (Procesamiento de Resultados del ICFES) group, 43 undergraduate programs were evaluated,

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“La U. Nacional, Primera en 13 de 43 programas” El Tiempo, febrero 14 del 2005 http://el tiempo.terra.com.co “La Nacional ratifica su liderazgo” UN Periódico, febrero 27 del 2005 “La clave de los buenos resultados en Ecaes” El Tiempo, marzo 13 del 2005 http://el tiempo.terra.com.co “La Nacional ratifica su liderazgo” UN Periódico, febrero 27 del 2005 “El estado de la educación superior” El Espectador, marzo 20 del 2005. Pg. 1B “Licenciaturas explican los bajos resultados en pruebas de calidad” El Tiempo, marzo 1 del 2005. http://eltiempo.terra.com.co

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R ESEARCH

LINGUISTICS

La investigación se aprende: ¡INVESTIGANDO! Grupo de investigación “Investigamos” Véronique Bellanger, Melba L.Cárdenas, Ligia Cortés, Yudiht Martin, M.Claudia Nieto, Antje Ruger [email protected]

Según las estadísticas propias de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia, la permanencia de los estudiantes de la carrera de Filología e Idiomas supera los siete años y, por lo tanto, es una de las más altas de la institución. Las mismas estadísticas indican que el tiempo que se emplea para realizar el trabajo de grado es una de las causas para una situación tan preocupante (Obregón, 2001)1. Con base en las estadísticas presentadas por Obregón y en las situaciones que vivíamos como directoras, jurados, o profesoras de los seminarios monográficos tomamos la decisión de investigar la naturaleza de los trabajos de grado en nuestra Carrera 2. Hoy podemos informar a la comunidad académica algunos resultados de avance. Procedimos de la siguiente manera: Con base en un estudio de las hojas de vida de todos los estudiantes que ingresaron a la carrera entre 1996 y 1999 identificamos como grupo muestra a 42 estudiantes/ egresados de las tres áreas, además contamos con la participación de 7 profesores de seminarios monográficos y 22 directores de trabajos de grado pertenecientes a los tres Departamentos implicados: Literatura, Lingüística y Lenguas Extranjeras. Se diseñaron encuestas y entrevistas semiestructuradas. Los datos arrojados por dichos instrumentos se analizaron siguiendo los procedimientos de la teoría fundamentada. Con el ánimo de producir documentos útiles para nuestra carrera, hasta la fecha se han generado los siguientes productos: • En la fase inicial se elaboraron tablas sistemáticas que reúnen datos básicos acerca de la situación académica y las monografías de los estudiantes de cada área. • En enero de 2005, los primeros resultados del análisis de datos se presentaron en un detallado informe de avance a la División de Investigaciones de la Sede Bogotá. En este informe se describió el proceso de la elaboración de los trabajos monográficos mediante la metáfora “El viaje por la ruta PregradoMonografía”. Esta comparación aduce a la odisea que vive la mayor parte de nuestros estudiantes Todos los egresados enfatizan para llegar a la meta esperada, es decir, la obtención de su título. En el análisis de dicho viaje nos que la monografía incide en su centramos en tres aspectos, a saber: la preparación campo de acción profesional del viaje, el viaje y la retrospectiva del mismo. Numerosas citas sustentan nuestros juicios. • Se elaboró y piloteó un formato para la evaluación de los trabajos de grado el cual se acaba de presentar al Comité Asesor de la Carrera. En este formato se tienen en cuenta, por un lado, aspectos formales y los componentes del trabajo, por el otro lado se relacionan la rigurosidad científica así como aspectos de lengua y argumentación. Este formato servirá de guía para los estudiantes a la hora de elaborar sus trabajos de grado y facilitaría la evaluación de los trabajos por parte de los profesores. • Las integrantes del grupo de investigación hemos socializado los hallazgos del estudio en diferentes ámbitos: Unos interrogantes iniciales se incluyeron en una ponencia en el Congreso Latinoamericano de Estudios Germanísticos (Sao Paulo/ Brasil, septiembre de 2003). En el último Congreso de la Asociación Colombiana de Profesores de Inglés, ASOCOPI, (Santa Marta, octubre de 2004) se presentó el esquema de categorías resultante del análisis de datos. Para la Revista Colombian Applied Linguistics Journal se produjo un artículo que enfatiza las condiciones requeridas para la óptima culminación de las monografías en las investigaciones finales de pregrado. Se está preparando otro artículo que reúne los resultados finales del estudio. Además, presentamos aspectos de nuestra investigación en el Segundo Congreso de InstitucionesFormadoras de Licenciados en Lenguas Extranjeras, (Pamplona, abril 2005), en el Congreso Internacional de Profesores de Alemán (Graz/ Austria, agosto de 2005) y en el Sexto Seminario Nacional de Profesores de Francés (Bogotá, Junio de 2005). Nuestros participantes coinciden en afirmar que un ejercicio de investigación en nuestro programa académico es de suma importancia para la formación de profesionales y le garantiza a la carrera el estatus de formación universitaria seria, acrecentando su credibilidad nacional e internacional, y garantizando la calidad de sus egresados. A pesar de inconvenientes de diversa índole, la satisfacción por el resultado de este ejercicio es generalizada. Todos los egresados enfatizan que la monografía incide en su campo de acción

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profesional, incluso si el tema de ésta no se relaciona directamente con la profesión que están ejerciendo. La dirección de los trabajos de grado mediante tutorías personalizadas en la mayoría de los casos se evalúa como apropiada. Las causas para el tiempo excesivo que emplearon nuestros participantes en su trabajo de grado son variadas. Además de razones personales y la falta de una planta docente suficiente, los problemas más grandes se identificaron en la fase de preparación y orientación para la investigación. Aparte de la aplicación precipitada de las recientes reformas del trabajo de grado a nivel de toda la Universidad Nacional, en nuestra carrera se están tomando las primeras medidas para subsanar algunos de los problemas más sentidos por la comunidad académica de nuestra carrera: en el curso de “Metodología de la Investigación” se incluye también la investigación educativa. Se han establecido acuerdos acerca del programa de esta asignatura entre los profesores encargados y con la Coordinación de la carrera. Se está ofreciendo a los estudiantes una orientación acerca de los posibles Seminarios Monográficos y se ha despertado la discusión acerca de los objetivos concretos de los mismos. El Comité Asesor de Carrera ha definido algunos lineamientos que hacen más transparentes los procesos administrativos acerca del trabajo de grado. Sin embargo, aún nos queda por consolidar los diferentes grupos de interés investigativo y, sobre esta base, desarrollar desde el comienzo de la carrera las competencias investigativas y argumentativas de los estudiantes. 1 Obregón, D. (2001). Revisión de los requisitos de grado: El trabajo de grado. Universidad Nacional de Colombia: Bogotá. 2 El título exacto de la investigación que cuenta con financiación de la División de Investigaciones de la Sede Bogotá es: “Los trabajos monográficos realizados por los estudiantes de la carrera de Filología e Idiomas (Inglés, Francés y Alemán) entre 2000 y 2003: análisis y perspectivas”.

A New Stage in the Linguistics Scenery Raúl Enrique García López English Student - II Semester [email protected]

“Enfin, plus je prens garde à l`effet que produisent mes paroles, quand je les profère devants ces Corps, plus il me semble qu`elles sont entenduës; et celles qu`ils profèrent répondent si parfaitement au sens des miennes qu`il ne me paroist plus de sujet de douter qu`unne Ame ne fasse en eur ce que la mienne faitenmoi”1.

Linguistics is a science that is relatively young. It became an independent field of study around one hundred years ago due to Saussure‘s work. The 20th century has witnessed the hasty growth of a science that has now become fundamental to many other sciences such as sociology, psychology, biology, medicine, and even politics. Despite its rapid development, it has also prompted a number of speculations about the nature of language. Noam Chomsky is one of the greatest linguistsinrecenthistory. His work has been paramount during the last fifty years. His theory of Transformational-Generative Grammar is perhaps the most widely accepted proposal on the nature and behavior of language having met with little opposition. Nevertheless, the fact that Chomsky uses such arguments as the introductory quotation to this article is highly disappointing. Chomsky‘s work, though undeniably significant in many aspects, roots itself in one non-scientific principle: rationalism. Language as a result is deemed to be an exclusively human faculty and innate “device” acquired from birth. Accordign to Chomsky therefore, language could not have evolved, as all human features, from Darwinian natural selection. This assertion has no real evidence to support it, being based on philosophical assumptions, ill-suited toscientifictheories.Itisforthisreasonthat I concentrate on more human concepts, important when developing new linguistic theories at university level; particularly in

the field of Neurolinguistics and from a less dogmatic rationalism. The current task of linguistics It is an undeniable fact that the only great difference between humans and animals is language. It is clear that animals‘ physical and sensorial sophistication and capacity for adaptation far exceeds out own. However,the organization and predominance of man in the planet is subject of no discussion at all. Baring in mind these facts it is worth asking why it is that language constitutes such a gap between humanity and animals and how its main characteristics have evolved. In order to find an answer to these questions we need to trace the origins of humanity. Unfortunately,unlike other sciences, linguists can not count on physical evidence to provide the bases for their work. There are no records of the dawn of language. To solve this inconvenience Mauricio Swadesh proposes: “El lenguaje…es similar a la mayoría de las herramientas y técnicas usadas por los seres humanos…es apropiado buscar evidencia en los objetos de piedra usados por los hombres primitivos”2. From this proposal, along with Darwin’ s theory of natural selection and some other anthropological theories we learn that through the continual use of common verbal expressions accompanied by unarticulated shouts, these primitive utterances gradually became words. Thus language evolves: unique manifestations in response to external stimuli. Development of prehistoric societies and behavior allowed these manifestations to mix, which, along with the evolution of the brain, provided language with a proficiency level that took humans far away from their initial animal condition. As Lieberman states: “…thesespecializedbiological mechanisms evolved by the process of Darwinian natural selection from similar, homologous mechanisms in other animals”3. It is evident that in the dawn of humanity man did not use language for the same purposes he does now. Language features such as specialization (the ability to use language for

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purposes which are not fundamental for man’ssurvival), discretidad (thepossibilityto divide and differentiate language constituents such as morphemes, phonemes, reflexividad 4 are present in today’s evolutionary stage of humans, but it would be daring to say that they have been part of language since its dawn. Language has developed over time. Regarding the characteristics mentioned above, it must be said that they pertain to humans in their current state of evolution5. Not forgetting however the probable characteristics of prehistoric language and their gradual transformation into a language continues on page 18

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O PINIONS Monólogos de la lengua extranjera Jalver Uyaban Cortés Lic. En Filología e Idioma Inglés [email protected]

Por estos días, en los que se proponen reformas curriculares, nos rondan más preguntas que respuestas, y una de las más importantes tiene que ver con el sentido, cuadro general o, mejor, el tejido al que todas las asignaturas y trabajos del plan curricular deben contribuir. En Filología e Idiomas existe un hilo conductor para ese tejido: la lengua extranjera o, si tenemos en cuenta que la lengua es una de las manifestaciones del pensamiento, el pensamiento extranjero. La preocupación por el pensamiento extranjero queda demostrada al comparar el número de asignaturas dedicadas al estudio de las lenguas, culturas, civilizaciones y literaturas extranjeras, vs. el número de las que se dirigen a la enseñanza de lenguas y a la traducción. Sin embargo, y pese a que el dialogo entre culturas es uno de los objetivos de la carrera, el estudio del pensamiento extranjero a través de la lengua se ha tornado en un monologo aburrido y alienante (en el peor de los casos). La competencia lingüística se convirtió en un fin, cuando en realidad es un medio para interactuar con otros pensamientos; y tal error de percepción ha desembocado en varias inconsistencias. Primero, los materiales didácticos (libros, videos, cintas de audio y otras publicaciones) muestran en su mayoría lo ideal que resultan el modo de vida y la cultura extranjera. Parece ser que muchos de los materiales de enseñanza sólo muestran una cara de la moneda y ocultan (con distintas motivaciones) los episodios y pensamientos infames de su propia cultura. Es como si en el camino de aprender una lengua extranjera sólo importara la lengua en sí misma La competencia lingüística se y los pensamientos que ésta transmite fueran accesorios, convirtió en un fin, cuando cuando la realidad bien puede ser inversa. Segundo, salvo en realidad es un medio para contados y afortunados casos, en las clases no se hace un intento por contrastar la literatura extranjera con la interactuar con otros nativa, como tampoco sucede con la historia y la pensamientos civilización. En un tercer lugar tenemos que el no contar

Have we really opened our minds? Diego Andrés Marín Cerón English Student - VII Semester

con profesores extranjeros también acrecienta este malestar, pues priva a los estudiantes de la oportunidad de interactuar con una mente formada en la cultura que se pretende estudiar. Y por último, la traducción, una de las áreas más importantes del ejercicio filológico, se ha dedicado a la “importación” de pensamiento traduciendo obras al español, pero no se “exporta” nada, por que no se ha pensado aún en la posibilidad de traducir literatura nativa a lengua extranjera. Es poco el interés del Departamento por acabar el monólogo de la lengua extranjera, pues sólo hasta hace muy poco se inicio tímidamente el estudio de la enseñanza de español para extranjeros. No son pocas las implicaciones de este monologo ya insoportable para muchos estudiantes, puesto que ha llevado a muchas personas a considerar la carrera como cantera de profesores, y a los estudiantes como aspirantes a servidores del bien foráneo. Por todo ello, resulta imperativo que tanto directivos como profesores analicen críticamente esta situación e implementen políticas concretas. Por parte de los estudiantes, es necesario un esfuerzo individual que le permita ver más allá de lo evidente en lo que se estudia, más ahora, cuando algunos monólogos pretenden imponerse en el mundo.

In order to clarify the first point we need to propose an alternative definition. In a few words, it can be said that a person has opened his mind when s/he has been able to recognize their prejudices and stereotypes and is eager to change them for other thoughts more suitable to the aspect of reality they supposedly represent.

Goodbye to monographs Mariluz Ortiz English Student - VII Semester [email protected]

“La calidad de la investigación se logra con excelencia y exigencia aunque resulte costosa, sin embargo nunca más que la ignorancia”1.

W ithout further discussions the Consejo Superior Universitario has approved the agreement that will regulate the reform of graduation Projects. The decision has paralyzed many of us who thought that there would be more opportunities to discuss the reform, but the official statement sent to the university community on the 20th of March has confirmed the exclusion of monographs as they were originally proposed. The inclusion of the Graduation Project as a subject of the curriculum, its reduction to 25,000 words; the elimination of juries; the restriction of the possibility of collaboration with other classmates are just some of the changes that this reform brings. The modification strongly affects the interests of the students and the quality of education that the University has demonstrated, not only in the State Evaluation, but also to society.

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In memory of Rene Descartes Foreign language teachers and learners commonly believe that a person who learns another language opens his/her mind to the world. This statement is based on the fact that acquiring another language implies learning about another culture and this process makes possible the recognition of the diversity of cosmovisions that the human mind is able to produce. However valid this statement may seem, it has two weaknesses: (a) it is based on an unclear definition of what an open mind is, (b) it does not consider, at least explicitly, that opening one’s mind requires a process. As a result of those two shortcomings we have come to believe in some misconceptions that will be discussed later on.

If we really want to rid our minds of prejudices and stereotypes we have to begin by recognizing them as such. However, that recognition is not automatic; it requires that we be engaged in a process of continuous questioning of the absolute certainty of any belief that we consider true until we have clearly appreciated the reliability of the arguments that support it. It means that we must question ourselves whenever we make a judgment about another person, another culture or about any phenomenon of reality that we can perceive, specially, if we have not had direct contact with any of them. By doing so, we will be able to find which of our beliefs have a solid ground and which do not. A person who studies a foreign language has the opportunity to recognize some of his/her prejudices and stereotypes. It is possible as a result of their learning that person will appreciate the relativity of the system of beliefs present in his/her culture, and come to understand of language as another conceptualization of reality and another system of social practices and attitudes. Each related to the usage of language and each as complex as the ones present in his/her culture. However this does not guarantee that he/she has opened his/her mind. If that individual has not learnt to question the absolute certainty of any belief, that awareness will lie dormant in their consciousness. S/he will not open his/her mind. In fact, s/he might even acquire more prejudices from the culture s/he is trying to comprehend. continues on page 18

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To begin with, a restriction on time and space has been imposed which might sound to many of us as something positive in the sense that the time expected to develop an assignment is going to be one semester and not two, three, four or, in the worst case, a never ending project. At the same time, we have to say goodbye to the huge tome, which meant for some people just a summary of books and nothing original. But we have to be careful and not fall into the snare of mediocrity; a good investigative project needs ample time. The problem here is that there are not going to be research projects as such; in fact it is just going to be a “research exercise” as it was called by the previous Head of the University.

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Another important issue is the elimination of juries, public presentation and honourable mentions or distinctions, three aspects that supported and ensured the success of projects. The juries are replaced by one reader -besides the director- which means fewer points of views and fewer contributions to the project. In the same way, the termination of presentations in public deprives the community from becoming acquainted with the work of our students or profiting from the process of investigation. The monograph projects marked with passing, meritorious or honours grades disappeared as such in the new scheme. If a student obtained either the meritorious or the honours marks, that guaranteed him somehow better work opportunities, further studies and research possibilities.Thatpossibilityisgonetoo. According to article 7 of this reform2 there is going to be an Honoured Student in each year level; this is a student who will have the best average of grades in the whole major.A good incentive if the student cares so much about the grade. This aspect however does not differentiate us, the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, from any institute. What really made the difference was the RESEARCH C O M P O N E N T. An additional issue of concern regarding the reform is the speed of its implementation. If this reform is accepted as it is, we have to know about and evaluate other pending reforms that can be applied very soon and that can be harmful to the University. It is true that the number of graduates is surely going to increase, the obstacles that some students experienced with the monograph have now ended, but to what cost? Our University is being undermined by the interests of the market where production, competence and effectiveness are the only concerns. Soon we will have to say goodbye not only to the quality of investigation, but also to other important elements that are fundamental to our University. 1 Free adaptation from a popular adage. 2 Acuerdo 001 de 2005 del Consejo Superior Universitario.

