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FOREIGN LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT, UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL DE COLOMBIA

BOGOTÁ D.C., COLOMBIA - 19TH MAY 2005

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

INDEX

FOREIGN LANGUAGESDEPARTMENT

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TRABAJO DE G R A D O

ED U CATION

The majority of the authors who contributed with the present editioncentered their discussions on topics concerning the educational field. Theirinterests range from the early conception of education in our country tothe latest possible advances with the introduction of new technologies ofinformation and communication. The teaching and learning of foreignlanguages also entails interesting debates such as the conception of bilingualeducation and the conceptions and misconceptions occurring whenlearning/acquiring a foreign language.

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The recent legal dispositions issued by theConsejo Superior Universitario in its Agreement001of 2005 regarding the partial modification ofthe Agreement 101 of 1977 which deals withthe Students’ Regulations (ReglamentoEstudiantil) have been submitted to theacademic community without furtherdiscussion. M ore dialogue on the topicconcerning the changes in conception anddevelopment of the Monograph Projectsdeveloped by students at the UniversidadNacional de Colombia had been expected.

The topic in question is by no meansunfamiliar to teachers and students. It has always been present inthe discussions held in the Foreign Languages Department’smeetings, among teachers; among students; between teachers andstudents because of its meaning and importance in the professionaldevelopment of our current and future graduate students.

The current edition presents twoperspectives on the subject of monographprojects. The first one deals with researchdone in our Department with respect to themonograph projects as they were carried outbefore the issue of Agreement 001, 2005. Theauthors reflect on the role of research in theundergraduate program of Philology andLanguages with its three options, English-French-German, show partial results, andoverall conclude about the participants andthe processes involved in research endeavorsat the Foreign Languages Department of theUniversidad Nacional de Colombia.

The second outlook is provided by a student who analyzes thepros and cons of the reform. Her article identifies the nonconformitywith the current state of affairs as the capacities of people are notbeing challenged. Only the future will let us know if the measurestaken were the appropriate ones in a country that is seeking eagerlyfor a change in paradigms that will hopefully benefit all Colombians.

Cartoon designed by Juan Carlos Becerra

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anonymaRevista de Filología e IdiomasRevista de Filología e IdiomasRevista de Filología e IdiomasRevista de Filología e IdiomasRevista de Filología e Idiomas

Estudiantes de Ciencias Humanas interesad@sen trabajar en los comités de redacción deinglés, francés y alemán de la Revista de

Filología e Idiomas Anonyma.

Mayor información:anonymaun@hotmail.com www.anonyma1.ya.st

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

The PROFILE Journal has continued sharing the resultsof classroom research projects and reflections in thearea of English language teaching. This is done througharticles written by teacher educators and guest teacherswilling to disseminate innovations and research findings.

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 widercommunity so that we can examine our thoughts andlocal teaching conditions and contrast them with whathappens elsewhere.

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

THE DEPA RTMENT'S PUBLICATIONS

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uncapitalletter@yahoo.com

The articles, texts and opinions expressedhere do not necessarily reflect the position

or policies of Capital Letter.

CAPITAL LETTERMission: to be a channel of communication among themembers that make up the academic community of theForeign Languages Department.

Vision: to grow as a publication, as individuals, as agroup, and as members of the academic community.

G REETINGS

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 madeby members from our Human Sciences community which wants to share their variedinterests 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

Head of Human Sciences Faculty:Professor Germán Arturo Meléndez AcuñaAcademic Vice-dean:Professor Olga RestrepoVice-dean of Bienestar Universitario:Professor Zulma Cristina Santos.Director of Divulgación Académica y Cultural:Professor Francisco Montaña IbáñezHead 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 CommitteeProofreadingAlitia Best, Maria Elisa Moorwood and Nicholas SpencerCapital Letter StaffLina María Conde A. Mariluz OrtizBibiana Hernández Javier Augusto RojasDayana Andrea Osorio E.Graphic Reporter: Juan Carlos Becerra

The Writing Staff:Alexandra Arango S. David MartínVéronique Bellanger Yudiht MartinIsabel Buitrago Camilo Morales N.Felix Burgos M. Claudia Nieto C.Melba Libia Cárdenas B. Mariluz OrtizRonnall Castro Q. Dayana Andrea Osorio E.Jorge Celis S. Yira Pastrana DíazLina María Conde A. Juan Carlos Rodríguez R.Ligia Cortés N. Javier Augusto RojasRaúl Enrique García L. Antje RugerMauricio Joven B. Edgar Milton Santa G.Dario Andrés Leal Sergio Daniel Solórzano R.Diego Andrés Marín C. Jalver Uyaban C.

Also collaborated:Carolina Segura, LOLO (cartoon) and Xatlí Zuleta

Printed by Sección Publicaciones, Dirección Nacional deDivulgación Cultural

Sponsors: Dirección de Bienestar de Sede and Facultad deCiencias HumanasCoordinator of Publications for the Human Sciences Faculty:Verónica Bermúdez

INDIFFERENCE IS THE N A M E OF THE G A M E - EDITORIAL

O ne of the questions we usually ask ourselves is why things are the way they are. Thereshould be more peace, more security, more courses, more processes going on, more research,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, studyopportunities or research processes for ourselves and the others? What has been ourperformance 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, wealways complain about lack of opportunities to develop the writing skills and when theoccasion comes we take no notice of it. The case of the present discussion originated fromthe indifference regarding the invitation extended to the community to attend the Talleresde Redacción planned and scheduled by the staff of Capital Letter. Just to exemplify, in thefirst workshop there were 21 people, from which 14 were students of industrial engineering,2 from 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 are tirelessly working to improve themselves as well as those peoplearound them. The great pity is that they were very few. A big percentage of the populationis indifferently observing things happening, just happening to faceless and nameless people inemotionally 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.

Participants in the Talleres de Redacción

CURSO 10 - IED ALFREDO IRIARTE

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O U R PRESENCE

Fête française à l’Université Nationale

Ligia Cortés NavesCoordinatrice - Section Française

Lcortesn@unal.edu.co

C’est devenu une tradition! Le vendredi 18 mars, la section de françaisdu DLE célébrait une fois de plus la journée internationale de la francophonie,occasion d’honorer les pays qui la constituent (63 officiellement), la languefrançaise (qui reste la deuxième du monde sur le plan de l’importancepolitique), et plus généralement les francophones à travers le monde (264millions de personnes ont le français en partage en tant que langue maternelle,langue seconde ou d’apprentissage et, plus largement, 600 millions depersonnes vivent dans les Etats et gouvernements de l’Organisationinternationale de la Francophonie.)

Rappelons que le terme de francophonie apparut pour la première fois en1880. C’est le géographe français Onésime Reclus (1837-1916) qui l’a employépour désigner les espaces géographiques où la langue française était parlée.

A l’Université, ce fut une journée bien chargée. Au programme, pourcommencer, un exercice bien français : dictées organisées par MarthaMartínez et Eric Naves. Toutes nos félicitations aux lauréates : CarolinaMora pour le niveau avancé et Liz Johanna Buitrago pour le niveauintermédiaire. Ensuite, parallèlement ou successivement : exposition dephotos avec Orlando Salgado, chansons interprétées par les étudiants,présentation du projet Portraits de la Colombie en français sous la direction deVéronique Bellanger, dégustation de crêpes, karaoké encadré par Javier Reyeset Juan Guillermo Duque, projection de films (Les invasions Barbares avec leBásico V d’Enrique Orjuela, Astérix et Cléopâtre avec Ena Alvarez),présentation d’une pièce de théâtre par Liliana Guzmán et Juan CarlosRodríguez (A la place de l’autre), et organisation de jeux de société (Questionspour un champion, sous la responsabilité de Fabio HugoOrtiz, et Monopoly et visite de Paris avec AlexandraOcampo).

Finalement, ce fut une journée riche en événements,où chacun a pu participer selon ses goûts et sonniveau…

Cette fête doit beaucoup de son succès à sesprincipales animatrices: Karine Rubillon et EnaAlvarez. Encore merci à elles, et à toutes celles et àtous ceux qui ont mouillé leur chemise.

EVENTS

THANKS

Capital Letter wants to thank the Vicedecanatura de Bienestar Estudiantilfor their invaluable support. Our special thanks to professors Alitia Best,Maria Elisa Moorwood and Nicholas Spencer for their help in proofreadingthe material submitted in English. We also want to thank Juan Carlos Becerrawho contributed with his expertise in the creation and selection of somegraphic material. Thanks to Clara Inés Clavijo R., graphic designer from theNational Direction of Divulgación Cultural, who has always advised thepublication in its several issues. Thanks to participants to the Talleres deRedacción and to the third version of the Unplugged Festival.

National Elt ConferenceFollow up

Last April 22 the National EltConference Follow up took place inCorferias in the frame of the Book Fair.The Universidad Nacional de Colombiawas represented by professor MarthaCamargo. Professor Camargo developeda workshop on the topic of interculturalcommunication. The full name theproposal presented by professorCamargo was Communicating

interculturally: becoming competent. Capital Letter wants to congratulateprofessor Camargo for having the name of the Universidad Nacional deColombia present in the mind of the participants to this important event.

40th ASOCOPI National Conferenceand ELT Anual Conference

The 40 th ASOCOPI National Conferencewill be held this year in association with theELT Organization. The event will take placein October, from the 14th to the 17th in thepremises of Agustiniano Salitre School.

The presence of teachers belonging to primary, secondary and tertiaryeducation is expected. For more information, contact :

http://www.asocopi.org/Conference.html

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EXA M S

Is ECAES a mirror of excellence atthe Universidad Nacional de Colombia?

Dayana Andrea Osorio E.English Student - VII Semester

Yayis0822@yahoo.co.uk

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

In general, the results of these exams show that public universities dobetter than private universities. The Universidad Nacional de Colombia(U.N.) sees the ECAES as one more element to evaluate excellence. Althoughthe U.N. did well on the exam, its students got the top positions in 29undergraduate programs, the University still considers the ECAES “a verytheoretical exam since it raises hypothetical cases and does not take intoaccount real and effective practice”.2 According to Daniel Bogoya, the ideaof 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, andtherefore, they can have a lot of interpretations depending on the programsand the items the exams evaluate. For instance, the results reveal the capacitythat an institution can develop in general terms. They also allow researchersand evaluators to do systematic and detailed analysis with respect to similarprograms run by other institutions.

The exam has been conceived as a test that will report results in order toshed light on other issues. For instance, it can provide authentic informationabout each undergraduate project and its social impact, and the possibilitiesof improving the programs. Another way to use the exams is to conductmore research based on their results. One important correlation drawn fromthe results of ECAES 2004 was that the eight universities with more researchgroups registered in the CvLAC, (Currículum Vitae Latinoamericano y delCaribe)of Colciencias, were the same eight that had more students with topscores on the exams3 .

However, the coverage given to the results of ECAES by the media pointingout the first places generates an unconscious but natural categorization ofinstitutions4. In spite of that, these results do not assess the academic performanceof the students, which is the true purpose of the exam. In some ways, theresults of ECAES show a crisis brewing in higher education since the studentswere only able to answer 40% of the questions correctly. Moreover, the studentsof top universities could only get a maximum of 53%. These results questionthe belief that high fees at private universities are synonymous with excellencein education. The results also show that most universities have not been ableto get away from the pedagogy that still praises the recollection of informationby memory as in primary and high school5.

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

According to Victoria Diaz, coordinator of the PRI (Procesamiento deResultados del ICFES) group, 43 undergraduate programs were evaluated,

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

One of the reasons for the low results is that there were few studentsevaluated in comparison to other programs. Another one is that the curriculaat these colleges are still conforming to the requirements of the Ministry ofEducation. Moreover, there were open questions on the questionnaires –theother program with open questions was architecture, while other tests onlyhad close ones-6.

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

According to Bibiana, the main components of this exam taken intoaccount to evaluate our program are: a pedagogical component, whichincludes 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 inthe fact that they have limited knowledge in the educational field. This isdue to the few subjects concerning pedagogy that the Philology and Languagesprogram offers. Their strengths are their knowledge in linguistics and readingcomprehension. Even though the education component in the Philologyand Languages curriculum is not as complete as those at other Teachers'colleges, it is still very good.