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La motivación como variable determinante en la adquisición de una segunda lengua Yira Pastrana Díaz English Student - IV Semester [email protected]

Los estudiosos del lenguaje se han preocupado desde hace algunos años por comprender el proceso de adquisición de una segunda lengua y de ahí el dilema de si ésta se adquiere o se aprende, pero ¿Por qué no se deja de lado la controversia y se piensa en las variables afectivas involucradas en el proceso? ¿Acaso la parte emocional no juega un papel determinante en cualquier proceso de aprendizaje? La adquisición/aprendizaje de una segunda lengua abarca varios aspectos entre los cuales se destaca el lado emocional del hablante y cómo éste puede contribuir a una adquisición/aprendizaje más efectiva(o). Para explicar el fenómeno adquisición/ aprendizaje de una segunda lengua se han propuesto algunas teorías como las de Steven Krashen1, entre las cuales se encuentran las de hipótesis de adquisición/aprendizaje, la del orden natural, la del monitor, la del input comprensible y la de hipótesis del filtro afectivo. Esta última plantea que cuando se aprende una segunda lengua en un ambiente no natural se produce ansiedad en el estudiante, y ésta a su vez es un filtro afectivo que dificulta el aprendizaje/adquisición de la segunda lengua. Las variables afectivas son la ansiedad, la motivación y la confianza en sí mismo. Estos factores son más importantes para el aprendizaje subconsciente que para el aprendizaje consciente, porque cuando hay barreras afectivas estas causan un “bloqueo mental” que no dejará que los datos sean procesados, es decir, adquiridos completamente, aun cuando el estudiante los comprenda. De acuerdo a las hipótesis de Steven Krashen la adquisición predomina sobre el aprendizaje, pero ¿en qué momento el aprendiz reconoce que está adquiriendo o aprendiendo una segunda lengua? Sería continues on page 8

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Portraits de la Colombie, en français

Les Ingas: une communauté à étudier, à connaître et à montrer

Véronique Bellanger Professeur du Département de Langues Etrangères, Université Nationale de Colombie, Siège Bogotá [email protected]

Juan Carlos Rodríguez Rendón Estudiante de la carrera de francés y de ruso electivo [email protected]

Carolina Martinez Chaparro [email protected]

Carol Ivonne Villamil Benal

D ans le cadre du développement de la recherche par projets de l’enseignementapprentissage de la culture française au sein de la filière de philologie et langues(spécialité français), différents projets de classe ont été menés à bien, et ont pu aujourd’hui obtenir la reconnaissance nationale et internationale d’institutions de renom.

[email protected]

M algré la richesse pluriculturelle et plurilingue de notre pays, on sait bien que cette diversité n’est reconnue ni par nous les colombiens, ni par le monde en général. Cette méconnaissance des cultures est due au manque de diffusion et d’information de la culture et de la civilisation indiennes; en plus, il y a une certaine indifférence au moment de défendre et d’établir une véritable loi qui garantisse la sauvegarde et la vie des cultures dites minoritaires.

“Portraits de la Colombie, en français” est le fruit de l’avant-projet présenté au Cavilam et TV5, au cours du séminaire de formation de Photo: Projet Bogota au centre du monde formateurs en août 2004, et développé en classe avec les étudiants de français 5 de notre filière, et aujourd’hui avec ceux des cours de civilisation française 1 et 2. D’autres étudiants de notre filière sont venus rejoindre notre entreprise. Il s’agit d’un concours de photographies et textes en français dirigé aux classes de français des universités, lycées(niveau terminale), et instituts de langues au niveau national. Les professeurs seront invités à introduire dans leur classe la pédagogie par projet comme alternative méthodologique pour que leurs étudiants présentent leur ville ou région à travers une photo et un texte en français. Cette présentation doit être le résultat de la réflexion interculturelle menée en classe sur des thèmes de civilisation française. Les travaux de la classe lauréate, et ceux des meilleurs groupes feront l’objet d’une exposition nationale et la diffusion d’un multimédia dans les Alliances françaises, et d’une présentation internationale au festival du documentaire à Paris en Octobre 2005 et à l’Université de Bordeaux 3. Le professeur lauréat recevra une formation à l’alliance française de Lyon. Ce projet compte actuellement sur l’appui de l’Ambassade de France en Colombie, des Alliances françaises, de l’Université de Bordeaux 3, de l’Alliance française de Lyon, de la Fundación B.A.T, de l’ESAP, de la Corporación Cultural de Barranquilla, de la Fundación Ortega y Gasset, de Unimedios (Universidad Nacional de Colombia), de la chaine tv5, de Servientrega et d’Aviatur. Nous vous invitons dès aujourd’hui à y participer! Contactez-nous1 au mail suivant: [email protected] 1 Staff PCF: Cuellar Rivera Hugo Andrés, Rangel Bayona Manuel Mauricio, Rodriguez Eisenhower, Suárez Celi Vanessa, Rico Garavito Fabio Andrés, Moya Morales John Martín, Suárez Tapiero John Jairo, Novoa Castiblanco Ivonne Astrid, Carvajales Catalina, Tous Carlos, Avendaño Alejandro, Vallejo Amanda.

C’est pourquoi nous avons décidé de faire une étude approfondie sur la communauté indienne INGA et de montrer les résultats de notre recherche de la façon la plus efficace pour essayer d’interdire sa perte d’identité et de culture. La récollection de données et d’information concernant cette communauté a été longue et difficile parce qu’iln’y a pas beaucoup de théorie et d’information qui soit véritable et complète dans les livres. On a essayé de structurer l’information d’après des cours de langue et culture, diverses conférences auxquelles nous avons assisté, des interviews faites aux membres de cette communauté et aux individus qui ont eu des contacts avec eux et des petitsarticlestrouvéssurinternet. Une des bases fondamentales de cette étude a été les politiques linguistiques en Europe, principalement, celles de France. Le fait d’avoir des documents consacrés essentiellement à la défense et à la reconnaissance des langues minoritaires laisse voir l’importance et le respect qu’ont ces pays envers le «cadeau» culturel que les communautés font aux grandes cultures d’aujourd’hui. Une autre base théorique de ce projet est liée aux sciences humaines et à celles de la culture: anthropologie linguistique; sociolinguistique; ethnographique; et linguistique culturelle parmi d’autres.

JA PANESE Lina María Conde English Student - VII Semester [email protected]

La propos fondamental de cette investigation est celui de connaître la culture INGA et de la montrer à un monde quineconnaîtpaslarichesseetlesmerveillesquecetteculture nous offre. Aussi, on souhaite faire naître des sentiments de respect, de tolérance ainsi que la capacité de reconnaître les autres avec leurs différences et leurs égalités et aider à la conservation des langues et cultures de notre pays. Aujourd’hui, un des outils les plus efficaces au moment de communiquer ou de donner ou d’obtenir l’information est l’Internet, car c’est le moyen massif de communication en Colombie et du monde en général. Pour cette raison, nous ferons une page web sur les Ingas qui donnera aux gens de presque tout le monde la possibilité de connaître et de faire partie de la richesse culturelle des groupes indiens. La page sera élaborée en 3 langues différentes, lesquelles à notre avis sont les plus connues dans le monde entier.Cesontl’espagnol,lefrançaisetl’anglais. Nous espérons que ce mémoire servira de pont entre les cultures de notre pays et les organisations nationales et internationales partageant notre intérêt, afin d’aider les peuples indiens dans leurs projets de sauvegarde de la langue, de la culture, et des mœurs. Mémoire Filière de philologie et langues-Français. Directrice du mémoire: Véronique Bellanger: [email protected]

Photo: Luis Eduardo Nieves

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Learning about the Fear of Learning David Martin English Student - VII Semester scissorman999@ yahoo.com

H ave you ever felt that your students were not giving of their best? What would you do if they did not want to show their abilities? Maybe we are facing a big problem: the fear of learning. This fear is called sophophobia, “a persistent, abnormal, and irrational fear of Photo taken by David Martín learning” according to the Grandiloquent Dictionary 1.This poses a threat both to physical and mental health. Its treatment can take months, even years. Sophophobia creates the feeling of danger when it is present in the learning process causing panic attacks, shortness of breath, rapid breathing, irregular heartbeat, sweating and nausea.

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I would like to address the issue of sophophobia inourclassrooms.Itisthekindoffearthatinterrupts the process of attaining knowledge amongst our students producing in them depression and sadness. When you are giving a class, regardless of conditions, somestudentsareafraidtolearn.Theirskills,abilities and intelligence are deeply hidden behind the wall offear. Not only their academic development can be seriously affected but their self esteem and motivation also are at risk, and probably,therest of their lives too. I have been working in a school as an English teacher and I have noticed some of the above features in the learning process of my students. Their fear has been reflected by: a) Timidity: despite that some students do know what you are talking about, they do not dare to speak, ask questions or reply, because they are really quiet and shy. They understand each word, sentence or explanation given; however, they do not want to show their abilities to the class. b) Failure: when students are working in class they show high levels of understanding, but when they have an evaluation they forget basic knowledge. I realize they fail because they want

to. They don’t want to stand out because standing out increases their fear of learning and so they prefer to fail. c) Self - Negation: this is an aspect that teachers will hardly notice without talking to students. Sentences as “I can’ t”,“I’ve just forgotten”, “Sorry, I do not know” are the usual replies given by students when asked about their performance. They just put down themselves, they do not believe in their abilities and thinking. They believe that they do not want tolearn. The solution to this problem can take different forms. The first option is to talk directly to them about what is going on and show them that fear is part and parcel of being a human being, and that as humans we have to overcome challenges by confronting them because they are elements of our development. If the students are under 18, a meeting with parents might help. An appointment with the psychologist could be of great help too. Let us not forget our role as teachers. We have to take care of our students whendifficultsituationsarise. Justsay:FaceFear!! 1

The Grandiloquent Dictionary, available at URL: onelook.com/ ?w=sophophobia&ls=...12/04/05, accessed on 12/04/2005

EXTENSION ACTIVITIES Pedagogy, Communicative competence and Resource Centres management, and lasts 10 months from February to November 2005.

Shortening the Path from the School to the University Javier Augusto Rojas English Student - VIII Semester

The cultural and academic exchange has allowed for cooperation, as well as sharing of experiences and the generation of new and strong bonds between the School and the University. By observing how others live and work these communities have been able to reflect on their own product and performance and produce more insightful comments regarding their own position. Thus, a dialectic relationship occurs between the school practice and university theory, thanks to the knowledge exchange produced by Teacher Development Programs. Such programs enhance collaborative thinking and action-oriented research both at the level of School and University.

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A t first, the distance from the School to the University was covered by a neglected and little used road. The people at the School regarded the road too steep and the university too high, whereas at the university people considered the journey to School to be a useless and even a senseless activity.Asaresult, the pragmatic and real knowledge produced by the School remained disconnected from the theoretical text-based knowledge gotten at University.

If you would like more information about the way in which the path from the School to the University is being improved in order to discover more academic routes, it can be found in the journal PROFILE Journal and includes the contributions of the participants and their experiences in this ongoing adventure. Alternatively, contact the PROFILE research group in the Foreign Languages Department.

In order to make the journey easier and more attractive, the PFPDs1 were created in 1995. Those served to bearing in mind the importance and benefits to consider/evaluate of a more open path in order to promote intercultural and inter academic contact between the two kinds of knowledge. Ever since, the journeys from School to University and vice versa have become amongst the most enriching. Now, more often than not these programs include Research, Innovation and Updating. There are also shorter programs which offer updating only, and focus on very specific topics. As we speak, 125 primary and high school teachers from Localidad 4 San Cristobal together with 10 teacher-researchers from the Foreign Languages Department at La Universidad Nacional are embarking on the latest program called Programa de Actualización. It entails three main components, namely,

1 Programas de Formación Permanente de Docentes

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Extension Programmes in Progress

interaction are almost unlimited, respect students’ privacy,andfacilitateself and peer correction.

UsefulWeb DLE:A website for dynamic Teaching and Learning w w w.usefulweb-project.tk

Having fulfilled, to some extent, our primary communication shortages, we can think of another important requisite when learning a foreign language in the particular conditions we have here in Colombia. Not everybody can buy the newest and most up to date books W e must look carefully at and to work on the different skills to improve their reflect on the possibilities we, proficiency. That is why as students and teachers, we have thought of have on the web databases and links.

Mauricio Joven Bonello and Dario Andrés Leal English Students - Last Semester [email protected] [email protected]

U sefulWeb is a monographic project which intends to integrate the most important features offered by the Internet in terms of English Language Teaching and Learning ( E L T L). This project was born out of the need for our Languages Department to take advantage of the opportunities offered by the Internet. In this sense, we have reviewed the history of the Internet, the tools it offers for E L T L, and the learning theories that can be used incorporating such tools.

Databases and links: Apart from communication, the Internet offers other possibilities, academically speaking as it has become the greatest source of information with its different databases and links. Databases are tools which allow Students and Teachers to search theoretical data such as definitions, lists, abstracts and analysis of certain academic information. Databases in Internet offer the opportunity of getting a huge amount of organized information for students and teachers to research, discuss and enrich the academic environment. Some examples of data bases in Internet and its areas of use are ERICK for Didactics and www.sparknotes.com for Literature.

But, what are the features that make us think of the web as a useful tool for E L T L? First of all, we must realize our specific situation in terms of English language students and teachers. It is not easy for us to have actual contact with native speakers, so that our only input is from our foreign teachers. This is when the first kind of tools emerges as an option to complement our teaching and learning processes with the use of synchronic and non synchronic communication tools:

Links, on the other hand, can be found inside data bases. They are the doors we have to open when going to a site we are interested in. A database with classified links can allow students and teachers to save time when looking for information and activities to be developed through the Internet because they are visiting a single site in which they can locate almost all the information they need; and they can access it just by clicking on the link.

Chat Rooms: This is the first stage surfers encounter when looking for opportunities to communicate in English. This is a synchronic communication tool in which people from different countries meet to have conversations with other people who, most of the times, they do not know but who share similar interests. The informality and speed of this tool make it appropriate to acquire both writing and speaking competence, learn new vocabulary, correct mistakes and have fun while learning and USING English.

To conclude, we can say that we could be missing out on a great variety of material which is there: on the web. We must look carefully at and reflect on the possibilities we, as students and teachers, have on the web. All the aids and possibilities can be understood by many of the learning theories we know and can even be the birth of a new educational era. Maybe you think itisnotpossibleoritisawayto“replace” teachers. Why don’t you makeit a strong tool to enrich your work and to demonstrate the improvements that can be made by a teacher U S I N G technology? That is what UsefulWeb intends to do, to put together the aids found on the Internet on a single website for our students and teachers to access and use them, to have a forum for communication among the communities, to have a classified guide of websites to visit and learn from them and last but not least, this project expects to be considered as an effort to at least make students and teachers consider this Useful Web as a valid attempt to introduce those who had not previously realized how these kinds of tools are valuable for educational purposes in normal class environments in the use of new technologies and, for those who are aware, how it is not impossible to design and elaborate a formative webpage and that can be easily adapted to suit their syllabuses to the use of similar materials.

E-mail: This is one of the most popular resources people use on the Internet because it is a way to exchange information in a fast and easy manner1. Just like chat, it is useful to improve our writing skills and can be used in different ways. Email complements chat rooms because after having had a conversation with a foreigner, the only safe way to chat with him/her again is by having his/her e-mail address so that you can keep contact with them to continue practicing English. The second one is the contact that it facilitates between the teacher and his/her students so that they can send and receive homework and ask questions by sending e-mails. Another way in which we can say that this tool contributes to E L T L is that students can open accounts with interfaces in English so that they practice English not only by reading e-mails in the Target Language but also by interacting with the interface. The Forum: This is the tool that offers the greatest variety of possibilities because of the characteristics that make it manageable and adaptable to specific needs. The forum makes it achievable to discus and exchange opinions by posting messages in a non-synchronic way2. At the same time, it is easier to work with a specific purpose, like education, because it allows people with similar interest to join groups in which they can learn, debate, and, of course, use the language. The possibilities for one-to-one (student-student/studentteacher), or one-to-many (teacher or student to all members of the forum)

1 PRADO ARAGONES, Josefina. “La Utilización de Internet en Idiomas”. In AGUADED GÓMEZ, José & CABERO ALMENARA, Julio. “Educar en Red-Internet como recurso para la educación” Ediciones Aljibe, Málaga, 2002. 2 Ídem

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EPISTEMOLOGY comes from page 5

EN T E RTA I N M E N T

‘Studenteacher’or The subject-object relationship in the classroom

La motivación como variable determinante en la adquisición de una segunda lengua

Ronnall Castro Quintero Student VI Semester [email protected]

muy osado afirmar que la adquiere en un período determinado y en otro la aprende porque esto indicaría que este proceso se ve de forma lineal e irreversible. Por lo tanto, no se puede hablar de adquisición de una segunda lengua sin involucrar el aprendizaje en dicho proceso, porque las habilidades comunicativas requieren de un trabajo progresivo tanto en la lengua materna como en la segunda. Por eso, es importante manejar las variables afectivas mencionadas por Krashen para hacer más ameno el ambiente en el cual se aprende y se adquiere la segunda lengua, ya que el estudiante estará motivado, sentirá confianza y perderá la ansiedad que le ocasiona un bloqueo mental. La motivación es una variable determinante en la adquisición/aprendizaje de una segunda lengua porque estimula al principiante a ser receptivo en vez de defensivo frente a las personas que ya la han adquirido/aprendido. Por otro lado, el deseo de desarrollar habilidades en una segunda lengua por razones prácticas y funcionales también motiva al individuo. Entonces, ésta es una invitación para todos los maestros de lenguas extranjeras y por supuesto para los futuros maestros que desean contribuir en el proceso de adquisición/ aprendizaje de una segunda lengua. Pretende así mismo fomentar el interés por las variables afectivas presentes en el estudiante y que le permiten el dominio natural de la lengua. Si el hablante no se siente motivado perderá el interés por aprender y además creará una barrera mental que le impedirá confiar en sí mismo y en sus habilidades en el momento que quiera usar la segunda lengua. Lo anterior muestra que la motivación y todas las variables afectivas ocupan un lugar preponderante en el proceso de adquisición/ aprendizaje de una segunda lengua. Es indispensable recurrir a ella para generar expectativas en el estudiante y así mantener vivo su deseo por adquirir/aprender un idioma diferente al materno.