Nevertheless, she also thinks the ECAES itself has weaknesses. Forinstance, the fact that these exams are very theoretical and do not take intoaccount the practical component. They either take into account the culturalcomponent of the foreign language in question, which in our case is theBritish and American culture. Finally, she advises students to be calm whentaking the exam since “it is not something to be afraid of, if we have beenstudious”. However, she considers it is necessary to reinforce the weaknessesmentioned before.

W e can conclude that ECAES is not a mirror of excellence at theUniversidad Nacional because it only takes into account certain aspects ofeducation like theory, and it does not include creative ways of thinking andreal practice. However, these exams confirm that the U.N. is one of the bestuniversities in Colombia since it is a leader in many fields of knowledge. Inspite of that, the Universidad Nacional needs to go beyond the Colombianborders and compare its educational level internationally in order to becompetitive.

1 “La U. Nacional, Primera en 13 de 43 programas” El Tiempo, febrero 14 del 2005http://el tiempo.terra.com.co

2 “La Nacional ratifica su liderazgo” UN Periódico, febrero 27 del 20053 “La clave de los buenos resultados en Ecaes” El Tiempo, marzo 13 del 2005

http://el tiempo.terra.com.co4 “La Nacional ratifica su liderazgo” UN Periódico, febrero 27 del 20055 “El estado de la educación superior” El Espectador, marzo 20 del 2005. Pg. 1B6 “Licenciaturas explican los bajos resultados en pruebas de calidad” El Tiempo, marzo 1 del 2005.

http://eltiempo.terra.com.co

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Have we really opened our minds?

W e arrive in this way to an interesting observation: What it is thatenables a person to open his/her mind is something beyond theacquisition of a foreign language. We can call it here a critical attitudetowards our biased ideas.

It stands to reason therefore that the lack of awareness or attitudeshas led us, students and teachers of foreign languages, to threemisconceptions that can be posited in the following way:a) You open your mind simply through the acquisition ofcommunicative 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 per se an openminded person.

I will, in the confines of this essay concentrate briefly on the thirdpoint: The person who knows more than one language is consideredan open minded person because s/he has acquired the instrumentwith which to communicate with other peoples of the world. What ismore, s/he is considered a bridge that eases communication amongdifferent cultures.

Yet, that globalizing concern has led us to forget that the mosteffective way of demonstrating that we are willing to overcome thesuperficiality of our stereotypes and prejudices is through dailyinteraction. Nothing better than the direct contact with the peoplewe meet every day to demonstrate that we have stopped labelingthem a priori according to racial, sexual, political and social prejudicesto mention but a few. If we want to demonstrate that we have openedour minds the place is here, the moment is now.

ENDINGS

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Native language vs. Foreign/second language

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

However, we also consider that it is also significant for us, as foreignlanguage 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 andwidespread in foreign language education in Colombia, is an internationallanguage (so was Latin two thousand years ago), used to carry out researchin areas such as science and economics.

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

1 www.cvc.cervantes.es/obref/congreso/valladolid/ponencias/unidad_diversidad_del_español2 Salvat Universal, Diccionario Enciclopédico. Barcelona: Salvat Editores, S.A., 1997.3 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’sauthors put into practice by his country’s government.

4 Revista de la Academia Colombiana de la Lengua, Número 6 (Julio del 2004).5 Professor from La Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá.6 Professor from La Universidad del Valle, Colombia.7 She supports this statement in view of the fact that some schools teach Natural Sciences in L2 and

Religion and Arts in L1.8 IRIARTE-ESGUERRA, Genoveva. Bilingüismo y Sociolingüística. En, Memorias del Seminario: Bilingüismo,

Función Cognoscitiva y Educación. Bogotá: Fondo de Publicaciones del Gimnasio Moderno, 1997.9 VILLAMIZAR, Rodrigo y MONDRAG Ó N, Juan Carlos. Lecciones de los países del Asia-Pacifico en tecnología,

productividad y competitividad. Bogotá: Editorial Norma S.A., 1995.

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A New Stage in the Linguistics Scenery

with differentiable semantic, syntactic, phonological and phoneticscomponents as it is possible today in the case of discretidad.

All this evidence contrasts with the assumptions that prevail in thecurrent linguistic scenery that postulate state the presence of a biologicalmodule inserted in the human brain that distinguishes humans from animals.Lakoff (1999) better opposes this belief by saying: “If syntax (language) is tocharacterize the essence of human nature, if it is to define what distinguisheshuman beings from the apes, then it could have not been present in any form ofthe apes…it must come all at once, by genetic mutation, not gradual selection”6.

It is undoubtedly a fascinating debate. Despite the fact that Linguisticshas reached momentum within the academic and scientific scenario duringthe last years, the author of this text is certain that Linguistics is still a veryincipient science. In any case the development of linguistics should not andmust not lead us to a dogma of human features but to the scientific findingsattached to man as an evolutionary being. It is necessary to expand thedebate that Linguistics is currently undergoing. It is time to lessen theimportance and promulgation the generative tradition has had in ourtheoretical panorama so we can engage ourselves in the statement of atheory much more aligned with the current task of Linguistics and open adiscussion among the student population. This might lead to great andunexpected results. Departments of Linguistics should now embark on newprojects distant from the lightly delimiting Chomskyan tradition. Under anycircumstance theorists must not surrender to the charm of philosophicalassumptions, which though extremely important in other sciences, must notrule the roots of a science such as Linguistics.

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 deMéxico, 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.

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RESEARCH

La investigación se aprende: ¡INVESTIGANDO!

Grupo de investigación “Investigamos”Véronique Bellanger, Melba L.Cárdenas, Ligia Cortés, Yudiht Martin, M.Claudia Nieto, Antje Ruger

aruger@unal.edu.co

Según las estadísticas propias de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia, la permanencia de los estudiantesde la carrera de Filología e Idiomas supera los siete años y, por lo tanto, es una de las más altas de lainstitución. Las mismas estadísticas indican que el tiempo que se emplea para realizar el trabajo de gradoes una de las causas para una situación tan preocupante (Obregón, 2001)1. Con base en las estadísticaspresentadas por Obregón y en las situaciones que vivíamos como directoras, jurados, o profesoras de losseminarios monográficos tomamos la decisión de investigar la naturaleza de los trabajos de grado ennuestra 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 estudiantesque 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 monográficosy 22 directores de trabajos de grado pertenecientes a los tres Departamentos implicados: Literatura,Lingüística y Lenguas Extranjeras. Se diseñaron encuestas y entrevistas semiestructuradas. Los datosarrojados 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 lossiguientes productos:

• En la fase inicial se elaboraron tablas sistemáticas que reúnen datos básicos acerca de la situaciónacadémica 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 informede avance a la División de Investigaciones de la Sede Bogotá. En este informe se describió el procesode la elaboración de los trabajos monográficos mediante la metáfora “El viaje por la ruta Pregrado-

Monografía”. Esta comparación aduce a la odiseaque vive la mayor parte de nuestros estudiantespara llegar a la meta esperada, es decir, la obtenciónde su título. En el análisis de dicho viaje noscentramos en tres aspectos, a saber: la preparacióndel 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 presentaral Comité Asesor de la Carrera. En este formato se tienen en cuenta, por un lado, aspectos formales ylos componentes del trabajo, por el otro lado se relacionan la rigurosidad científica así como aspectosde lengua y argumentación. Este formato servirá de guía para los estudiantes a la hora de elaborar sustrabajos 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 diferentesámbitos: Unos interrogantes iniciales se incluyeron en una ponencia en el Congreso Latinoamericano deEstudios Germanísticos (Sao Paulo/ Brasil, septiembre de 2003). En el último Congreso de la AsociaciónColombiana de Profesores de Inglés, ASOCOPI, (Santa Marta, octubre de 2004) se presentó el esquemade categorías resultante del análisis de datos. Para la Revista Colombian Applied Linguistics Journal seprodujo un artículo que enfatiza las condiciones requeridas para la óptima culminación de las monografíasen las investigaciones finales de pregrado. Se está preparando otro artículo que reúne los resultadosfinales del estudio. Además, presentamos aspectos de nuestra investigación en el Segundo Congreso deInstituciones Formadoras de Licenciados en Lenguas Extranjeras, (Pamplona, abril 2005), en el CongresoInternacional de Profesores de Alemán (Graz/ Austria, agosto de 2005) y en el Sexto Seminario Nacionalde Profesores de Francés (Bogotá, Junio de 2005).

Nuestros participantes coinciden en afirmar que un ejercicio de investigación en nuestro programaacadémico es de suma importancia para la formación de profesionales y le garantiza a la carrera el estatus deformación universitaria seria, acrecentando su credibilidad nacional e internacional, y garantizando lacalidad de sus egresados. A pesar de inconvenientes de diversa índole, la satisfacción por el resultado de esteejercicio es generalizada. Todos los egresados enfatizan que la monografía incide en su campo de acción

Todos los egresados enfatizanque la monografía incide en sucampo de acción profesional

profesional, incluso si el tema de ésta no serelaciona directamente con la profesión que estánejerciendo. La dirección de los trabajos de gradomediante tutorías personalizadas en la mayoríade los casos se evalúa como apropiada. Las causaspara el tiempo excesivo que emplearon nuestrosparticipantes en su trabajo de grado son variadas.Además de razones personales y la falta de unaplanta docente suficiente, los problemas másgrandes se identificaron en la fase de preparacióny orientación para la investigación.

Aparte de la aplicación precipitada de lasrecientes reformas del trabajo de grado a nivelde toda la Universidad Nacional, en nuestracarrera se están tomando las primeras medidaspara subsanar algunos de los problemas mássentidos por la comunidad académica de nuestracarrera: en el curso de “Metodología de laInvestigación” se incluye también la inves-tigación educativa. Se han establecido acuerdosacerca del programa de esta asignatura entre losprofesores encargados y con la Coordinaciónde la carrera. Se está ofreciendo a los estudiantesuna orientación acerca de los posiblesSeminarios Monográficos y se ha despertado ladiscusión acerca de los objetivos concretos delos mismos. El Comité Asesor de Carrera hadefinido algunos lineamientos que hacen mástransparentes los procesos administrativosacerca del trabajo de grado.

Sin embargo, aún nos queda por consolidarlos diferentes grupos de interés investigativo y,sobre esta base, desarrollar desde el comienzode la carrera las competencias investigativas yargumentativas de los estudiantes.

1 Obregón, D. (2001). Revisión de los requisitos de grado: El trabajode grado. Universidad Nacional de Colombia: Bogotá.

2 El título exacto de la investigación que cuenta con financiaciónde la División de Investigaciones de la Sede Bogotá es: “Lostrabajos monográficos realizados por los estudiantes de la carrera deFilología e Idiomas (Inglés, Francés y Alemán) entre 2000 y 2003:análisis y perspectivas”.

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LINGUISTICS

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A New Stage in the LinguisticsScenery

Raúl Enrique García LópezEnglish Student - II Semester

raulspot2@yahoo.com

“Enfin, plus je prens garde à leffet queproduisent mes paroles, quand je les profèredevants ces Corps, plus il me semble quellessont entenduës; et celles quils profèrentrépondent si parfaitement au sens des miennesquil ne me paroist plus de sujet de douterqu unne Ame ne fasse en eur ce que la miennefait en moi”1.

Linguistics is a science that is relativelyyoung. It became an independent field ofstudy around one hundred years ago due toSaussure‘s work. The 20th century haswitnessed the hasty growth of a science thathas now become fundamental to many othersciences such as sociology, psychology,biology, medicine, and even politics. Despiteits rapid development, it has also prompted anumber of speculations about the nature oflanguage.

Noam Chomsky is one of the greatestlinguists in recent history. His work has beenparamount during the last fifty years. Histheory of Transformational-GenerativeGrammar is perhaps the most widelyaccepted proposal on the nature and behaviorof language having met with little opposition.Nevertheless, the fact that Chomsky usessuch arguments as the introductory quotationto this article is highly disappointing.Chomsky‘s work, though undeniablysignificant in many aspects, roots itself in onenon-scientific principle: rationalism.Language as a result is deemed to be anexclusively human faculty and innate“device” acquired from birth. Accordign toChomsky therefore, language could not haveevolved, as all human features, fromDarwinian natural selection. This assertionhas no real evidence to support it, beingbased on philosophical assumptions, ill-suitedto scientific theories. It is for this reason thatI concentrate on more human concepts,important when developing new linguistictheories at university level; particularly in

the field of Neurolinguistics and from a lessdogmatic rationalism.