It is clear for the majority of us that reality is made up of phenomena that we call ‘objects’, and that we are the ‘subjects’ of reality. But what is not so clear is the relationship between subjects and objects. If we understand it clearly or at least approximately, this relationship will become a fundamental tool in improving our practice as teachers and students. First of all, subject-object is an epistemological category used for explaining the human process of knowledge. It is an abstraction but one that is deeply connected to concrete things that existinreality. Each one of the elements in isolation is incomprehensible yet they are inextricably related each other.It is therefore impossible to consider them separately without making mistakes when theorizing or acting on such a misconception. A subject is any human being who knows the world consciously, forexample a butcher, a doctor,ataxi-driver, a physicist, a farmer, or in our case a student or a teacher. They may not be aware exactly of what they do or why, but regardless, they put into practice mental operations of abstraction and generalization, analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction, and so on. Objects are all the things of nature that are incorporated and transformed by the subjects’ reality as conditioned by social activity. This category involves a historical reality – material and spiritual1 phenomena – which can be natural or social; the subjects themselves; or the manifold relationships between reality and us. That is to say that when we are studying an object that we consider as external to us, what we are really doing is studying ourselves in relation to that object. However,theexistence of an object does not imply the existence of a subject. This is explained taking into account that subject-object is an epistemological category, whereas the concept of existence is expressed by an ontological process: ‘being’. In fact the object exists in reality as a ‘being-in-itself’, before turning into an object, i.e. it exists without the subject’s awareness of it. It becomes an object when someone meditates and acts consciously on it.

Stephen D. Krashen. Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning. Chapter 2. 1981.

Sergio Daniel Solórzano Rocha Student from the Extension Courses and 10th Grade Student at Mayor de San Bartolomé School [email protected]

Let’s imagine a fantasy world that is like the Lord of the Rings plus the One Thousand and One Nights, plus many elements of the Japanese myths and many others from around the world. Let’s imagine that you can enter a world like that as a very powerful wizard, with your own magical powers, armies, weapons, and tricks. And that your main goal is to defeat other wizards in order to show who the best is. W eallknowthatinreallifeitisverydifficult to be a wizard and have personal armies. But any way there are some ways to do that. You can for example take drugs and imagine all that you want, but you can’t be sure that what you are going to imagine is what you want or you can try reading a book. However, if you are looking for something more interesting and that makes you “part” of the story, there is a game called Magic the Gathering. Magic the Gathering was one of the first really successful trading card games. It was created 12 years ago by Richard Garfield. And since its creation the game has not changed from the point of view of rules, of the story and of the philosophy

Considering the classroom as “a complex system of communication, investigation and construction of knowledge, formed by human and material elements that are in a constant interchange of matter, energy, and especially information” (Posada, Foliaco y Arrieta, 1998: 9), we could go as far as to say that the subject-object relationship is not a simple abstraction but a question of life.

Students exist without the presence of a teacher in a classroom, teachers on the other hand don’texist without students. So can we really say that students are no more than objects existing independently from a subject? No, that would imply that the subject is the teacher, and it is precisely this theory we are trying to overcome. Teachers and students are subjects and their object is to obtain knowledge about the whole world and themselves (ourselves) within it. When saying teacher, we also say student. As the subject-object, it is absurd to consider them separatedl y. The relationship student-teacher or ‘studenteacher’, which is the basis of the pedagogical phenomenon, is a dynamic synthesis that comprises all the interactions that occur in a classroom. It is a unity in which both parts learn from each other, and in so doing not only interpret but transform the world. In this sense, spiritual could be interpreted as cultural. According to Hegel: “el espíritu es, esta sustancia absoluta que, en la perfecta libertad e independencia de su contenido, es decir, de distintas conciencias de sí que son para sí, es la unidad de las mismas: el yo es el nosotros y el nosotros el yo” (Hegel, 1966: 123).

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behind it. The idea is to extinguish the total life of your enemy from 20 to 0 as fast as you can. It is similar to chess because the idea is to make checkmate to your opponent’s king, therefore extinguishing him. You take on the role of a wizard in a battle against another wizard and you try to “kill” him just before he kills you, just like in chess where you take the place of a king leading an army. Whether you like the story of the game or the idea of competing you will need a deck of a minimum 60 cards to play. That deck is going to be for you the same as the F1 car is to the F1 driver.Itisgoing to be the tool with which you win or with which you fail just before the beginning. There are hundreds of cards you can choose from to make your own deck. These are classified into many categories and the most important ones are colors and types. There are five colors: white, blue, black, red, and green. Each of these represents a kind of magic and also the way you like to play. That means that if you like, for example red, you may think of it as fire against the others. Each color represents something: white for life, blue for intelligence, black for death, red for chaos and green for nature. Each color is “usually” as powerful as the others. There are also artifacts that are colorless. The artifacts represent the unnatural and the tools that can be used to become victorious. Again, as in chess, black is as powerful as white. As colors are equally powerful, the difference is in the way you combine your cards in your deck. That idea is similar to diamonds and coal that are made of the same material (C atoms) but because they are organized in different ways one is more valuable than the other. The types, on the other hand, can be understood as the different resources you have to fight in a battle. In the real world armies can use soldiers, artillery, money and strategy; the same goes for the game. In the game, the creatures represent the soldiers and each one with a special ability or “training”, as in real life not all the soldiers are infantry and not all are commanders. As in real life, in this magical adventure not all the creatures are equal because some have more capabilities and powers than others. In real life there is artillery but in the game there are spells. Artillery counts with missiles, bombs or satellites that let armies crush their enemies or know what they are going to do (intelligence services).Spells represent the same in the form of cards.

If we had to characterize the subject and the object accordingly, who do you think the subject would be? Who the object? From an old-fashioned pedagogical point of view the subject would be the teacher and the object would be the student. Nothing is further from the truth. It is based on a vertical idea of authority which considers that if there is a master, there must be a servant. Of course, teachers are in charge of some activities in the classroom –and to a certain extent they are vitally important for class development-, but there would not be a class without students.

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Magic the Gathering for newbies

Red dragon card

Finally,thelasttypeofcardistheonerepresenting wealth in the category of lands. Each color has a

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Green spell

representative land: white for plains, blue for islands, black for swamps, red for mountains and green for forests. There are also multicolored lands that can serve as mountains and swamps simultaneously. Each land is like a source of money that in the game is called mana. There are five types of mana. For each color there is a special kind of mana depending on the land that produced it. You use that mana the same way a country uses its money in a war to pay troops, artillery and satellites. But there is a problem: you can not use pesos to pay American soldiers; you have to use the right currency.Thisisapplied to the game so for white creatures, white manais used and so on. In a real life war not all people earn the same amount of money and not all the services cost the same. In magic it is exactly the same but using the cards. You look for the best and the cheapest ones in mana terms. Last but not least the game is more than a “huge” amount of rules, categories and colors. It is all about how you get the cards you think you need to make the “perfect deck” to win every single game, something that is nearly impossible. The game is also about discussing with your partners and friends your ideas, decks, the last tournament and the next. Magic the Gathering belongs to an international organization that approves official tournaments and provides prizes ranging from single cards to thousand of dollars in high level competitions to which only the really good players are invited.

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LITERAT U R E

T R AVELLING A virtual visit to Madame Tussaud’s Museum

Hay quienes escogen la soledad

H ay quienes escogen la soledad

Edgar Milton Santa García Estudiante de Francés - ISemestre

Felix Burgos English Student - V Semester

[email protected]

[email protected]

Hay quienes escogen la soledad La abanderan con corazones, Marcan cuadernos con sus iniciales, La proclaman reina, princesa, cacique La llaman en el dolor de una derrota La beben como fuente sagrada.

Como compañera, Caminan con ella de la mano, Se ríen juntos, Se miran largamente Se alegran, se entristecen juntos. Hay quienes escogen la soledad; Le bañan la espalda, Le rozan los labios, Le rascan la espalda, Le soplan el ojo. Hay quienes escogen la soledad Toman siestas juntos, Toman el mismo bus, Toman la misma palabra, Toman vino juntos. Photo taken by Juan Carlos Becerra

Hay muchos que escogen la soledad Hoy salí como es costumbre Por calles, avenidas con soledad de la mano, -¡Cómo te va!- Me gritaron unos “amigos” -Bien- respondí. – ¡Cómo te va!-; -Bien volví a responder. Y acallándolos de sus preguntas protocolarias procedí así: Les presento a mi compañera, La que me acompaña Hace bastante, Una carcajada salió de sus bocas secas Carcajadas de perro resfriado. -Pero si estas…¡SOLO!¡Hay quienes escogen la soledad!

Prophecy Camilo Morales Neisa English Student - VI Semester [email protected]

In some earlier moment but not so distant those guys were just a couple of sportsmen taking advantage of the benefit given by their bicycles. But now it was different. On this occasion they were running for their lives. They made desperate efforts to get out of the compromising circumstance into which they were plunged. But the ones behind them did not have a moment of doubt. Soon, the strength of all the participants in the fierce persecution would start to vanish in a panting-sweating sea. The refuge, big enough to shelter up to 30,000 humans, possessed huge grass fields in which some domestic animals still lived. Nevertheless, everything had changed drastically. What had formerly been the intellectual, social and natural epicenter of an advanced culture was now reduced to an enormous, abandoned leftover field; smoke ruins in which the legacy of its all but extinct dwellers could still be seen. Outside. A sea of unconsciousness. Millions of creatures transformed into zombies by the ill-fated vice of money, consuming absurd articles that corrupted their brains and forced them to obey the orders of that strange device of which they were slaves. Their world was reduced to seeing and repeating everything that was shown in the sacred artifact. Their minds had been unfailingly consumed through the mysterious radiation emitted by the frame of the thousand worlds.

M useums are considered, together with libraries, as the principal sources of knowledge used to preserve the recorded evolution of human society and the historical identity of a nation. In all Europe, London has the most museums and cultural activities for citizens and visitors from around the world to enjoy. Last week, I was one of those so called “tourists” looking for a different way of spending my vacation. After an educational visit to the Royal Academy of Music, I found myself in front of Regent’s Park looking for something new when rested my eyes upon a strange building which is the home of the two most important attractions in London: Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum and the London Planetarium. In the end I chose to visit the former. W ax modeling is an ancient art which consists of making an anatomical copy of a body and in the case of Madame Tussaud’s reproducing the “palpable photograph” of a world’s personality. Expanded to include different parts of the world and with over two hundred years of tradition, Madame Tussaud’s Museum is just the place for visitors to meet “inperson”thegreatestcelebrities. Marie Grosholtz (Marie Tussaud after her marriage to François Tussaud) learnt how to make wax models with Dr. Philippe Curtius, a Swiss physician who first used wax modeling to illustrate anatomical structures and then to represent important people during the 16th Century. This was the beginning of a story with no end. I“paid” £ 13.oo to enter (a really affordable fee in contrast to the £ 21.99 that you have to pay if you are visiting at 9:00 a.m.). Once inside I was surrounded by a lot of unanimated “people” staring and smiling at me. I visited the first of the five “stages” in the Museum, The Spirit of London, the newest attraction that uses a modern special presentation to show life in London throughout the years with extraordinary olfactory, sound and visual effects. The next stage called 200 Years of Madame Tussaud was the most important for me, because it connects the past to the future. Collections here are presented as they were originally exhibited in the XIX Century by Madame Tussaud. This part of the Museum keeps an emotional elegant relation between two different centuries.

The guys escaped closing the door of the refuge behind them. Their hearts were filled with worry. The imminent stink of tragedy condensed in the air suffocating their lungs and the lungs of all those who still wanted to breathe. The race most feared by the dwellers of the shelter neared quickly with its poisonous and ominous smell of disaster.Tears of pain and impotence fell to the ground leaving a little track. Bloody drops mixed with lachrymose ones. The couple of hunted refugees would soon come face to face with their destiny. Inside the refuge, no heart beat. Terribleexpressions of gelid terror were reflected in the faces of those already dead fellows. An ethereal substance had finished with the lives of the present, except for the now unique survivors. W ith every hope destroyed and wielding their machetes deftly, the guys pedaled towards their enemy. Their sadness mixed with fury. If they had decided to fight all together from the beginning, things would have been different. But it had not happened. Now, they run hurriedly toward that race of executioners, their machetes high in their hands, hoping to get the time back while piercing metallic cylinders perforated their bodies, leaving for the future the scarlet mark of the consequences of indifference. Julia Roberts' wax figure

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The Grand Hall is dedicated to all the people who have gifted the world with their invaluable contributions. For me it was a pleasure to be photographed in the company of Gandhi, Winston Churchill and Pasteur.Itwasalsoa nice opportunity to meet all the members of Queen Band, which was my favorite.

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Location of the museum in London

The “Chamber of Horrors” is the main attraction of the place. But, it is not recommended that people who suffer from heart diseases or, as in my case, have trouble sleeping after having seen a terrorizing view of this particular exhibit. The mixture of perfection and horror is the most important feature of the chamber; Jack the Ripper and the victims of the guillotine have been the staring in my nightmares since that day. Finally, when I started feeling exhausted (as Madame Tussaud is a huge Museum), I decided to sit and drink a cup of tea with Julia Roberts and Sean Connery at “Hollywood Legends” the last stage of the tour. An hour and a half is not enough to cover all the stages of the museum, there is a lot of history and fun inside its doors. I hope to go back as soon as possible so that I have the pleasure of watching my friends turn green with envy and having them ask, “Did you really meet these people?”…, when looking at my photographs.

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This article was developed as a class exercise in the Basic English IV class, during the second semester of 2004. Although I have not been to England, I did exhaustive research about this beautiful museum and the places around it. I would like to thank my coworkers and teacher because they supported me giving suggestions and making corrections to present to you the version that is now in your hands.

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B ILINGUA L ED U CA TION

PUBLIC ED U CATION

under which bilingual education should be carried out. Thus, he proposes that every bilingual teacher should be committed to his community, have an active tolerant attitude and be linked to the world. These characteristics, according to Ipiña, are necessary for the teachers to take part in the construction of a global culture, which must be based on respecting the world’s diverse identities so as to protect segregated ethnic minorities from the western culture which is crushing the minorities of the world.

Let us begin with what Professor Carlos Patiño Rosseli has said concerning this issue. He claims that in Colombia there is a misuse of the term Bilingual Education4. He says Needless to say, Spanish is that this concept refers to two evidently the predominant language dissimilar circumstances: On the one spoken in Latin America 1. hand, it refers to what is called in Nonetheless, a good number of Colombia Etnoeducación, which is people including linguists and bilingual and bicultural education philologists do not know that there aimed at ethnic minorities who live are 50 million indigenous people in different areas of the country and who speak more than 400 different which seeks to teach children the languages throughout Central and Activity in a bilingual school in Bogotá nation’s official language (Spanish), South America. The reason why as well as preserving their vernacular languages. On the other hand, it also there are so many native languages is simple: some countries such as Mexico, refers to those schools, above all those in Bogotá, which teach children a Guatemala, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Peru have a high percentage of indigenous foreign language – English, more often than not and which also use this communities. foreign language to teach subjects other than English. Thereby,Patiño Roselli concludes that the former case is the most authentic and fruitful bilingual Therefore, multilingualism, variation, and language contact are frequent education illustration, since it takes place in a setting where there is a situations in Latin America1. Several educational programs have been created cohabitation of two languages, each of them being one part of the society’s in order to respond to the educational needs and claims of Latin America’s mother tongue. native communities. These have been called Bilingual Education, Bilingual and Bicultural Education, Indigenous Education, Ethno education, and Genoveva Iriarte5 and Anne-Marie de Mejia6 have drawn the same Intercultural Bilingual Education. Nowadays, virtually every Latin American conclusion. De Mejia makes the same division Patiño Rosseli does. She calls government has introduced such programs which have been supported by them Folk Bilingualism and Elitist Bilingualism respectively. Presenting the the state and the people themselves. Indigenous organizations have played a findings of research carried out in Calí in 1994 and 1995, De Mejia maintains very important part in this endeavor. that those urban bilingual schools do have success in teaching students English, however, to the disadvantage of Spanish7.Also,shestatesthatitis Let us exemplify this experience by looking at the Bolivian example. It is 2 paramount both for the Colombian government and those schools to have a country whose population is chiefly indigenous (54% pure native indigenous, a clear bicultural policy included in the curriculum. 31% mestizos, and only 15 % whites). Its official language is Spanish, nevertheless, more than half of its population speaks native languages such On the other hand, Iriarte Esguerra shares De Mejia’sview. In addition, as Quechua (34,4 %), Aimará (25,2 %), and Guaraní (4,4 %). Over the last she underlines the importance that the student’s native language has in few years, people like Enrique Ipiña Melgar3 have been working to safeguard learning a foreign/second language as well as the necessity of respecting the those cultures and languages. This politician, who has done research in different languages and dialects existing in Colombia8. education, has sided with social movements which defend the minorities’ rights in Bolivia. Ipiña has made a suggestion concerning the criteria that continues on page 18 teachers involved in Bilingual Education should meet, as well as the conditions

This rigorous system, not to get intellectual independence from our European inheritance. only passed over the As a consequence of this, the Constitution and the rights Organic Decree of Public of the Church, but also Instruction was passed in his refused any “clerical coopegovernment program. This ration”6 in the development Isabel Buitrago official decision established of the public instruction English Student - V Semester primary educational centres system. However, in 1876, [email protected] among the nine Federal States the main representative of and at the same time promoted the Catholic Church, ArchT he importance of the educational system in t h e s e p a r a t i o n o f t e a c h i n g a n d bishop Arbeláez, requested, the second half of the nineteenth century in religious formation. This latter among other aspects, that Colombia had to do, among other things, with measure divided the nation in the priests deserved to teach the educational movements that occurred in two interest groups: the some classes and that all other Latin American countries like Argentina, “ I n s t r u c c i o n i s t a s ” w h o d e f e n d teachers should be Catholic. but most significantly with the Organic Decree ed the new system of education These requirements had to of November 1st 1870. This was passed by the do directly with administraand the “Ignorantistas”, who 1 Federal government in order to promote a tion as the final player in the continuously opposed the popular Primary Instruction System for the whole question of public instrucp o l i c i e s S a l g a r p a s s e d i n o r d e r nation. According to the author Jane Meyer Loy, tion. The Archbishop met to support the system. Among this reform “was a protest movement by a small several times with the those who were in favour of number of elites who for a variety of interests Secretary of Interior and having a fair and subsidized Periódico semanal, religioso, filosófico y literario wished to set up a modern system of primary Foreign Relations, Manuel educational system were education”2. The objective of this article is to Ancizar, a n d a s r e s u lt of these meetings, a pact Radicals, Reformers, Masons, the Colombian consider the term public instruction as the first was sealed. This agreement consisted of using Guard, and a minority group of Catholic people. effort to establish an independent system of school texts approved by the Church and of The opposition was represented by the Institutional education in Colombia, as related to the issue of ordering inspectors to carry out arrangements Church4, some official newspapers such as La Federalism, its interest groups and pre-modern 5 with some priests in order to teach religion to Caridad , different representatives from the conditions. children when their parents requested it. Conservative party; the oligarchy and the poorest Nevertheless, this agreement was not enough s e c t o r s o f t h i s s o c i e t y t h a t p r o h i b i t e d t h e i r c h i l d r e n Public Instruction was understood as a system for some conservative representatives and for to go to schools because the new system was collectof education that included three main areas: truly Catholic people who continued criticizing i v e l y c o n s i d e r e d a s t h e r e p r e s e n t a t i o n o f t h e s i n . 3 teaching, inspection and administration .Before and reproving the secular methods and their the approval of the Decree, teaching was a attempts towards a “modern” system of The Catholic hostility to secular education controversial topic in which the Catholic Church education. increased with regards to the question of inspection, was considered as an important decision-making u n d e r s t o o d t o b e a s t h e s e c o n d body. It had many political Besides proposing the importance of official component in public instrucrights given by previous education at that time, the Decree of Primary t i o n . B e f o r e t h e O r g a n i c D e c r e e administrations. The only Public Instruction made evident the limited and inspection was carried out by exception being General pre-modern conditions that characterized the the main representatives of the Mosquera’s government Federation. These being represented in terms of Catholic Church, however,this in which the church’scivil economic progress, cultural and ideological procedure became responsibirights and legal responsidependence. They reflected the complex scenery lity of non-religious teachers bility in public education in which different actors from the nine Federal who were eloquent supporters were forbidden. The CaStates were unable to forge a unified front that of the new system. They were tholic Institution enjoyed also in charge of the content would contribute to an early educational a near monopoly over and methodology offered by the development in the second half of th e people as it was free to primary schools in different nineteenth century in our country. incorporate preaching into areas like languages, mathemateaching. This “divine” tics, geography, calligraphy and This government was represented by Eustorgio Salgar’s permission became the administration from 1870 to 1872 in Colombia. so on. These inspectors were essential privilege of the MEYER LOY, Jane. Modernization and educational reform in part of the Vigilance CommiColombia 1863-1886”. University of Wisconsin. 1969. P.6 episcopate and the abssion which developed specific ESCUELA NORMAL: Periódico Oficial de Instrucción Pública. solute responsibility of Estados Unidos de Colombia. Bogotá. Nº. 1. 1871. functions: the fulfillment of the priests in the nineteenth The Institutional Catholic Church must be understood as the institutionalized rules; the elite of this institution, different from the popular sectors that century. However, Eusfollow the Catholicism. e f f e c t i v e a t t e n d a n c e o f c h i l d r e n torgio Salgar in his “La Caridad”, became the official Catholic newspaper after “El to schools; the writing of Catolicismo”. “La Caridad”, promoted the Catholic ideology, the administration and inreports to the Director of literature and the religious teaching from 1864 to 1890. terest for getting unity and MEYER LOY,opcit.P. 172 Public Instruction about any peace, recognized educaPeriódico semanal, religioso, filosófico eventuality. y literario tion was as the only way

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Bilingual education: Native language vs. Foreign/second language Alexandra Arango Silva and Jorge Celis Santos English Students - VIII Semester [email protected]

T eaching English is not only an enabling process in which a teacher assists learners so that they acquire this foreign language. It is also the process by which the cultures of English speakers become a part of one’s culture. Colombian native communities have undergone similar experiences with Spanish. Yet, it is essential to discuss the teaching of English. English is the language used to conclude many important world events. Hence, teaching English brings about a concern: How can you teach it without weakening the learner’s native language? That is the reason why we want to provide the reader with a quick overview of the current circumstances concerning the dilemma of bilingual education. Moreover, we want to give our own point of view regarding Spanish visà-vis English.

Deep down, Ipiña is not only playing a part in the debate on bilingual education, but also predicting that cultural practices such as teaching foreign/ second languages, particularly teaching English (the language of the United States – the world’s most powerful country), will affect many social groups in the world. In Colombia, some linguists and foreign language professors have joined the discussion. They have set out to highlight the importance of a bicultural policy underlying bilingual education as well as clearing the air as far as the term bilingual education is concerned.

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PUBLIC INSTRUCTION: a failed attempt to establish a modern educational system in Colombia

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under which bilingual education should be carried out. Thus, he proposes that every bilingual teacher should be committed to his community, have an active tolerant attitude and be linked to the world. These characteristics, according to Ipiña, are necessary for the teachers to take part in the construction of a global culture, which must be based on respecting the world’s diverse identities so as to protect segregated ethnic minorities from the western culture which is crushing the minorities of the world.

Let us begin with what Professor Carlos Patiño Rosseli has said concerning this issue. He claims that in Colombia there is a misuse of the term Bilingual Education4. He says Needless to say, Spanish is that this concept refers to two evidently the predominant language dissimilar circumstances: On the one spoken in Latin America 1. hand, it refers to what is called in Nonetheless, a good number of Colombia Etnoeducación, which is people including linguists and bilingual and bicultural education philologists do not know that there aimed at ethnic minorities who live are 50 million indigenous people in different areas of the country and who speak more than 400 different which seeks to teach children the languages throughout Central and Activity in a bilingual school in Bogotá nation’s official language (Spanish), South America. The reason why as well as preserving their vernacular languages. On the other hand, it also there are so many native languages is simple: some countries such as Mexico, refers to those schools, above all those in Bogotá, which teach children a Guatemala, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Peru have a high percentage of indigenous foreign language – English, more often than not and which also use this communities. foreign language to teach subjects other than English. Thereby,Patiño Roselli concludes that the former case is the most authentic and fruitful bilingual Therefore, multilingualism, variation, and language contact are frequent education illustration, since it takes place in a setting where there is a situations in Latin America1. Several educational programs have been created cohabitation of two languages, each of them being one part of the society’s in order to respond to the educational needs and claims of Latin America’s mother tongue. native communities. These have been called Bilingual Education, Bilingual and Bicultural Education, Indigenous Education, Ethno education, and Genoveva Iriarte5 and Anne-Marie de Mejia6 have drawn the same Intercultural Bilingual Education. Nowadays, virtually every Latin American conclusion. De Mejia makes the same division Patiño Rosseli does. She calls government has introduced such programs which have been supported by them Folk Bilingualism and Elitist Bilingualism respectively. Presenting the the state and the people themselves. Indigenous organizations have played a findings of research carried out in Calí in 1994 and 1995, De Mejia maintains very important part in this endeavor. that those urban bilingual schools do have success in teaching students English, however, to the disadvantage of Spanish7.Also,shestatesthatitis Let us exemplify this experience by looking at the Bolivian example. It is 2 paramount both for the Colombian government and those schools to have a country whose population is chiefly indigenous (54% pure native indigenous, a clear bicultural policy included in the curriculum. 31% mestizos, and only 15 % whites). Its official language is Spanish, nevertheless, more than half of its population speaks native languages such On the other hand, Iriarte Esguerra shares De Mejia’sview. In addition, as Quechua (34,4 %), Aimará (25,2 %), and Guaraní (4,4 %). Over the last she underlines the importance that the student’s native language has in few years, people like Enrique Ipiña Melgar3 have been working to safeguard learning a foreign/second language as well as the necessity of respecting the those cultures and languages. This politician, who has done research in different languages and dialects existing in Colombia8. education, has sided with social movements which defend the minorities’ rights in Bolivia. Ipiña has made a suggestion concerning the criteria that continues on page 18 teachers involved in Bilingual Education should meet, as well as the conditions

This rigorous system, not to get intellectual independence from our European inheritance. only passed over the As a consequence of this, the Constitution and the rights Organic Decree of Public of the Church, but also Instruction was passed in his refused any “clerical coopegovernment program. This ration”6 in the development Isabel Buitrago official decision established of the public instruction English Student - V Semester primary educational centres system. However, in 1876, [email protected] among the nine Federal States the main representative of and at the same time promoted the Catholic Church, ArchT he importance of the educational system in t h e s e p a r a t i o n o f t e a c h i n g a n d bishop Arbeláez, requested, the second half of the nineteenth century in religious formation. This latter among other aspects, that Colombia had to do, among other things, with measure divided the nation in the priests deserved to teach the educational movements that occurred in two interest groups: the some classes and that all other Latin American countries like Argentina, “ I n s t r u c c i o n i s t a s ” w h o d e f e n d teachers should be Catholic. but most significantly with the Organic Decree ed the new system of education These requirements had to of November 1st 1870. This was passed by the do directly with administraand the “Ignorantistas”, who 1 Federal government in order to promote a tion as the final player in the continuously opposed the popular Primary Instruction System for the whole question of public instrucp o l i c i e s S a l g a r p a s s e d i n o r d e r nation. According to the author Jane Meyer Loy, tion. The Archbishop met to support the system. Among this reform “was a protest movement by a small several times with the those who were in favour of number of elites who for a variety of interests Secretary of Interior and having a fair and subsidized Periódico semanal, religioso, filosófico y literario wished to set up a modern system of primary Foreign Relations, Manuel educational system were education”2. The objective of this article is to Ancizar, a n d a s r e s u lt of these meetings, a pact Radicals, Reformers, Masons, the Colombian consider the term public instruction as the first was sealed. This agreement consisted of using Guard, and a minority group of Catholic people. effort to establish an independent system of school texts approved by the Church and of The opposition was represented by the Institutional education in Colombia, as related to the issue of ordering inspectors to carry out arrangements Church4, some official newspapers such as La Federalism, its interest groups and pre-modern 5 with some priests in order to teach religion to Caridad , different representatives from the conditions. children when their parents requested it. Conservative party; the oligarchy and the poorest Nevertheless, this agreement was not enough s e c t o r s o f t h i s s o c i e t y t h a t p r o h i b i t e d t h e i r c h i l d r e n Public Instruction was understood as a system for some conservative representatives and for to go to schools because the new system was collectof education that included three main areas: truly Catholic people who continued criticizing i v e l y c o n s i d e r e d a s t h e r e p r e s e n t a t i o n o f t h e s i n . 3 teaching, inspection and administration .Before and reproving the secular methods and their the approval of the Decree, teaching was a attempts towards a “modern” system of The Catholic hostility to secular education controversial topic in which the Catholic Church education. increased with regards to the question of inspection, was considered as an important decision-making u n d e r s t o o d t o b e a s t h e s e c o n d body. It had many political Besides proposing the importance of official component in public instrucrights given by previous education at that time, the Decree of Primary t i o n . B e f o r e t h e O r g a n i c D e c r e e administrations. The only Public Instruction made evident the limited and inspection was carried out by exception being General pre-modern conditions that characterized the the main representatives of the Mosquera’s government Federation. These being represented in terms of Catholic Church, however,this in which the church’scivil economic progress, cultural and ideological procedure became responsibirights and legal responsidependence. They reflected the complex scenery lity of non-religious teachers bility in public education in which different actors from the nine Federal who were eloquent supporters were forbidden. The CaStates were unable to forge a unified front that of the new system. They were tholic Institution enjoyed also in charge of the content would contribute to an early educational a near monopoly over and methodology offered by the development in the second half of th e people as it was free to primary schools in different nineteenth century in our country. incorporate preaching into areas like languages, mathemateaching. This “divine” tics, geography, calligraphy and This government was represented by Eustorgio Salgar’s permission became the administration from 1870 to 1872 in Colombia. so on. These inspectors were essential privilege of the MEYER LOY, Jane. Modernization and educational reform in part of the Vigilance CommiColombia 1863-1886”. University of Wisconsin. 1969. P.6 episcopate and the abssion which developed specific ESCUELA NORMAL: Periódico Oficial de Instrucción Pública. solute responsibility of Estados Unidos de Colombia. Bogotá. Nº. 1. 1871. functions: the fulfillment of the priests in the nineteenth The Institutional Catholic Church must be understood as the institutionalized rules; the elite of this institution, different from the popular sectors that century. However, Eusfollow the Catholicism. e f f e c t i v e a t t e n d a n c e o f c h i l d r e n torgio Salgar in his “La Caridad”, became the official Catholic newspaper after “El to schools; the writing of Catolicismo”. “La Caridad”, promoted the Catholic ideology, the administration and inreports to the Director of literature and the religious teaching from 1864 to 1890. terest for getting unity and MEYER LOY,opcit.P. 172 Public Instruction about any peace, recognized educaPeriódico semanal, religioso, filosófico eventuality. y literario tion was as the only way

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Bilingual education: Native language vs. Foreign/second language Alexandra Arango Silva and Jorge Celis Santos English Students - VIII Semester [email protected]

T eaching English is not only an enabling process in which a teacher assists learners so that they acquire this foreign language. It is also the process by which the cultures of English speakers become a part of one’s culture. Colombian native communities have undergone similar experiences with Spanish. Yet, it is essential to discuss the teaching of English. English is the language used to conclude many important world events. Hence, teaching English brings about a concern: How can you teach it without weakening the learner’s native language? That is the reason why we want to provide the reader with a quick overview of the current circumstances concerning the dilemma of bilingual education. Moreover, we want to give our own point of view regarding Spanish visà-vis English.

Deep down, Ipiña is not only playing a part in the debate on bilingual education, but also predicting that cultural practices such as teaching foreign/ second languages, particularly teaching English (the language of the United States – the world’s most powerful country), will affect many social groups in the world. In Colombia, some linguists and foreign language professors have joined the discussion. They have set out to highlight the importance of a bicultural policy underlying bilingual education as well as clearing the air as far as the term bilingual education is concerned.

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PUBLIC INSTRUCTION: a failed attempt to establish a modern educational system in Colombia

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T R AVELLING A virtual visit to Madame Tussaud’s Museum

Hay quienes escogen la soledad

H ay quienes escogen la soledad

Edgar Milton Santa García Estudiante de Francés - ISemestre

Felix Burgos English Student - V Semester

[email protected]

[email protected]

Hay quienes escogen la soledad La abanderan con corazones, Marcan cuadernos con sus iniciales, La proclaman reina, princesa, cacique La llaman en el dolor de una derrota La beben como fuente sagrada.

Como compañera, Caminan con ella de la mano, Se ríen juntos, Se miran largamente Se alegran, se entristecen juntos. Hay quienes escogen la soledad; Le bañan la espalda, Le rozan los labios, Le rascan la espalda, Le soplan el ojo. Hay quienes escogen la soledad Toman siestas juntos, Toman el mismo bus, Toman la misma palabra, Toman vino juntos. Photo taken by Juan Carlos Becerra

Hay muchos que escogen la soledad Hoy salí como es costumbre Por calles, avenidas con soledad de la mano, -¡Cómo te va!- Me gritaron unos “amigos” -Bien- respondí. – ¡Cómo te va!-; -Bien volví a responder. Y acallándolos de sus preguntas protocolarias procedí así: Les presento a mi compañera, La que me acompaña Hace bastante, Una carcajada salió de sus bocas secas Carcajadas de perro resfriado. -Pero si estas…¡SOLO!¡Hay quienes escogen la soledad!