The current task of linguistics

It is an undeniable fact that the only greatdifference between humans and animals islanguage. It is clear that animals‘ physical andsensorial sophistication and capacity foradaptation far exceeds out own. However, theorganization and predominance of man in theplanet is subject of no discussion at all. Baringin mind these facts it is worth asking why it isthat language constitutes such a gap betweenhumanity and animals and how its maincharacteristics have evolved.

In order to find an answer to these questionswe need to trace the origins of humanity.Unfortunately, unlike other sciences, linguistscan not count on physical evidence to providethe bases for their work. There are no recordsof the dawn of language. To solve thisinconvenience Mauricio Swadesh proposes:

“El lenguaje…es similar a la mayoría de lasherramientas y técnicas usadas por los sereshumanos…es apropiado buscar evidencia enlos objetos de piedra usados por los hombresprimitivos”2.

From this proposal, along with Darwin’stheory of natural selection and some otheranthropological theories we learn that throughthe continual use of common verbal expressionsaccompanied by unarticulated shouts, theseprimitive utterances gradually became words.Thus language evolves: unique manifestationsin response to external stimuli. Developmentof prehistoric societies and behavior allowedthese manifestations to mix, which, along withthe evolution of the brain, provided languagewith a proficiency level that took humans faraway from their initial animal condition. AsLieberman states: “…these specialized biologicalmechanisms evolved by the process of Darwiniannatural selection from similar, homologousmechanisms in other animals”3.

It is evident that in the dawn of humanityman did not use language for the same purposeshe does now. Language features such asspecialization (the ability to use language for

purposes which are not fundamental forman’s survival), discretidad (the possibility todivide and differentiate languageconstituents such as morphemes, phonemes,reflexividad4 are present in today’sevolutionary stage of humans, but it wouldbe daring to say that they have been part oflanguage since its dawn. Language hasdeveloped over time.

Regarding the characteristics mentionedabove, it must be said that they pertain tohumans in their current state of evolution5.Not forgetting however the probablecharacteristics of prehistoric language andtheir gradual transformation into a language

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Goodbye to monographs

Mariluz OrtizEnglish Student - VII Semester

marialunados@yahoo.com.ar

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

W ithout further discussions the ConsejoSuperior Universitario has approved theagreement that will regulate the reform ofgraduation Projects. The decision hasparalyzed many of us who thought that therewould be more opportunities to discuss thereform, but the official statement sent to theuniversity community on the 20th of Marchhas confirmed the exclusion of monographsas they were originally proposed.

The inclusion of the Graduation Projectas a subject of the curriculum, its reductionto 25,000 words; the elimination of juries;the restriction of the possibility ofcollaboration with other classmates are justsome of the changes that this reform brings.The modification strongly affects theinterests of the students and the quality ofeducation that the University hasdemonstrated, not only in the StateEvaluation, but also to society.

To begin with, a restriction on time andspace has been imposed which might soundto many of us as something positive in thesense that the time expected to develop anassignment is going to be one semester andnot two, three, four or, in the worst case, anever ending project. At the same time, wehave to say goodbye to the huge tome, whichmeant for some people just a summary ofbooks and nothing original. But we have tobe careful and not fall into the snare ofmediocrity; a good investigative projectneeds ample time. The problem here is thatthere are not going to be research projects assuch; in fact it is just going to be a “researchexercise” as it was called by the previousHead of the University.

Another important issue is the eliminationof juries, public presentation and honourablementions or distinctions, three aspects thatsupported and ensured the success of projects.The juries are replaced by one reader -besidesthe director- which means fewer points of viewsand fewer contributions to the project. In thesame way, the termination of presentations inpublic deprives the community from becomingacquainted with the work of our students orprofiting from the process of investigation. Themonograph projects marked with passing,meritorious or honours grades disappeared assuch in the new scheme. If a student obtainedeither the meritorious or the honours marks,that guaranteed him somehow better workopportunities, further studies and researchpossibilities. That possibility is gone too.

According to article 7 of this reform2 thereis going to be an Honoured Student in eachyear level; this is a student who will have thebest average of grades in the whole major. Agood incentive if the student cares so muchabout the grade. This aspect however does notdifferentiate us, the Universidad Nacional deColombia, from any institute. What reallymade the difference was the RESEARCHCOMPONENT.

An additional issue of concern regardingthe reform is the speed of its implementation.If this reform is accepted as it is, we have toknow about and evaluate other pendingreforms that can be applied very soon and thatcan be harmful to the University.

It is true that the number of graduates issurely going to increase, the obstacles that somestudents experienced with the monographhave now ended, but to what cost? OurUniversity is being undermined by the interestsof the market where production, competenceand effectiveness are the only concerns. Soonwe will have to say goodbye not only to thequality of investigation, but also to otherimportant elements that are fundamental toour University.

1 Free adaptation from a popular adage.2 Acuerdo 001 de 2005 del Consejo Superior Universitario.

A CADEMIC REFORM

La motivación como variabledeterminante en la adquisición

de una segunda lengua

Yira Pastrana DíazEnglish Student - IV Semester

ylpastranad@gmail.com

Los estudiosos del lenguaje se hanpreocupado desde hace algunos años porcomprender el proceso de adquisición deuna segunda lengua y de ahí el dilema de siésta se adquiere o se aprende, pero ¿Por quéno se deja de lado la controversia y se piensaen las variables afectivas involucradas en elproceso? ¿Acaso la parte emocional no juegaun papel determinante en cualquier procesode aprendizaje?

La adquisición/aprendizaje de unasegunda lengua abarca varios aspectos entrelos cuales se destaca el lado emocional delhablante y cómo éste puede contribuir a unaadquisición/aprendizaje más efectiva(o).