Prophecy Camilo Morales Neisa English Student - VI Semester [email protected]

In some earlier moment but not so distant those guys were just a couple of sportsmen taking advantage of the benefit given by their bicycles. But now it was different. On this occasion they were running for their lives. They made desperate efforts to get out of the compromising circumstance into which they were plunged. But the ones behind them did not have a moment of doubt. Soon, the strength of all the participants in the fierce persecution would start to vanish in a panting-sweating sea. The refuge, big enough to shelter up to 30,000 humans, possessed huge grass fields in which some domestic animals still lived. Nevertheless, everything had changed drastically. What had formerly been the intellectual, social and natural epicenter of an advanced culture was now reduced to an enormous, abandoned leftover field; smoke ruins in which the legacy of its all but extinct dwellers could still be seen. Outside. A sea of unconsciousness. Millions of creatures transformed into zombies by the ill-fated vice of money, consuming absurd articles that corrupted their brains and forced them to obey the orders of that strange device of which they were slaves. Their world was reduced to seeing and repeating everything that was shown in the sacred artifact. Their minds had been unfailingly consumed through the mysterious radiation emitted by the frame of the thousand worlds.

M useums are considered, together with libraries, as the principal sources of knowledge used to preserve the recorded evolution of human society and the historical identity of a nation. In all Europe, London has the most museums and cultural activities for citizens and visitors from around the world to enjoy. Last week, I was one of those so called “tourists” looking for a different way of spending my vacation. After an educational visit to the Royal Academy of Music, I found myself in front of Regent’s Park looking for something new when rested my eyes upon a strange building which is the home of the two most important attractions in London: Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum and the London Planetarium. In the end I chose to visit the former. W ax modeling is an ancient art which consists of making an anatomical copy of a body and in the case of Madame Tussaud’s reproducing the “palpable photograph” of a world’s personality. Expanded to include different parts of the world and with over two hundred years of tradition, Madame Tussaud’s Museum is just the place for visitors to meet “inperson”thegreatestcelebrities. Marie Grosholtz (Marie Tussaud after her marriage to François Tussaud) learnt how to make wax models with Dr. Philippe Curtius, a Swiss physician who first used wax modeling to illustrate anatomical structures and then to represent important people during the 16th Century. This was the beginning of a story with no end. I“paid” £ 13.oo to enter (a really affordable fee in contrast to the £ 21.99 that you have to pay if you are visiting at 9:00 a.m.). Once inside I was surrounded by a lot of unanimated “people” staring and smiling at me. I visited the first of the five “stages” in the Museum, The Spirit of London, the newest attraction that uses a modern special presentation to show life in London throughout the years with extraordinary olfactory, sound and visual effects. The next stage called 200 Years of Madame Tussaud was the most important for me, because it connects the past to the future. Collections here are presented as they were originally exhibited in the XIX Century by Madame Tussaud. This part of the Museum keeps an emotional elegant relation between two different centuries.

The guys escaped closing the door of the refuge behind them. Their hearts were filled with worry. The imminent stink of tragedy condensed in the air suffocating their lungs and the lungs of all those who still wanted to breathe. The race most feared by the dwellers of the shelter neared quickly with its poisonous and ominous smell of disaster.Tears of pain and impotence fell to the ground leaving a little track. Bloody drops mixed with lachrymose ones. The couple of hunted refugees would soon come face to face with their destiny. Inside the refuge, no heart beat. Terribleexpressions of gelid terror were reflected in the faces of those already dead fellows. An ethereal substance had finished with the lives of the present, except for the now unique survivors. W ith every hope destroyed and wielding their machetes deftly, the guys pedaled towards their enemy. Their sadness mixed with fury. If they had decided to fight all together from the beginning, things would have been different. But it had not happened. Now, they run hurriedly toward that race of executioners, their machetes high in their hands, hoping to get the time back while piercing metallic cylinders perforated their bodies, leaving for the future the scarlet mark of the consequences of indifference. Julia Roberts' wax figure

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The Grand Hall is dedicated to all the people who have gifted the world with their invaluable contributions. For me it was a pleasure to be photographed in the company of Gandhi, Winston Churchill and Pasteur.Itwasalsoa nice opportunity to meet all the members of Queen Band, which was my favorite.

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Location of the museum in London

The “Chamber of Horrors” is the main attraction of the place. But, it is not recommended that people who suffer from heart diseases or, as in my case, have trouble sleeping after having seen a terrorizing view of this particular exhibit. The mixture of perfection and horror is the most important feature of the chamber; Jack the Ripper and the victims of the guillotine have been the staring in my nightmares since that day. Finally, when I started feeling exhausted (as Madame Tussaud is a huge Museum), I decided to sit and drink a cup of tea with Julia Roberts and Sean Connery at “Hollywood Legends” the last stage of the tour. An hour and a half is not enough to cover all the stages of the museum, there is a lot of history and fun inside its doors. I hope to go back as soon as possible so that I have the pleasure of watching my friends turn green with envy and having them ask, “Did you really meet these people?”…, when looking at my photographs.

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This article was developed as a class exercise in the Basic English IV class, during the second semester of 2004. Although I have not been to England, I did exhaustive research about this beautiful museum and the places around it. I would like to thank my coworkers and teacher because they supported me giving suggestions and making corrections to present to you the version that is now in your hands.

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EPISTEMOLOGY comes from page 5

EN T E RTA I N M E N T

‘Studenteacher’or The subject-object relationship in the classroom

La motivación como variable determinante en la adquisición de una segunda lengua

Ronnall Castro Quintero Student VI Semester [email protected]

muy osado afirmar que la adquiere en un período determinado y en otro la aprende porque esto indicaría que este proceso se ve de forma lineal e irreversible. Por lo tanto, no se puede hablar de adquisición de una segunda lengua sin involucrar el aprendizaje en dicho proceso, porque las habilidades comunicativas requieren de un trabajo progresivo tanto en la lengua materna como en la segunda. Por eso, es importante manejar las variables afectivas mencionadas por Krashen para hacer más ameno el ambiente en el cual se aprende y se adquiere la segunda lengua, ya que el estudiante estará motivado, sentirá confianza y perderá la ansiedad que le ocasiona un bloqueo mental. La motivación es una variable determinante en la adquisición/aprendizaje de una segunda lengua porque estimula al principiante a ser receptivo en vez de defensivo frente a las personas que ya la han adquirido/aprendido. Por otro lado, el deseo de desarrollar habilidades en una segunda lengua por razones prácticas y funcionales también motiva al individuo. Entonces, ésta es una invitación para todos los maestros de lenguas extranjeras y por supuesto para los futuros maestros que desean contribuir en el proceso de adquisición/ aprendizaje de una segunda lengua. Pretende así mismo fomentar el interés por las variables afectivas presentes en el estudiante y que le permiten el dominio natural de la lengua. Si el hablante no se siente motivado perderá el interés por aprender y además creará una barrera mental que le impedirá confiar en sí mismo y en sus habilidades en el momento que quiera usar la segunda lengua. Lo anterior muestra que la motivación y todas las variables afectivas ocupan un lugar preponderante en el proceso de adquisición/ aprendizaje de una segunda lengua. Es indispensable recurrir a ella para generar expectativas en el estudiante y así mantener vivo su deseo por adquirir/aprender un idioma diferente al materno.

It is clear for the majority of us that reality is made up of phenomena that we call ‘objects’, and that we are the ‘subjects’ of reality. But what is not so clear is the relationship between subjects and objects. If we understand it clearly or at least approximately, this relationship will become a fundamental tool in improving our practice as teachers and students. First of all, subject-object is an epistemological category used for explaining the human process of knowledge. It is an abstraction but one that is deeply connected to concrete things that existinreality. Each one of the elements in isolation is incomprehensible yet they are inextricably related each other.It is therefore impossible to consider them separately without making mistakes when theorizing or acting on such a misconception. A subject is any human being who knows the world consciously, forexample a butcher, a doctor,ataxi-driver, a physicist, a farmer, or in our case a student or a teacher. They may not be aware exactly of what they do or why, but regardless, they put into practice mental operations of abstraction and generalization, analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction, and so on. Objects are all the things of nature that are incorporated and transformed by the subjects’ reality as conditioned by social activity. This category involves a historical reality – material and spiritual1 phenomena – which can be natural or social; the subjects themselves; or the manifold relationships between reality and us. That is to say that when we are studying an object that we consider as external to us, what we are really doing is studying ourselves in relation to that object. However,theexistence of an object does not imply the existence of a subject. This is explained taking into account that subject-object is an epistemological category, whereas the concept of existence is expressed by an ontological process: ‘being’. In fact the object exists in reality as a ‘being-in-itself’, before turning into an object, i.e. it exists without the subject’s awareness of it. It becomes an object when someone meditates and acts consciously on it.

Stephen D. Krashen. Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning. Chapter 2. 1981.

Sergio Daniel Solórzano Rocha Student from the Extension Courses and 10th Grade Student at Mayor de San Bartolomé School [email protected]

Let’s imagine a fantasy world that is like the Lord of the Rings plus the One Thousand and One Nights, plus many elements of the Japanese myths and many others from around the world. Let’s imagine that you can enter a world like that as a very powerful wizard, with your own magical powers, armies, weapons, and tricks. And that your main goal is to defeat other wizards in order to show who the best is. W eallknowthatinreallifeitisverydifficult to be a wizard and have personal armies. But any way there are some ways to do that. You can for example take drugs and imagine all that you want, but you can’t be sure that what you are going to imagine is what you want or you can try reading a book. However, if you are looking for something more interesting and that makes you “part” of the story, there is a game called Magic the Gathering. Magic the Gathering was one of the first really successful trading card games. It was created 12 years ago by Richard Garfield. And since its creation the game has not changed from the point of view of rules, of the story and of the philosophy

Considering the classroom as “a complex system of communication, investigation and construction of knowledge, formed by human and material elements that are in a constant interchange of matter, energy, and especially information” (Posada, Foliaco y Arrieta, 1998: 9), we could go as far as to say that the subject-object relationship is not a simple abstraction but a question of life.

Students exist without the presence of a teacher in a classroom, teachers on the other hand don’texist without students. So can we really say that students are no more than objects existing independently from a subject? No, that would imply that the subject is the teacher, and it is precisely this theory we are trying to overcome. Teachers and students are subjects and their object is to obtain knowledge about the whole world and themselves (ourselves) within it. When saying teacher, we also say student. As the subject-object, it is absurd to consider them separatedl y. The relationship student-teacher or ‘studenteacher’, which is the basis of the pedagogical phenomenon, is a dynamic synthesis that comprises all the interactions that occur in a classroom. It is a unity in which both parts learn from each other, and in so doing not only interpret but transform the world. In this sense, spiritual could be interpreted as cultural. According to Hegel: “el espíritu es, esta sustancia absoluta que, en la perfecta libertad e independencia de su contenido, es decir, de distintas conciencias de sí que son para sí, es la unidad de las mismas: el yo es el nosotros y el nosotros el yo” (Hegel, 1966: 123).

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behind it. The idea is to extinguish the total life of your enemy from 20 to 0 as fast as you can. It is similar to chess because the idea is to make checkmate to your opponent’s king, therefore extinguishing him. You take on the role of a wizard in a battle against another wizard and you try to “kill” him just before he kills you, just like in chess where you take the place of a king leading an army. Whether you like the story of the game or the idea of competing you will need a deck of a minimum 60 cards to play. That deck is going to be for you the same as the F1 car is to the F1 driver.Itisgoing to be the tool with which you win or with which you fail just before the beginning. There are hundreds of cards you can choose from to make your own deck. These are classified into many categories and the most important ones are colors and types. There are five colors: white, blue, black, red, and green. Each of these represents a kind of magic and also the way you like to play. That means that if you like, for example red, you may think of it as fire against the others. Each color represents something: white for life, blue for intelligence, black for death, red for chaos and green for nature. Each color is “usually” as powerful as the others. There are also artifacts that are colorless. The artifacts represent the unnatural and the tools that can be used to become victorious. Again, as in chess, black is as powerful as white. As colors are equally powerful, the difference is in the way you combine your cards in your deck. That idea is similar to diamonds and coal that are made of the same material (C atoms) but because they are organized in different ways one is more valuable than the other. The types, on the other hand, can be understood as the different resources you have to fight in a battle. In the real world armies can use soldiers, artillery, money and strategy; the same goes for the game. In the game, the creatures represent the soldiers and each one with a special ability or “training”, as in real life not all the soldiers are infantry and not all are commanders. As in real life, in this magical adventure not all the creatures are equal because some have more capabilities and powers than others. In real life there is artillery but in the game there are spells. Artillery counts with missiles, bombs or satellites that let armies crush their enemies or know what they are going to do (intelligence services).Spells represent the same in the form of cards.

If we had to characterize the subject and the object accordingly, who do you think the subject would be? Who the object? From an old-fashioned pedagogical point of view the subject would be the teacher and the object would be the student. Nothing is further from the truth. It is based on a vertical idea of authority which considers that if there is a master, there must be a servant. Of course, teachers are in charge of some activities in the classroom –and to a certain extent they are vitally important for class development-, but there would not be a class without students.

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Magic the Gathering for newbies

Red dragon card

Finally,thelasttypeofcardistheonerepresenting wealth in the category of lands. Each color has a

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representative land: white for plains, blue for islands, black for swamps, red for mountains and green for forests. There are also multicolored lands that can serve as mountains and swamps simultaneously. Each land is like a source of money that in the game is called mana. There are five types of mana. For each color there is a special kind of mana depending on the land that produced it. You use that mana the same way a country uses its money in a war to pay troops, artillery and satellites. But there is a problem: you can not use pesos to pay American soldiers; you have to use the right currency.Thisisapplied to the game so for white creatures, white manais used and so on. In a real life war not all people earn the same amount of money and not all the services cost the same. In magic it is exactly the same but using the cards. You look for the best and the cheapest ones in mana terms. Last but not least the game is more than a “huge” amount of rules, categories and colors. It is all about how you get the cards you think you need to make the “perfect deck” to win every single game, something that is nearly impossible. The game is also about discussing with your partners and friends your ideas, decks, the last tournament and the next. Magic the Gathering belongs to an international organization that approves official tournaments and provides prizes ranging from single cards to thousand of dollars in high level competitions to which only the really good players are invited.

Learning about the Fear of Learning David Martin English Student - VII Semester scissorman999@ yahoo.com

H ave you ever felt that your students were not giving of their best? What would you do if they did not want to show their abilities? Maybe we are facing a big problem: the fear of learning. This fear is called sophophobia, “a persistent, abnormal, and irrational fear of Photo taken by David Martín learning” according to the Grandiloquent Dictionary 1.This poses a threat both to physical and mental health. Its treatment can take months, even years. Sophophobia creates the feeling of danger when it is present in the learning process causing panic attacks, shortness of breath, rapid breathing, irregular heartbeat, sweating and nausea.

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I would like to address the issue of sophophobia inourclassrooms.Itisthekindoffearthatinterrupts the process of attaining knowledge amongst our students producing in them depression and sadness. When you are giving a class, regardless of conditions, somestudentsareafraidtolearn.Theirskills,abilities and intelligence are deeply hidden behind the wall offear. Not only their academic development can be seriously affected but their self esteem and motivation also are at risk, and probably,therest of their lives too. I have been working in a school as an English teacher and I have noticed some of the above features in the learning process of my students. Their fear has been reflected by: a) Timidity: despite that some students do know what you are talking about, they do not dare to speak, ask questions or reply, because they are really quiet and shy. They understand each word, sentence or explanation given; however, they do not want to show their abilities to the class. b) Failure: when students are working in class they show high levels of understanding, but when they have an evaluation they forget basic knowledge. I realize they fail because they want

to. They don’t want to stand out because standing out increases their fear of learning and so they prefer to fail. c) Self - Negation: this is an aspect that teachers will hardly notice without talking to students. Sentences as “I can’ t”,“I’ve just forgotten”, “Sorry, I do not know” are the usual replies given by students when asked about their performance. They just put down themselves, they do not believe in their abilities and thinking. They believe that they do not want tolearn. The solution to this problem can take different forms. The first option is to talk directly to them about what is going on and show them that fear is part and parcel of being a human being, and that as humans we have to overcome challenges by confronting them because they are elements of our development. If the students are under 18, a meeting with parents might help. An appointment with the psychologist could be of great help too. Let us not forget our role as teachers. We have to take care of our students whendifficultsituationsarise. Justsay:FaceFear!! 1

The Grandiloquent Dictionary, available at URL: onelook.com/ ?w=sophophobia&ls=...12/04/05, accessed on 12/04/2005

EXTENSION ACTIVITIES Pedagogy, Communicative competence and Resource Centres management, and lasts 10 months from February to November 2005.

Shortening the Path from the School to the University Javier Augusto Rojas English Student - VIII Semester

The cultural and academic exchange has allowed for cooperation, as well as sharing of experiences and the generation of new and strong bonds between the School and the University. By observing how others live and work these communities have been able to reflect on their own product and performance and produce more insightful comments regarding their own position. Thus, a dialectic relationship occurs between the school practice and university theory, thanks to the knowledge exchange produced by Teacher Development Programs. Such programs enhance collaborative thinking and action-oriented research both at the level of School and University.

[email protected]

A t first, the distance from the School to the University was covered by a neglected and little used road. The people at the School regarded the road too steep and the university too high, whereas at the university people considered the journey to School to be a useless and even a senseless activity.Asaresult, the pragmatic and real knowledge produced by the School remained disconnected from the theoretical text-based knowledge gotten at University.

If you would like more information about the way in which the path from the School to the University is being improved in order to discover more academic routes, it can be found in the journal PROFILE Journal and includes the contributions of the participants and their experiences in this ongoing adventure. Alternatively, contact the PROFILE research group in the Foreign Languages Department.

In order to make the journey easier and more attractive, the PFPDs1 were created in 1995. Those served to bearing in mind the importance and benefits to consider/evaluate of a more open path in order to promote intercultural and inter academic contact between the two kinds of knowledge. Ever since, the journeys from School to University and vice versa have become amongst the most enriching. Now, more often than not these programs include Research, Innovation and Updating. There are also shorter programs which offer updating only, and focus on very specific topics. As we speak, 125 primary and high school teachers from Localidad 4 San Cristobal together with 10 teacher-researchers from the Foreign Languages Department at La Universidad Nacional are embarking on the latest program called Programa de Actualización. It entails three main components, namely,

1 Programas de Formación Permanente de Docentes

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interaction are almost unlimited, respect students’ privacy,andfacilitateself and peer correction.

UsefulWeb DLE:A website for dynamic Teaching and Learning w w w.usefulweb-project.tk

Having fulfilled, to some extent, our primary communication shortages, we can think of another important requisite when learning a foreign language in the particular conditions we have here in Colombia. Not everybody can buy the newest and most up to date books W e must look carefully at and to work on the different skills to improve their reflect on the possibilities we, proficiency. That is why as students and teachers, we have thought of have on the web databases and links.

Mauricio Joven Bonello and Dario Andrés Leal English Students - Last Semester [email protected] [email protected]

U sefulWeb is a monographic project which intends to integrate the most important features offered by the Internet in terms of English Language Teaching and Learning ( E L T L). This project was born out of the need for our Languages Department to take advantage of the opportunities offered by the Internet. In this sense, we have reviewed the history of the Internet, the tools it offers for E L T L, and the learning theories that can be used incorporating such tools.

Databases and links: Apart from communication, the Internet offers other possibilities, academically speaking as it has become the greatest source of information with its different databases and links. Databases are tools which allow Students and Teachers to search theoretical data such as definitions, lists, abstracts and analysis of certain academic information. Databases in Internet offer the opportunity of getting a huge amount of organized information for students and teachers to research, discuss and enrich the academic environment. Some examples of data bases in Internet and its areas of use are ERICK for Didactics and www.sparknotes.com for Literature.

But, what are the features that make us think of the web as a useful tool for E L T L? First of all, we must realize our specific situation in terms of English language students and teachers. It is not easy for us to have actual contact with native speakers, so that our only input is from our foreign teachers. This is when the first kind of tools emerges as an option to complement our teaching and learning processes with the use of synchronic and non synchronic communication tools:

Links, on the other hand, can be found inside data bases. They are the doors we have to open when going to a site we are interested in. A database with classified links can allow students and teachers to save time when looking for information and activities to be developed through the Internet because they are visiting a single site in which they can locate almost all the information they need; and they can access it just by clicking on the link.

Chat Rooms: This is the first stage surfers encounter when looking for opportunities to communicate in English. This is a synchronic communication tool in which people from different countries meet to have conversations with other people who, most of the times, they do not know but who share similar interests. The informality and speed of this tool make it appropriate to acquire both writing and speaking competence, learn new vocabulary, correct mistakes and have fun while learning and USING English.

To conclude, we can say that we could be missing out on a great variety of material which is there: on the web. We must look carefully at and reflect on the possibilities we, as students and teachers, have on the web. All the aids and possibilities can be understood by many of the learning theories we know and can even be the birth of a new educational era. Maybe you think itisnotpossibleoritisawayto“replace” teachers. Why don’t you makeit a strong tool to enrich your work and to demonstrate the improvements that can be made by a teacher U S I N G technology? That is what UsefulWeb intends to do, to put together the aids found on the Internet on a single website for our students and teachers to access and use them, to have a forum for communication among the communities, to have a classified guide of websites to visit and learn from them and last but not least, this project expects to be considered as an effort to at least make students and teachers consider this Useful Web as a valid attempt to introduce those who had not previously realized how these kinds of tools are valuable for educational purposes in normal class environments in the use of new technologies and, for those who are aware, how it is not impossible to design and elaborate a formative webpage and that can be easily adapted to suit their syllabuses to the use of similar materials.

E-mail: This is one of the most popular resources people use on the Internet because it is a way to exchange information in a fast and easy manner1. Just like chat, it is useful to improve our writing skills and can be used in different ways. Email complements chat rooms because after having had a conversation with a foreigner, the only safe way to chat with him/her again is by having his/her e-mail address so that you can keep contact with them to continue practicing English. The second one is the contact that it facilitates between the teacher and his/her students so that they can send and receive homework and ask questions by sending e-mails. Another way in which we can say that this tool contributes to E L T L is that students can open accounts with interfaces in English so that they practice English not only by reading e-mails in the Target Language but also by interacting with the interface. The Forum: This is the tool that offers the greatest variety of possibilities because of the characteristics that make it manageable and adaptable to specific needs. The forum makes it achievable to discus and exchange opinions by posting messages in a non-synchronic way2. At the same time, it is easier to work with a specific purpose, like education, because it allows people with similar interest to join groups in which they can learn, debate, and, of course, use the language. The possibilities for one-to-one (student-student/studentteacher), or one-to-many (teacher or student to all members of the forum)

1 PRADO ARAGONES, Josefina. “La Utilización de Internet en Idiomas”. In AGUADED GÓMEZ, José & CABERO ALMENARA, Julio. “Educar en Red-Internet como recurso para la educación” Ediciones Aljibe, Málaga, 2002. 2 Ídem

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Portraits de la Colombie, en français

Les Ingas: une communauté à étudier, à connaître et à montrer

Véronique Bellanger Professeur du Département de Langues Etrangères, Université Nationale de Colombie, Siège Bogotá [email protected]

Juan Carlos Rodríguez Rendón Estudiante de la carrera de francés y de ruso electivo [email protected]

Carolina Martinez Chaparro [email protected]

Carol Ivonne Villamil Benal

D ans le cadre du développement de la recherche par projets de l’enseignementapprentissage de la culture française au sein de la filière de philologie et langues(spécialité français), différents projets de classe ont été menés à bien, et ont pu aujourd’hui obtenir la reconnaissance nationale et internationale d’institutions de renom.

[email protected]

M algré la richesse pluriculturelle et plurilingue de notre pays, on sait bien que cette diversité n’est reconnue ni par nous les colombiens, ni par le monde en général. Cette méconnaissance des cultures est due au manque de diffusion et d’information de la culture et de la civilisation indiennes; en plus, il y a une certaine indifférence au moment de défendre et d’établir une véritable loi qui garantisse la sauvegarde et la vie des cultures dites minoritaires.

“Portraits de la Colombie, en français” est le fruit de l’avant-projet présenté au Cavilam et TV5, au cours du séminaire de formation de Photo: Projet Bogota au centre du monde formateurs en août 2004, et développé en classe avec les étudiants de français 5 de notre filière, et aujourd’hui avec ceux des cours de civilisation française 1 et 2. D’autres étudiants de notre filière sont venus rejoindre notre entreprise. Il s’agit d’un concours de photographies et textes en français dirigé aux classes de français des universités, lycées(niveau terminale), et instituts de langues au niveau national. Les professeurs seront invités à introduire dans leur classe la pédagogie par projet comme alternative méthodologique pour que leurs étudiants présentent leur ville ou région à travers une photo et un texte en français. Cette présentation doit être le résultat de la réflexion interculturelle menée en classe sur des thèmes de civilisation française. Les travaux de la classe lauréate, et ceux des meilleurs groupes feront l’objet d’une exposition nationale et la diffusion d’un multimédia dans les Alliances françaises, et d’une présentation internationale au festival du documentaire à Paris en Octobre 2005 et à l’Université de Bordeaux 3. Le professeur lauréat recevra une formation à l’alliance française de Lyon. Ce projet compte actuellement sur l’appui de l’Ambassade de France en Colombie, des Alliances françaises, de l’Université de Bordeaux 3, de l’Alliance française de Lyon, de la Fundación B.A.T, de l’ESAP, de la Corporación Cultural de Barranquilla, de la Fundación Ortega y Gasset, de Unimedios (Universidad Nacional de Colombia), de la chaine tv5, de Servientrega et d’Aviatur. Nous vous invitons dès aujourd’hui à y participer! Contactez-nous1 au mail suivant: [email protected] 1 Staff PCF: Cuellar Rivera Hugo Andrés, Rangel Bayona Manuel Mauricio, Rodriguez Eisenhower, Suárez Celi Vanessa, Rico Garavito Fabio Andrés, Moya Morales John Martín, Suárez Tapiero John Jairo, Novoa Castiblanco Ivonne Astrid, Carvajales Catalina, Tous Carlos, Avendaño Alejandro, Vallejo Amanda.

C’est pourquoi nous avons décidé de faire une étude approfondie sur la communauté indienne INGA et de montrer les résultats de notre recherche de la façon la plus efficace pour essayer d’interdire sa perte d’identité et de culture. La récollection de données et d’information concernant cette communauté a été longue et difficile parce qu’iln’y a pas beaucoup de théorie et d’information qui soit véritable et complète dans les livres. On a essayé de structurer l’information d’après des cours de langue et culture, diverses conférences auxquelles nous avons assisté, des interviews faites aux membres de cette communauté et aux individus qui ont eu des contacts avec eux et des petitsarticlestrouvéssurinternet. Une des bases fondamentales de cette étude a été les politiques linguistiques en Europe, principalement, celles de France. Le fait d’avoir des documents consacrés essentiellement à la défense et à la reconnaissance des langues minoritaires laisse voir l’importance et le respect qu’ont ces pays envers le «cadeau» culturel que les communautés font aux grandes cultures d’aujourd’hui. Une autre base théorique de ce projet est liée aux sciences humaines et à celles de la culture: anthropologie linguistique; sociolinguistique; ethnographique; et linguistique culturelle parmi d’autres.

JA PANESE Lina María Conde English Student - VII Semester [email protected]

La propos fondamental de cette investigation est celui de connaître la culture INGA et de la montrer à un monde quineconnaîtpaslarichesseetlesmerveillesquecetteculture nous offre. Aussi, on souhaite faire naître des sentiments de respect, de tolérance ainsi que la capacité de reconnaître les autres avec leurs différences et leurs égalités et aider à la conservation des langues et cultures de notre pays. Aujourd’hui, un des outils les plus efficaces au moment de communiquer ou de donner ou d’obtenir l’information est l’Internet, car c’est le moyen massif de communication en Colombie et du monde en général. Pour cette raison, nous ferons une page web sur les Ingas qui donnera aux gens de presque tout le monde la possibilité de connaître et de faire partie de la richesse culturelle des groupes indiens. La page sera élaborée en 3 langues différentes, lesquelles à notre avis sont les plus connues dans le monde entier.Cesontl’espagnol,lefrançaisetl’anglais. Nous espérons que ce mémoire servira de pont entre les cultures de notre pays et les organisations nationales et internationales partageant notre intérêt, afin d’aider les peuples indiens dans leurs projets de sauvegarde de la langue, de la culture, et des mœurs. Mémoire Filière de philologie et langues-Français. Directrice du mémoire: Véronique Bellanger: [email protected]

Photo: Luis Eduardo Nieves

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O PINIONS Monólogos de la lengua extranjera Jalver Uyaban Cortés Lic. En Filología e Idioma Inglés [email protected]

Por estos días, en los que se proponen reformas curriculares, nos rondan más preguntas que respuestas, y una de las más importantes tiene que ver con el sentido, cuadro general o, mejor, el tejido al que todas las asignaturas y trabajos del plan curricular deben contribuir. En Filología e Idiomas existe un hilo conductor para ese tejido: la lengua extranjera o, si tenemos en cuenta que la lengua es una de las manifestaciones del pensamiento, el pensamiento extranjero. La preocupación por el pensamiento extranjero queda demostrada al comparar el número de asignaturas dedicadas al estudio de las lenguas, culturas, civilizaciones y literaturas extranjeras, vs. el número de las que se dirigen a la enseñanza de lenguas y a la traducción. Sin embargo, y pese a que el dialogo entre culturas es uno de los objetivos de la carrera, el estudio del pensamiento extranjero a través de la lengua se ha tornado en un monologo aburrido y alienante (en el peor de los casos). La competencia lingüística se convirtió en un fin, cuando en realidad es un medio para interactuar con otros pensamientos; y tal error de percepción ha desembocado en varias inconsistencias. Primero, los materiales didácticos (libros, videos, cintas de audio y otras publicaciones) muestran en su mayoría lo ideal que resultan el modo de vida y la cultura extranjera. Parece ser que muchos de los materiales de enseñanza sólo muestran una cara de la moneda y ocultan (con distintas motivaciones) los episodios y pensamientos infames de su propia cultura. Es como si en el camino de aprender una lengua extranjera sólo importara la lengua en sí misma La competencia lingüística se y los pensamientos que ésta transmite fueran accesorios, convirtió en un fin, cuando cuando la realidad bien puede ser inversa. Segundo, salvo en realidad es un medio para contados y afortunados casos, en las clases no se hace un intento por contrastar la literatura extranjera con la interactuar con otros nativa, como tampoco sucede con la historia y la pensamientos civilización. En un tercer lugar tenemos que el no contar

Have we really opened our minds? Diego Andrés Marín Cerón English Student - VII Semester

con profesores extranjeros también acrecienta este malestar, pues priva a los estudiantes de la oportunidad de interactuar con una mente formada en la cultura que se pretende estudiar. Y por último, la traducción, una de las áreas más importantes del ejercicio filológico, se ha dedicado a la “importación” de pensamiento traduciendo obras al español, pero no se “exporta” nada, por que no se ha pensado aún en la posibilidad de traducir literatura nativa a lengua extranjera. Es poco el interés del Departamento por acabar el monólogo de la lengua extranjera, pues sólo hasta hace muy poco se inicio tímidamente el estudio de la enseñanza de español para extranjeros. No son pocas las implicaciones de este monologo ya insoportable para muchos estudiantes, puesto que ha llevado a muchas personas a considerar la carrera como cantera de profesores, y a los estudiantes como aspirantes a servidores del bien foráneo. Por todo ello, resulta imperativo que tanto directivos como profesores analicen críticamente esta situación e implementen políticas concretas. Por parte de los estudiantes, es necesario un esfuerzo individual que le permita ver más allá de lo evidente en lo que se estudia, más ahora, cuando algunos monólogos pretenden imponerse en el mundo.

In order to clarify the first point we need to propose an alternative definition. In a few words, it can be said that a person has opened his mind when s/he has been able to recognize their prejudices and stereotypes and is eager to change them for other thoughts more suitable to the aspect of reality they supposedly represent.

Goodbye to monographs Mariluz Ortiz English Student - VII Semester [email protected]

“La calidad de la investigación se logra con excelencia y exigencia aunque resulte costosa, sin embargo nunca más que la ignorancia”1.

W ithout further discussions the Consejo Superior Universitario has approved the agreement that will regulate the reform of graduation Projects. The decision has paralyzed many of us who thought that there would be more opportunities to discuss the reform, but the official statement sent to the university community on the 20th of March has confirmed the exclusion of monographs as they were originally proposed. The inclusion of the Graduation Project as a subject of the curriculum, its reduction to 25,000 words; the elimination of juries; the restriction of the possibility of collaboration with other classmates are just some of the changes that this reform brings. The modification strongly affects the interests of the students and the quality of education that the University has demonstrated, not only in the State Evaluation, but also to society.

[email protected]

In memory of Rene Descartes Foreign language teachers and learners commonly believe that a person who learns another language opens his/her mind to the world. This statement is based on the fact that acquiring another language implies learning about another culture and this process makes possible the recognition of the diversity of cosmovisions that the human mind is able to produce. However valid this statement may seem, it has two weaknesses: (a) it is based on an unclear definition of what an open mind is, (b) it does not consider, at least explicitly, that opening one’s mind requires a process. As a result of those two shortcomings we have come to believe in some misconceptions that will be discussed later on.

If we really want to rid our minds of prejudices and stereotypes we have to begin by recognizing them as such. However, that recognition is not automatic; it requires that we be engaged in a process of continuous questioning of the absolute certainty of any belief that we consider true until we have clearly appreciated the reliability of the arguments that support it. It means that we must question ourselves whenever we make a judgment about another person, another culture or about any phenomenon of reality that we can perceive, specially, if we have not had direct contact with any of them. By doing so, we will be able to find which of our beliefs have a solid ground and which do not. A person who studies a foreign language has the opportunity to recognize some of his/her prejudices and stereotypes. It is possible as a result of their learning that person will appreciate the relativity of the system of beliefs present in his/her culture, and come to understand of language as another conceptualization of reality and another system of social practices and attitudes. Each related to the usage of language and each as complex as the ones present in his/her culture. However this does not guarantee that he/she has opened his/her mind. If that individual has not learnt to question the absolute certainty of any belief, that awareness will lie dormant in their consciousness. S/he will not open his/her mind. In fact, s/he might even acquire more prejudices from the culture s/he is trying to comprehend. continues on page 18

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To begin with, a restriction on time and space has been imposed which might sound to many of us as something positive in the sense that the time expected to develop an assignment is going to be one semester and not two, three, four or, in the worst case, a never ending project. At the same time, we have to say goodbye to the huge tome, which meant for some people just a summary of books and nothing original. But we have to be careful and not fall into the snare of mediocrity; a good investigative project needs ample time. The problem here is that there are not going to be research projects as such; in fact it is just going to be a “research exercise” as it was called by the previous Head of the University.