Para explicar el fenómeno adquisición/aprendizaje de una segunda lengua se hanpropuesto algunas teorías como las de StevenKrashen1, entre las cuales se encuentran lasde hipótesis de adquisición/aprendizaje, la delorden natural, la del monitor, la del inputcomprensible y la de hipótesis del filtroafectivo. Esta última plantea que cuando seaprende una segunda lengua en un ambienteno natural se produce ansiedad en elestudiante, y ésta a su vez es un filtro afectivoque dificulta el aprendizaje/adquisición dela segunda lengua. Las variables afectivas sonla ansiedad, la motivación y la confianza ensí mismo. Estos factores son más importantespara el aprendizaje subconsciente que parael aprendizaje consciente, porque cuando haybarreras afectivas estas causan un “bloqueomental” que no dejará que los datos seanprocesados, es decir, adquiridos completa-mente, aun cuando el estudiante loscomprenda.

De acuerdo a las hipótesis de StevenKrashen la adquisición predomina sobre elaprendizaje, pero ¿en qué momento elaprendiz reconoce que está adquiriendo oaprendiendo una segunda lengua? Sería

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LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

16

O PINIONS

Monólogos de la lengua extranjera

Jalver Uyaban CortésLic. En Filología e Idioma Inglés

compa21@yahoo.com

Por estos días, en los que se proponen reformas curriculares, nos rondan más preguntas querespuestas, 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 Filologíae Idiomas existe un hilo conductor para ese tejido: la lengua extranjera o, si tenemos en cuentaque la lengua es una de las manifestaciones del pensamiento, el pensamiento extranjero. Lapreocupación por el pensamiento extranjero queda demostrada al comparar el número deasignaturas 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, elestudio del pensamiento extranjero a través de la lengua se ha tornado en un monologo aburridoy alienante (en el peor de los casos). La competencia lingüística se convirtió en un fin, cuandoen realidad es un medio para interactuar con otros pensamientos; y tal error de percepción hadesembocado en varias inconsistencias. Primero, los materiales didácticos (libros, videos, cintasde audio y otras publicaciones) muestran en su mayoría lo ideal que resultan el modo de vida yla cultura extranjera. Parece ser que muchos de los materiales de enseñanza sólo muestran unacara de la moneda y ocultan (con distintas motivaciones) los episodios y pensamientos infamesde su propia cultura. Es como si en el camino de aprenderuna lengua extranjera sólo importara la lengua en sí mismay los pensamientos que ésta transmite fueran accesorios,cuando la realidad bien puede ser inversa. Segundo, salvocontados y afortunados casos, en las clases no se hace unintento por contrastar la literatura extranjera con lanativa, como tampoco sucede con la historia y lacivilización. En un tercer lugar tenemos que el no contar

con profesores extranjeros tambiénacrecienta este malestar, pues priva a losestudiantes de la oportunidad de interactuarcon una mente formada en la cultura que sepretende estudiar. Y por último, la traducción,una de las áreas más importantes del ejerciciofilológico, se ha dedicado a la “importación”de pensamiento traduciendo obras al español,pero no se “exporta” nada, por que no se hapensado aún en la posibilidad de traducirliteratura nativa a lengua extranjera. Es pocoel interés del Departamento por acabar elmonólogo de la lengua extranjera, pues sólohasta hace muy poco se inicio tímidamenteel estudio de la enseñanza de español paraextranjeros.

No son pocas las implicaciones de estemonologo ya insoportable para muchosestudiantes, puesto que ha llevado a muchaspersonas a considerar la carrera como canterade profesores, y a los estudiantes como aspi-rantes a servidores del bien foráneo. Por todoello, resulta imperativo que tanto directivoscomo profesores analicen críticamente estasituación e implementen políticas concretas.Por parte de los estudiantes, es necesario unesfuerzo individual que le permita ver másallá de lo evidente en lo que se estudia, másahora, cuando algunos monólogos pretendenimponerse en el mundo.

Have we really opened our minds?

Diego Andrés Marín CerónEnglish Student - VII Semester

marin_ce2003@yahoo.com.mx

In memory of Rene DescartesForeign language teachers and learners

commonly believe that a person who learnsanother language opens his/her mind to theworld. This statement is based on the factthat acquiring another language implieslearning about another culture and thisprocess makes possible the recognition ofthe diversity of cosmovisions that thehuman mind is able to produce.

However valid this statement may seem,it has two weaknesses: (a) it is based on anunclear 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 wehave come to believe in some miscon-ceptions that will be discussed later on.

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 recognizetheir prejudices and stereotypes and is eager to change them for other thoughts moresuitable to the aspect of reality they supposedly represent.

If we really want to rid our minds of prejudices and stereotypes we have to begin by recognizingthem as such. However, that recognition is not automatic; it requires that we be engaged in aprocess of continuous questioning of the absolute certainty of any belief that we consider trueuntil we have clearly appreciated the reliability of the arguments that support it. It means thatwe must question ourselves whenever we make a judgment about another person, anotherculture or about any phenomenon of reality that we can perceive, specially, if we have not haddirect contact with any of them. By doing so, we will be able to find which of our beliefs have asolid ground and which do not.

A person who studies a foreign language has the opportunity to recognize some of his/herprejudices and stereotypes. It is possible as a result of their learning that person will appreciate therelativity of the system of beliefs present in his/her culture, and come to understand of languageas 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/herculture. However this does not guarantee that he/she has opened his/her mind. If that individualhas not learnt to question the absolute certainty of any belief, that awareness will lie dormant intheir consciousness. S/he will not open his/her mind. In fact, s/he might even acquire moreprejudices from the culture s/he is trying to comprehend.

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La competencia lingüística seconvirtió en un fin, cuandoen realidad es un medio para

interactuar con otrospensamientos

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THE FRENCH CORNER

Portraits de la Colombie, en français

Véronique BellangerProfesseur du Département de Langues Etrangères, Université Nationale de Colombie, Siège Bogotá

Veroniquebellanger2001@yahoo.fr

D ans le cadre du développement de larecherche par projets de l’enseignement-apprentissage de la culture française au sein de lafilière de philologie et langues(spécialité français),différents projets de classe ont été menés à bien,et ont pu aujourd’hui obtenir la reconnaissancenationale et internationale d’institutions derenom.