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Another important issue is the elimination of juries, public presentation and honourable mentions or distinctions, three aspects that supported and ensured the success of projects. The juries are replaced by one reader -besides the director- which means fewer points of views and fewer contributions to the project. In the same way, the termination of presentations in public deprives the community from becoming acquainted with the work of our students or profiting from the process of investigation. The monograph projects marked with passing, meritorious or honours grades disappeared as such in the new scheme. If a student obtained either the meritorious or the honours marks, that guaranteed him somehow better work opportunities, further studies and research possibilities.Thatpossibilityisgonetoo. According to article 7 of this reform2 there is going to be an Honoured Student in each year level; this is a student who will have the best average of grades in the whole major.A good incentive if the student cares so much about the grade. This aspect however does not differentiate us, the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, from any institute. What really made the difference was the RESEARCH C O M P O N E N T. An additional issue of concern regarding the reform is the speed of its implementation. If this reform is accepted as it is, we have to know about and evaluate other pending reforms that can be applied very soon and that can be harmful to the University. It is true that the number of graduates is surely going to increase, the obstacles that some students experienced with the monograph have now ended, but to what cost? Our University is being undermined by the interests of the market where production, competence and effectiveness are the only concerns. Soon we will have to say goodbye not only to the quality of investigation, but also to other important elements that are fundamental to our University. 1 Free adaptation from a popular adage. 2 Acuerdo 001 de 2005 del Consejo Superior Universitario.

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La motivación como variable determinante en la adquisición de una segunda lengua Yira Pastrana Díaz English Student - IV Semester [email protected]

Los estudiosos del lenguaje se han preocupado desde hace algunos años por comprender el proceso de adquisición de una segunda lengua y de ahí el dilema de si ésta se adquiere o se aprende, pero ¿Por qué no se deja de lado la controversia y se piensa en las variables afectivas involucradas en el proceso? ¿Acaso la parte emocional no juega un papel determinante en cualquier proceso de aprendizaje? La adquisición/aprendizaje de una segunda lengua abarca varios aspectos entre los cuales se destaca el lado emocional del hablante y cómo éste puede contribuir a una adquisición/aprendizaje más efectiva(o). Para explicar el fenómeno adquisición/ aprendizaje de una segunda lengua se han propuesto algunas teorías como las de Steven Krashen1, entre las cuales se encuentran las de hipótesis de adquisición/aprendizaje, la del orden natural, la del monitor, la del input comprensible y la de hipótesis del filtro afectivo. Esta última plantea que cuando se aprende una segunda lengua en un ambiente no natural se produce ansiedad en el estudiante, y ésta a su vez es un filtro afectivo que dificulta el aprendizaje/adquisición de la segunda lengua. Las variables afectivas son la ansiedad, la motivación y la confianza en sí mismo. Estos factores son más importantes para el aprendizaje subconsciente que para el aprendizaje consciente, porque cuando hay barreras afectivas estas causan un “bloqueo mental” que no dejará que los datos sean procesados, es decir, adquiridos completamente, aun cuando el estudiante los comprenda. De acuerdo a las hipótesis de Steven Krashen la adquisición predomina sobre el aprendizaje, pero ¿en qué momento el aprendiz reconoce que está adquiriendo o aprendiendo una segunda lengua? Sería continues on page 8

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La investigación se aprende: ¡INVESTIGANDO! Grupo de investigación “Investigamos” Véronique Bellanger, Melba L.Cárdenas, Ligia Cortés, Yudiht Martin, M.Claudia Nieto, Antje Ruger [email protected]

Según las estadísticas propias de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia, la permanencia de los estudiantes de la carrera de Filología e Idiomas supera los siete años y, por lo tanto, es una de las más altas de la institución. Las mismas estadísticas indican que el tiempo que se emplea para realizar el trabajo de grado es una de las causas para una situación tan preocupante (Obregón, 2001)1. Con base en las estadísticas presentadas por Obregón y en las situaciones que vivíamos como directoras, jurados, o profesoras de los seminarios monográficos tomamos la decisión de investigar la naturaleza de los trabajos de grado en nuestra Carrera 2. Hoy podemos informar a la comunidad académica algunos resultados de avance. Procedimos de la siguiente manera: Con base en un estudio de las hojas de vida de todos los estudiantes que ingresaron a la carrera entre 1996 y 1999 identificamos como grupo muestra a 42 estudiantes/ egresados de las tres áreas, además contamos con la participación de 7 profesores de seminarios monográficos y 22 directores de trabajos de grado pertenecientes a los tres Departamentos implicados: Literatura, Lingüística y Lenguas Extranjeras. Se diseñaron encuestas y entrevistas semiestructuradas. Los datos arrojados por dichos instrumentos se analizaron siguiendo los procedimientos de la teoría fundamentada. Con el ánimo de producir documentos útiles para nuestra carrera, hasta la fecha se han generado los siguientes productos: • En la fase inicial se elaboraron tablas sistemáticas que reúnen datos básicos acerca de la situación académica y las monografías de los estudiantes de cada área. • En enero de 2005, los primeros resultados del análisis de datos se presentaron en un detallado informe de avance a la División de Investigaciones de la Sede Bogotá. En este informe se describió el proceso de la elaboración de los trabajos monográficos mediante la metáfora “El viaje por la ruta PregradoMonografía”. Esta comparación aduce a la odisea que vive la mayor parte de nuestros estudiantes Todos los egresados enfatizan para llegar a la meta esperada, es decir, la obtención de su título. En el análisis de dicho viaje nos que la monografía incide en su centramos en tres aspectos, a saber: la preparación campo de acción profesional del viaje, el viaje y la retrospectiva del mismo. Numerosas citas sustentan nuestros juicios. • Se elaboró y piloteó un formato para la evaluación de los trabajos de grado el cual se acaba de presentar al Comité Asesor de la Carrera. En este formato se tienen en cuenta, por un lado, aspectos formales y los componentes del trabajo, por el otro lado se relacionan la rigurosidad científica así como aspectos de lengua y argumentación. Este formato servirá de guía para los estudiantes a la hora de elaborar sus trabajos de grado y facilitaría la evaluación de los trabajos por parte de los profesores. • Las integrantes del grupo de investigación hemos socializado los hallazgos del estudio en diferentes ámbitos: Unos interrogantes iniciales se incluyeron en una ponencia en el Congreso Latinoamericano de Estudios Germanísticos (Sao Paulo/ Brasil, septiembre de 2003). En el último Congreso de la Asociación Colombiana de Profesores de Inglés, ASOCOPI, (Santa Marta, octubre de 2004) se presentó el esquema de categorías resultante del análisis de datos. Para la Revista Colombian Applied Linguistics Journal se produjo un artículo que enfatiza las condiciones requeridas para la óptima culminación de las monografías en las investigaciones finales de pregrado. Se está preparando otro artículo que reúne los resultados finales del estudio. Además, presentamos aspectos de nuestra investigación en el Segundo Congreso de InstitucionesFormadoras de Licenciados en Lenguas Extranjeras, (Pamplona, abril 2005), en el Congreso Internacional de Profesores de Alemán (Graz/ Austria, agosto de 2005) y en el Sexto Seminario Nacional de Profesores de Francés (Bogotá, Junio de 2005). Nuestros participantes coinciden en afirmar que un ejercicio de investigación en nuestro programa académico es de suma importancia para la formación de profesionales y le garantiza a la carrera el estatus de formación universitaria seria, acrecentando su credibilidad nacional e internacional, y garantizando la calidad de sus egresados. A pesar de inconvenientes de diversa índole, la satisfacción por el resultado de este ejercicio es generalizada. Todos los egresados enfatizan que la monografía incide en su campo de acción

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profesional, incluso si el tema de ésta no se relaciona directamente con la profesión que están ejerciendo. La dirección de los trabajos de grado mediante tutorías personalizadas en la mayoría de los casos se evalúa como apropiada. Las causas para el tiempo excesivo que emplearon nuestros participantes en su trabajo de grado son variadas. Además de razones personales y la falta de una planta docente suficiente, los problemas más grandes se identificaron en la fase de preparación y orientación para la investigación. Aparte de la aplicación precipitada de las recientes reformas del trabajo de grado a nivel de toda la Universidad Nacional, en nuestra carrera se están tomando las primeras medidas para subsanar algunos de los problemas más sentidos por la comunidad académica de nuestra carrera: en el curso de “Metodología de la Investigación” se incluye también la investigación educativa. Se han establecido acuerdos acerca del programa de esta asignatura entre los profesores encargados y con la Coordinación de la carrera. Se está ofreciendo a los estudiantes una orientación acerca de los posibles Seminarios Monográficos y se ha despertado la discusión acerca de los objetivos concretos de los mismos. El Comité Asesor de Carrera ha definido algunos lineamientos que hacen más transparentes los procesos administrativos acerca del trabajo de grado. Sin embargo, aún nos queda por consolidar los diferentes grupos de interés investigativo y, sobre esta base, desarrollar desde el comienzo de la carrera las competencias investigativas y argumentativas de los estudiantes. 1 Obregón, D. (2001). Revisión de los requisitos de grado: El trabajo de grado. Universidad Nacional de Colombia: Bogotá. 2 El título exacto de la investigación que cuenta con financiación de la División de Investigaciones de la Sede Bogotá es: “Los trabajos monográficos realizados por los estudiantes de la carrera de Filología e Idiomas (Inglés, Francés y Alemán) entre 2000 y 2003: análisis y perspectivas”.

A New Stage in the Linguistics Scenery Raúl Enrique García López English Student - II Semester [email protected]

“Enfin, plus je prens garde à l`effet que produisent mes paroles, quand je les profère devants ces Corps, plus il me semble qu`elles sont entenduës; et celles qu`ils profèrent répondent si parfaitement au sens des miennes qu`il ne me paroist plus de sujet de douter qu`unne Ame ne fasse en eur ce que la mienne faitenmoi”1.

Linguistics is a science that is relatively young. It became an independent field of study around one hundred years ago due to Saussure‘s work. The 20th century has witnessed the hasty growth of a science that has now become fundamental to many other sciences such as sociology, psychology, biology, medicine, and even politics. Despite its rapid development, it has also prompted a number of speculations about the nature of language. Noam Chomsky is one of the greatest linguistsinrecenthistory. His work has been paramount during the last fifty years. His theory of Transformational-Generative Grammar is perhaps the most widely accepted proposal on the nature and behavior of language having met with little opposition. Nevertheless, the fact that Chomsky uses such arguments as the introductory quotation to this article is highly disappointing. Chomsky‘s work, though undeniably significant in many aspects, roots itself in one non-scientific principle: rationalism. Language as a result is deemed to be an exclusively human faculty and innate “device” acquired from birth. Accordign to Chomsky therefore, language could not have evolved, as all human features, from Darwinian natural selection. This assertion has no real evidence to support it, being based on philosophical assumptions, ill-suited toscientifictheories.Itisforthisreasonthat I concentrate on more human concepts, important when developing new linguistic theories at university level; particularly in

the field of Neurolinguistics and from a less dogmatic rationalism. The current task of linguistics It is an undeniable fact that the only great difference between humans and animals is language. It is clear that animals‘ physical and sensorial sophistication and capacity for adaptation far exceeds out own. However,the organization and predominance of man in the planet is subject of no discussion at all. Baring in mind these facts it is worth asking why it is that language constitutes such a gap between humanity and animals and how its main characteristics have evolved. In order to find an answer to these questions we need to trace the origins of humanity. Unfortunately,unlike other sciences, linguists can not count on physical evidence to provide the bases for their work. There are no records of the dawn of language. To solve this inconvenience Mauricio Swadesh proposes: “El lenguaje…es similar a la mayoría de las herramientas y técnicas usadas por los seres humanos…es apropiado buscar evidencia en los objetos de piedra usados por los hombres primitivos”2. From this proposal, along with Darwin’ s theory of natural selection and some other anthropological theories we learn that through the continual use of common verbal expressions accompanied by unarticulated shouts, these primitive utterances gradually became words. Thus language evolves: unique manifestations in response to external stimuli. Development of prehistoric societies and behavior allowed these manifestations to mix, which, along with the evolution of the brain, provided language with a proficiency level that took humans far away from their initial animal condition. As Lieberman states: “…thesespecializedbiological mechanisms evolved by the process of Darwinian natural selection from similar, homologous mechanisms in other animals”3. It is evident that in the dawn of humanity man did not use language for the same purposes he does now. Language features such as specialization (the ability to use language for

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purposes which are not fundamental for man’ssurvival), discretidad (thepossibilityto divide and differentiate language constituents such as morphemes, phonemes, reflexividad 4 are present in today’s evolutionary stage of humans, but it would be daring to say that they have been part of language since its dawn. Language has developed over time. Regarding the characteristics mentioned above, it must be said that they pertain to humans in their current state of evolution5. Not forgetting however the probable characteristics of prehistoric language and their gradual transformation into a language continues on page 18

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Have we really opened our minds?

A New Stage in the Linguistics Scenery

W e arrive in this way to an interesting observation: What it is that enables a person to open his/her mind is something beyond the acquisition of a foreign language. Wecancallithereacriticalattitude towards our biased ideas.

with differentiable semantic, syntactic, phonological and phonetics components as it is possible today in the case of discretidad. All this evidence contrasts with the assumptions that prevail in the current linguistic scenery that postulate state the presence of a biological module inserted in the human brain that distinguishes humans from animals. Lakoff (1999) better opposes this belief by saying: “Ifsyntax(language)isto characterize the essence of human nature, if it is to define what distinguishes human beings from the apes, then it could have not been present in any form of the apes…it must come all at once, by genetic mutation, not gradual selection”6.

It stands to reason therefore that the lack of awareness or attitudes has led us, students and teachers of foreign languages, to three misconceptions that can be posited in the following way: a) You open your mind simply through the acquisition of communicative competence in a second language. b) To open your mind you must imitate another culture. c) A person who knows more than one language is perse an open minded person.

It is undoubtedly a fascinating debate. Despite the fact that Linguistics has reached momentum within the academic and scientific scenario during the last years, the author of this text is certain that Linguistics is still a very incipient science. In any case the development of linguistics should not and must not lead us to a dogma of human features but to the scientific findings attached to man as an evolutionary being. It is necessary to expand the debate that Linguistics is currently undergoing. It is time to lessen the importance and promulgation the generative tradition has had in our theoretical panorama so we can engage ourselves in the statement of a theory much more aligned with the current task of Linguistics and open a discussion among the student population. This might lead to great and unexpected results. Departments of Linguistics should now embark on new projects distant from the lightly delimiting Chomskyan tradition. Under any circumstance theorists must not surrender to the charm of philosophical assumptions, which though extremely important in other sciences, must not rule the roots of a science such as Linguistics.

I will, in the confines of this essay concentrate briefly on the third point: The person who knows more than one language is considered an open minded person because s/he has acquired the instrument with which to communicate with other peoples of the world. What is more, s/he is considered a bridge that eases communication among different cultures. Yet, that globalizing concern has led us to forget that the most effective way of demonstrating that we are willing to overcome the superficiality of our stereotypes and prejudices is through daily interaction. Nothing better than the direct contact with the people we meet every day to demonstrate that we have stopped labeling them apriori according to racial, sexual, political and social prejudices to mention but a few. If we want to demonstrate that we have opened our minds the place is here, the moment is now.

1 Cartesian Linguistics . page 7. (Courdemoy cited by Noam Chomsky). Harper & Row publishers. New York & London. 1966.Noam Chomsky. 2 El Lenguaje y La Vida Humana, page 14. Mauricio Swadesh. Fondo de Cultuta Económica. Ciudad de México, 1982. 3 The biology and evolution of language, page 14. 1984. Editorial, city. 4 English terminology for these ideas is still unknown to me. 5 It is worthy clarifying that I use the expressions “now”, “these days”, “nowadays” and similar to refer to the current stage of human evolution. 6 Philosophy in the flesh. The embodied mind and its challenge to waste thought. Chapter 22, page 476. George Lakoff. 1999. Harper Collins Publisher. New York & London.

Thus, we think that learning English is not so harmful, as some people might think. If we take advantage of English it will be to our benefit. And finally, to our knowledge, you do not need to have a massive native-Englishspeaker community in Colombia to start learning English, a language which has reached even the most remote areas of the world, including China, Japan, and Taiwan, up-and-coming emerging world powers9.

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Native language vs. Foreign/second language All in all and in view of the information we have provided, we think that Ipiña Melgar,Patiño Rosseli, De Mejia and Iriarte-Esguerra are right. It seems to us that it is vital to bear in mind that teaching a second/foreign language demands respecting the student’s native language. Furthermore, we acknowledge that a bicultural policy plays a very important role in the bilingual educational process of any community.

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However, we also consider that it is also significant for us, as foreign language teachers, to remember the importance of the English language, since the world, fortunately or not, is more and more internationalized. Moreover, the English language besides being the most powerful and widespread in foreign language education in Colombia, is an international language (so was Latin two thousand years ago), used to carry out research in areas such as science and economics.