“Portraits de la Colombie, en français” est lefruit de l’avant-projet présenté au Cavilam etTV5, au cours du séminaire de formation deformateurs en août 2004, et développé en classeavec les étudiants de français 5 de notre filière, et aujourd’hui avec ceux des cours de civilisationfrançaise 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 desuniversités, lycées(niveau terminale), et instituts de langues au niveau national.

Les professeurs seront invités à introduire dans leur classe la pédagogie par projet commealternative méthodologique pour que leurs étudiants présentent leur ville ou région à traversune photo et un texte en français. Cette présentation doit être le résultat de la réflexioninterculturelle 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 expositionnationale et la diffusion d’un multimédia dans les Alliances françaises, et d’une présentationinternationale au festival du documentaire à Paris en Octobre 2005 et à l’Université de Bordeaux3. 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, desAlliances françaises, de l’Université de Bordeaux 3, de l’Alliance française de Lyon, de laFundación B.A.T, de l’ESAP, de la Corporación Cultural de Barranquilla, de la FundaciónOrtega y Gasset, de Unimedios (Universidad Nacional de Colombia), de la chaine tv5, deServientrega et d’Aviatur.

Nous vous invitons dès aujourd’hui à y participer! Contactez-nous1 au mail suivant:portraitsdelacolombieenfrancais@yahoo.fr

1 Staff PCF: Cuellar Rivera Hugo Andrés, Rangel Bayona Manuel Mauricio, Rodriguez Eisenhower, Suárez Celi Vanessa, Rico Garavito FabioAndrés, Moya Morales John Martín, Suárez Tapiero John Jairo, Novoa Castiblanco Ivonne Astrid, Carvajales Catalina, Tous Carlos, AvendañoAlejandro, Vallejo Amanda.

Photo: Luis Eduardo Nieves

Photo: Projet Bogota au centre du monde

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

Carolina Martinez Chaparrocarolita32@yahoo.com

Carol Ivonne Villamil Benalcarolivonnebsb@yahoo.com

M algré la richesse pluriculturelle et plurilingue denotre pays, on sait bien que cette diversité n’est reconnue nipar nous les colombiens, ni par le monde en général. Cetteméconnaissance des cultures est due au manque dediffusion et d’information de la culture et de la civilisationindiennes; en plus, il y a une certaine indifférence aumoment de défendre et d’établir une véritable loi quigarantisse la sauvegarde et la vie des cultures ditesminoritaires.

C’est pourquoi nous avons décidé de faire une étudeapprofondie sur la communauté indienne INGA et demontrer les résultats de notre recherche de la façon la plusefficace pour essayer d’interdire sa perte d’identité et deculture. La récollection de données et d’informationconcernant cette communauté a été longue et difficileparce qu’il n’y a pas beaucoup de théorie et d’informationqui soit véritable et complète dans les livres. On a essayéde structurer l’information d’après des cours de langue etculture, diverses conférences auxquelles nous avons assisté,des interviews faites aux membres de cette communautéet aux individus qui ont eu des contacts avec eux et despetits articles trouvés sur internet.

Une des bases fondamentales de cette étude a été lespolitiques linguistiques en Europe, principalement, cellesde France. Le fait d’avoir des documents consacrésessentiellement à la défense et à la reconnaissance deslangues minoritaires laisse voir l’importance et le respectqu’ont ces pays envers le «cadeau» culturel que lescommunautés font aux grandes cultures d’aujourd’hui. Uneautre base théorique de ce projet est liée aux scienceshumaines et à celles de la culture: anthropologielinguistique; sociolinguistique; ethnographique; etlinguistique culturelle parmi d’autres.

La propos fondamental de cette investigation est celuide connaître la culture INGA et de la montrer à un mondequi ne connaît pas la richesse et les merveilles que cette culturenous offre. Aussi, on souhaite faire naître des sentiments derespect, de tolérance ainsi que la capacité de reconnaître lesautres avec leurs différences et leurs égalités et aider à laconservation des langues et cultures de notre pays.

Aujourd’hui, un des outils les plus efficaces au momentde communiquer ou de donner ou d’obtenir l’informationest l’Internet, car c’est le moyen massif de communicationen Colombie et du monde en général.

Pour cette raison, nous ferons une page web sur les Ingasqui donnera aux gens de presque tout le monde la possibilitéde connaître et de faire partie de la richesse culturelle desgroupes indiens. La page sera élaborée en 3 languesdifférentes, lesquelles à notre avis sont les plus connues dansle monde entier. Ce sont l’espagnol, le français et l’anglais.

Nous espérons que ce mémoire servira de pont entreles cultures de notre pays et les organisations nationales etinternationales partageant notre intérêt, afin d’aider lespeuples indiens dans leurs projets de sauvegarde de lalangue, de la culture, et des mœurs.

MémoireFilière de philologie et langues-Français. Directrice du mémoire:Véronique Bellanger: veroniquebellanger2001@yahoo.fr

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Juan Carlos Rodríguez RendónEstudiante de la carrera de francés y de ruso electivo

xyah1985@mail.ru

RUSSIAN

JAPANESE

Lina María CondeEnglish Student - VII Semester

linamaconde@hotmail.com

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N E W TECHNOLOGIES

UsefulWeb DLE: A website for dynamicTeaching and Learning

www.usefulweb-project.tk

Mauricio Joven Bonello and Dario Andrés LealEnglish Students - Last Semester

dalealc@unal.edu.comaoopa@gmail.com

U sefulWeb is a monographic project which intends to integrate the mostimportant features offered by the Internet in terms of English LanguageTeaching and Learning ( E L T L). This project was born out of the need forour Languages Department to take advantage of the opportunities offeredby 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 usedincorporating such tools.

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

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

E-mail: This is one of the most popular resources people use on theInternet 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 indifferent ways. Email complements chat rooms because after having had aconversation with a foreigner, the only safe way to chat with him/her again isby having his/her e-mail address so that you can keep contact with them tocontinue practicing English. The second one is the contact that it facilitatesbetween the teacher and his/her students so that they can send and receivehomework and ask questions by sending e-mails. Another way in which wecan say that this tool contributes to E L T L is that students can openaccounts with interfaces in English so that they practice English not only byreading e-mails in the Target Language but also by interacting with theinterface.