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www.cvc.cervantes.es/obref/congreso/valladolid/ponencias/unidad_diversidad_del_español Salvat Universal, Diccionario Enciclopédico. Barcelona: Salvat Editores, S.A., 1997. Bolivian professor who has been Education and Culture Minister of Bolivia, Senator from Chuquisaca. He finished his politic career being Human Development Minister and one of the educational reform’s authors put into practice by his country’s government. Revista de la Academia Colombiana de la Lengua, Número 6 (Julio del 2004). Professor from La Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá. Professor from La Universidad del Valle, Colombia. She supports this statement in view of the fact that some schools teach Natural Sciences in L2 and Religion and Arts in L1. IRIARTE-ESGUERRA, Genoveva. Bilingüismo y Sociolingüística. En, Memorias del Seminario: Bilingüismo, Función Cognoscitiva y Educación. Bogotá: Fondo de Publicaciones del Gimnasio Moderno, 1997. VILLAMIZAR, Rodrigo y MONDRAG Ó N, Juan Carlos. Lecciones de los países del Asia-Pacificoentecnología, productividad y competitividad. Bogotá: Editorial Norma S.A., 1995.

but two of them did not have outstanding results. They were the programs of Mathematics and French at teacher’s colleges.

Is ECAES a mirror of excellence at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia?

One of the reasons for the low results is that there were few students evaluated in comparison to other programs. Another one is that the curricula at these colleges are still conforming to the requirements of the Ministry of Education. Moreover, there were open questions on the questionnaires –the other program with open questions was architecture, while other tests only had close ones-6.

Dayana Andrea Osorio E. English Student - VII Semester [email protected]

T he results of ECAES (Examen de Calidad de la Educación Superior) have been a point of controversy at different Colombian universities. “Some universities are considering the ECAES as a requirement for graduate students, and some professional associations are using them as requisites for the issue of a professional card. However, it is still the prerogative of the institutions all over the country”1 said Daniel Bogoya, director of ICFES (Instituto Colombiano para el Fomento de la Educación Superior).

On the other hand, although ECAES was a point of controversy for the students of the undergraduate program of Philology and Languages at our University last year -since it was believed that the questionnaire of ECAES did not reflect the nature of our curriculum, Bibiana Marcela Martínez Piraquive had the highest score nation wide. Definitely, the attitude of the students towards the ECAES has changed. In November last year only 7 students took the Exam. It is expected that this number will increase this year.“The satisfactory results of ECAES were not only mine, they were the result of the whole program. In the same way, my partners did very well because they were also among the best students nation wide” Bibiana said.

In general, the results of these exams show that public universities do better than private universities. The Universidad Nacional de Colombia (U.N.) sees the ECAES as one more element to evaluate excellence. Although the U.N. did well on the exam, its students got the top positions in 29 undergraduate programs, the University still considers the ECAES “a very theoretical exam since it raises hypothetical cases and does not take into account real and effective practice”.2 According to Daniel Bogoya, the idea of this exam is not to classify institutions and students as excellent, good, mediocre or bad. He goes on to say that the results are not absolute, and therefore, they can have a lot of interpretations depending on the programs and the items the exams evaluate. For instance, the results reveal the capacity that an institution can develop in general terms. They also allow researchers and evaluators to do systematic and detailed analysis with respect to similar programs run by other institutions.

According to Bibiana, the main components of this exam taken into account to evaluate our program are: a pedagogical component, which includes the Ministry’s policy on education; a reading comprehension section, which is the major component of the exam; and a language component, which is 50% of the test. Bibiana also thinks UN students’ weaknesses lie in the fact that they have limited knowledge in the educational field. This is due to the few subjects concerning pedagogy that the Philology and Languages program offers. Their strengths are their knowledge in linguistics and reading comprehension. Even though the education component in the Philology and Languages curriculum is not as complete as those at other Teachers' colleges, it is still very good.

The exam has been conceived as a test that will report results in order to shed light on other issues. For instance, it can provide authentic information about each undergraduate project and its social impact, and the possibilities of improving the programs. Another way to use the exams is to conduct more research based on their results. One important correlation drawn from the results of ECAES 2004 was that the eight universities with more research groups registered in the CvLAC, (Currículum Vitae Latinoamericano y del Caribe)of Colciencias, were the same eight that had more students with top scores on the exams3 .

Nevertheless, she also thinks the ECAES itself has weaknesses. For instance, the fact that these exams are very theoretical and do not take into account the practical component. They either take into account the cultural component of the foreign language in question, which in our case is the British and American culture. Finally, she advises students to be calm when taking the exam since “it is not something to be afraid of, if we have been studious”. However, she considers it is necessary to reinforce the weaknesses mentioned before.

However, the coverage given to the results of ECAES by the media pointing out the first places generates an unconscious but natural categorization of institutions4. In spite of that, these results do not assess the academic performance of the students, which is the true purpose of the exam. In some ways, the results of ECAES show a crisis brewing in higher education since the students were only able to answer 40% of the questions correctly. Moreover,thestudents of top universities could only get a maximum of 53%. These results question the belief that high fees at private universities are synonymous with excellence in education. The results also show that most universities have not been able to get away from the pedagogy that still praises the recollection of information by memory as in primary and high school5.

W e can conclude that ECAES is not a mirror of excellence at the Universidad Nacional because it only takes into account certain aspects of education like theory, and it does not include creative ways of thinking and real practice. However,theseexams confirm that the U.N.isoneofthebest universities in Colombia since it is a leader in many fields of knowledge. In spite of that, the Universidad Nacional needs to go beyond the Colombian borders and compare its educational level internationally in order to be competitive. 1

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A ccording to Victoria Diaz, coordinator of the PRI (Procesamiento de Resultados del ICFES) group, 43 undergraduate programs were evaluated,

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“La U. Nacional, Primera en 13 de 43 programas” El Tiempo, febrero 14 del 2005 http://el tiempo.terra.com.co “La Nacional ratifica su liderazgo” UN Periódico, febrero 27 del 2005 “La clave de los buenos resultados en Ecaes” El Tiempo, marzo 13 del 2005 http://el tiempo.terra.com.co “La Nacional ratifica su liderazgo” UN Periódico, febrero 27 del 2005 “El estado de la educación superior” El Espectador, marzo 20 del 2005. Pg. 1B “Licenciaturas explican los bajos resultados en pruebas de calidad” El Tiempo, marzo 1 del 2005. http://eltiempo.terra.com.co

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O U R PRESENCE

Head of Human Sciences Faculty: Professor Germán Arturo Meléndez Acuña Academic Vice-dean: Professor Olga Restrepo Vice-dean of Bienestar Universitario: Professor Zulma Cristina Santos. Director of Divulgación Académica y Cultural: Professor Francisco Montaña Ibáñez Head of the Foreign Languages Department: Professor Norma Chavarro Casas Director and editor: Professor M. Claudia Nieto C. Graphic Designer Consultant: Clara Inés Clavijo R. Editorial Committee Proofreading Alitia Best, Maria Elisa Moorwood and Nicholas Spencer Capital Letter Staff Lina María Conde A. Mariluz Ortiz Bibiana Hernández Javier Augusto Rojas Dayana Andrea Osorio E. Graphic Reporter: Juan Carlos Becerra

Participants in the Talleres de Redacción

C U R S O 10 - IED ALFREDOIRIARTE INDIFFERENCE IS T H E N A M E O F T H E G A M E -EDITORIAL

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O ne of the questions we usually ask ourselves is why things are the way they are. There should be more peace, moresecurity,more courses, moreprocesses going on, moreresearch, more changes … and endless list of other things. What are we doing to contribute to the construction of that better society we all envision and desire? Have we contributed in the creation and provision of peace, security, study opportunities or research processes for ourselves and the others? What has been our performance as individuals and as groups? What have our results been? The Universidad Nacional de Colombia is a place rich in human resources. Students and teachers have been given the chance to exchange and spread knowledge. However,we always complain about lack of opportunities to develop the writing skills and when the occasion comes we take no notice of it. The case of the present discussion originated from theindifferenceregarding the invitation extended to the community to attend the Talleres de Redacción planned and scheduled by the staff of Capital Letter.Justtoexemplify,inthe first workshop there were 21 people, from which 14 were students of industrial engineering, 2from the Geography Department, and just five from the Department of Foreign Languages. It would be very unfair to say that people in general were indifferent to our proposals. W e met people who aretirelessly working to improve themselves as well as those people around them. The greatpityisthattheywere very few.Abigpercentage of the population isindifferentlyobservingthingshappening,justhappeningtofacelessandnamelesspeoplein emotionally distant scenarios, even if located on the same campus. I am forced to ask just as that Mexican program which was broadcast many years ago: ¿Qué nos pasa? Maybe, the fact is that Indifference is the name of the game.

Mission: to be a channel of communication among the members that make up the academic community of the Foreign Languages Department.

G REETINGS

The Writing Staff: Alexandra Arango S. Véronique Bellanger Isabel Buitrago Felix Burgos Melba Libia Cárdenas B. Ronnall Castro Q. Jorge Celis S. Lina María Conde A. Ligia Cortés N. Raúl Enrique García L. Mauricio Joven B. Dario Andrés Leal Diego Andrés Marín C.

David Martín Yudiht Martin Camilo Morales N. M. Claudia Nieto C. Mariluz Ortiz Dayana Andrea Osorio E. Yira Pastrana Díaz Juan Carlos Rodríguez R. Javier Augusto Rojas Antje Ruger Edgar Milton Santa G. Sergio Daniel Solórzano R. Jalver Uyaban C.

Also collaborated: Carolina Segura, LOLO (cartoon) and Xatlí Zuleta Printed by Sección Publicaciones, Dirección Nacional de Divulgación Cultural Sponsors: Dirección de Bienestar de Sede and Facultad de Ciencias Humanas Coordinator of Publications for the Human Sciences Faculty: Verónica Bermúdez

Vision: togrow as a publication, as individuals, as a group, and as members of the academic community.

E-MAIL [email protected] The articles, texts and opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect the position or policies of Capital Letter.

Dear friends,

W e are very pleased to present this seventh edition to you, made with very hard, yet rewarding team efforts. This product comes as a result of the contributions made by members from our Human Sciences community which wants to share their varied interests with you. W e hope you enjoy this edition which is expected to raise healthy discussions that may eventually render issues for future publications. Our very best wishes, Capital Letter Staff

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EV E N T S Fête française à l’Université Nationale

National Elt Conference Follow up

Ligia Cortés Naves Coordinatrice - Section Française

Last April 22 the National Elt Conference Follow up took place in Corferias in the frame of the Book Fair. The Universidad Nacional de Colombia was represented by professor Martha Camargo. Professor Camargo developed a workshop on the topic of intercultural communication. The full name the proposal presented by professor Camargo was Communicating interculturally: becoming competent. Capital Letter wants to congratulate professor Camargo for having the name of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia present in the mind of the participants to this important event.

[email protected]

C ’est devenu une tradition! Le vendredi 18 mars, la section de français du DLE célébrait une fois de plus la journée internationale de la francophonie, occasion d’honorer les pays qui la constituent (63 officiellement), la langue française (qui reste la deuxième du monde sur le plan de l’importance politique), et plus généralement les francophones à travers le monde (264 millions de personnes ont le français en partage en tant que langue maternelle, langue seconde ou d’apprentissage et, plus largement, 600 millions de personnes vivent dans les Etats et gouvernements de l’Organisation internationale de la Francophonie.) Rappelons que le terme de francophonie apparut pour la première fois en 1880. C’est le géographe français Onésime Reclus (1837-1916) qui l’a employé pour désigner les espaces géographiques où la langue française était parlée.

40th ASOCOPI National Conference and ELT Anual Conference

A l’Université, ce fut une journée bien chargée. Au programme, pour commencer, un exercice bien français : dictées organisées par Martha Martínez et Eric Naves. Toutes nos félicitations aux lauréates : Carolina Mora pour le niveau avancé et Liz Johanna Buitrago pour le niveau intermédiaire. Ensuite, parallèlement ou successivement : exposition de photos avec Orlando Salgado, chansons interprétées par les étudiants, présentation du projet Portraits de la Colombie en français sous la direction de Véronique Bellanger, dégustation de crêpes, karaoké encadré par Javier Reyes et Juan Guillermo Duque, projection de films (Les invasions Barbares avecle Básico V d’Enrique Orjuela, Astérix et Cléopâtre avec Ena Alvarez), présentation d’une pièce de théâtre par Liliana Guzmán et Juan Carlos Rodríguez (Alaplacedel’autre), et organisation de jeux de société (Questions pour un champion, sous la responsabilité de Fabio Hugo Ortiz, et Monopoly et visite de Paris avec Alexandra Ocampo).

T he 40 th ASOCOPI National Conference will be held this year in association with the ELT Organization. The event will take place in October, from the 14th to the 17th in the premises of Agustiniano Salitre School. The presence of teachers belonging to primary, secondary and tertiary education is expected. For more information, contact : http://www.asocopi.org/Conference.html

THANKS CapitalLetter wants to thank the Vicedecanatura de Bienestar Estudiantil for their invaluable support. Our special thanks to professors Alitia Best, Maria Elisa Moorwood and Nicholas Spencer for their help in proofreading the material submitted in English. We also want to thank Juan Carlos Becerra who contributed with his expertise in the creation and selection of some graphic material. Thanks to Clara Inés Clavijo R., graphic designer from the National Direction of Divulgación Cultural, who has always advised the publication in its several issues. Thanks to participants to the Talleresde Redacción and to the third version of the Unplugged Festival.

Finalement, ce fut une journée riche en événements, où chacun a pu participer selon ses goûts et son niveau… Cette fête doit beaucoup de son succès à ses principales animatrices: Karine Rubillon et Ena Alvarez. Encore merci à elles, et à toutes celles et à tous ceux qui ont mouillé leur chemise.

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T H E DEPA RT M E N T'S PUBLICA TIONS

FOREIGN LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT, NACIONAL DE COLOMBIA B OGOTÁ D.C., C OLOMBIA - 19 TH M AY 2005

Issue 5 had contributions from Brazil, India, Slovakia, and Ukraine as well as from our country. We are sure, this will give us the chance to get in touch with a wider community so that we can examine our thoughts and local teaching conditions and contrast them with what happens elsewhere.

TRABAJO The recent legal dispositions issued by the Consejo Superior Universitario in its Agreement 001of 2005 regarding the partial modification of the Agreement 101 of 1977 which deals with the Students’ Regulations (Reglamento Estudiantil) have been submitted to the academic community without further discussion. M ore dialogue on the topic concerning the changes in conception and development of the Monograph Projects developed by students at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia had been expected.

Once more, you are kindly invited to send your papers for our coming issue. You can find the guidelines for contributors in PROFILE No.5. And remember, you can visit our website to learn more about this publication: www.humanas.unal.edu.co/profile.

anonyma de

Filología

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Mayor infor mación: [email protected] www.anonyma1.ya.st

IN D E X

Encuentre el último número en la fotocopiadora del Departamento de Lenguas Extranjeras

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DE G R A D O

The current edition presents two perspectives on the subject of monograph projects. The first one deals with research done in our Department with respect to the monograph projects as they were carried out before the issue of Agreement 001, 2005. The authors reflect on the role of research in the undergraduate program of Philology and Languages with its three options, EnglishFrench-German, show partial results, and overall conclude about the participants and the processes involved in research endeavors at the Foreign Languages Department of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia.

Cartoon designed by Juan Carlos Becerra The topic in question is by no means unfamiliar to teachers and students. It has always been present in the discussions held in the Foreign Languages Department’s The second outlook is provided by a student who analyzes the meetings, among teachers; among students; between teachers and pros and cons of the reform. Her article identifies the nonconformity students because of its meaning and importance in the professional with the current state of affairs as the capacities of people are not development of our current and future graduate students. being challenged. Only the future will let us know if the measures taken were the appropriate ones in a country that is seeking eagerly for a change in paradigms that will hopefully benefit all Colombians.

Estudiantes de Ciencias Humanas interesad@s en trabajar en los comités de redacción de inglés, francés y alemán de la Revista de Filología e Idiomas Anonyma.

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The PROFILE Journal has continued sharing the results of classroom research projects and reflections in the area of English language teaching. This is done through articles written by teacher educators and guest teachers willing to disseminate innovations and research findings.

Revista

FR

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Page Editorial ....................................................... 2 Exams ............................................................ 3 Research ....................................................... 4 The reform ................................................... 5 The French Corner .................................... 6 New Technologies ....................................... 7 Language Acquisition ................................ 8 Epistemology ................................................ 8 Travelling ..................................................... 9 Bilingual Education .................................. 10 Education .................................................... 11 Literature .................................................... 12 Entertainment ............................................ 13 Research in Progress ................................. 13 Learning ...................................................... 14 Extension Activities .................................. 14 Russian ........................................................ 15 Japanese ....................................................... 15 Opinions ...................................................... 16 Linguistics .................................................. 17 Endings ........................................................ 18 Our Presence, Recent Events ................. 19 The Department’s Publications .............. 20

ED U CA TION The majority of the authors who contributed with the present edition centered their discussions on topics concerning the educational field. Their interests range from the early conception of education in our country to the latest possible advances with the introduction of new technologies of information and communication. The teaching and learning of foreign languages also entails interesting debates such as the conception of bilingual education and the conceptions and misconceptions occurring when learning/acquiring a foreign language.

FOREIGN LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT

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