The Forum: This is the tool that offers the greatest variety of possibilitiesbecause of the characteristics that make it manageable and adaptable tospecific needs. The forum makes it achievable to discus and exchange opinionsby posting messages in a non-synchronic way2. At the same time, it is easier towork with a specific purpose, like education, because it allows people withsimilar interest to join groups in which they can learn, debate, and, of course,use the language. The possibilities for one-to-one (student-student/student-teacher), or one-to-many (teacher or student to all members of the forum)

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

Having fulfilled, to some extent, our primary communication shortages,we can think of another important requisite when learning a foreign languagein the particular conditions we have here in Colombia. Not everybody canbuy the newest andmost up to date booksto work on the differentskills to improve theirproficiency. That is whywe have thought ofdatabases and links.

Databases and links: Apart from communication, the Internetoffers other possibilities, academically speaking as it has become thegreatest source of information with its different databases and links.Databases are tools which allow Students and Teachers to searchtheoretical data such as definitions, lists, abstracts and analysis ofcertain academic information. Databases in Internet offer theopportunity of getting a huge amount of organized information forstudents and teachers to research, discuss and enrich the academicenvironment. Some examples of data bases in Internet and its areas ofuse are ERICK for Didactics and www.sparknotes.com for Literature.

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

To conclude, we can say that we could be missing out on a great varietyof material which is there: on the web. We must look carefully at and reflecton the possibilities we, as students and teachers, have on the web. All theaids and possibilities can be understood by many of the learning theories weknow and can even be the birth of a new educational era. Maybe you thinkit is not possible or it is a way to “replace” teachers. Why don’t you make ita strong tool to enrich your work and to demonstrate the improvementsthat can be made by a teacher U S I N G technology? That is what UsefulWebintends to do, to put together the aids found on the Internet on a singlewebsite for our students and teachers to access and use them, to have aforum for communication among the communities, to have a classified guideof websites to visit and learn from them and last but not least, this projectexpects to be considered as an effort to at least make students and teachersconsider this Useful Web as a valid attempt to introduce those who had notpreviously realized how these kinds of tools are valuable for educationalpurposes 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 aformative webpage and that can be easily adapted to suit their syllabuses tothe use of similar materials.

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” EdicionesAljibe, Málaga, 2002.

2 Ídem

W e must look carefully at andreflect on the possibilities we,as students and teachers,

have on the web

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EXTENSION ACTIVITIES

Extension Programmes in Progress

LEARNING

Learning about the Fear of Learning

David MartinEnglish Student - VII Semester

scissorman999@ yahoo.com

H ave you ever feltthat your students werenot giving of their best?What would you do ifthey did not want toshow their abilities?Maybe we are facing abig problem: the fear oflearning. This fear iscalled sophophobia, “apersistent, abnormal, andirrational fear oflearning” according tothe Grandiloquent

Dictionary 1. This poses a threat both to physicaland mental health. Its treatment can takemonths, even years. Sophophobia creates thefeeling of danger when it is present in the learningprocess causing panic attacks, shortness ofbreath, rapid breathing, irregular heartbeat,sweating and nausea.

I would like to address the issue of sophophobiain our classrooms. It is the kind of fear that interruptsthe process of attaining knowledge amongst ourstudents producing in them depression and sadness.When you are giving a class, regardless of conditions,some students are afraid to learn. Their skills, abilitiesand intelligence are deeply hidden behind the wallof fear. Not only their academic development canbe seriously affected but their self esteem andmotivation also are at risk, and probably, the restof their lives too.

I have been working in a school as an Englishteacher and I have noticed some of the abovefeatures in the learning process of my students. Theirfear has been reflected by:

a) Timidity: despite that some students do knowwhat you are talking about, they do not dare tospeak, ask questions or reply, because they arereally quiet and shy. They understand each word,sentence or explanation given; however, theydo not want to show their abilities to the class.

b) Failure: when students are working in class theyshow high levels of understanding, but whenthey have an evaluation they forget basicknowledge. I realize they fail because they want

to. They don’t want to stand out becausestanding out increases their fear of learningand so they prefer to fail.

c) Self - Negation: this is an aspect that teacherswill hardly notice without talking to students.Sentences as “I can’t”, “I’ve just forgotten”,“Sorry, I do not know” are the usual repliesgiven by students when asked about theirperformance. They just put down themselves,they do not believe in their abilities andthinking. They believe that they do not wantto learn.

The solution to this problem can takedifferent forms. The first option is to talk directlyto them about what is going on and show themthat fear is part and parcel of being a humanbeing, and that as humans we have to overcomechallenges by confronting them because they areelements of our development. If the students areunder 18, a meeting with parents might help.An appointment with the psychologist could beof great help too. Let us not forget our role asteachers. We have to take care of our studentswhen difficult situations arise. Just say: Face Fear!!

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

Shortening the Path from the School to the University

Javier Augusto RojasEnglish Student - VIII Semester

javirse@yahoo.com.mx

At first, the distance from the School to the University was covered by aneglected and little used road. The people at the School regarded the road toosteep and the university too high, whereas at the university people consideredthe journey to School to be a useless and even a senseless activity. As a result,the pragmatic and real knowledge produced by the School remaineddisconnected from the theoretical text-based knowledge gotten at University.

In order to make the journey easier and more attractive, the PFPDs1 werecreated in 1995. Those served to bearing in mind the importance and benefitsto consider/evaluate of a more open path in order to promote interculturaland inter academic contact between the two kinds of knowledge. Ever since,the journeys from School to University and vice versa have become amongstthe most enriching. Now, more often than not these programs includeResearch, Innovation and Updating. There are also shorter programs whichoffer updating only, and focus on very specific topics.

As we speak, 125 primary and high school teachers from Localidad 4 SanCristobal together with 10 teacher-researchers from the Foreign LanguagesDepartment at La Universidad Nacional are embarking on the latest programcalled Programa de Actualización. It entails three main components, namely,

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

The cultural and academic exchange has allowed for cooperation, as wellas sharing of experiences and the generation of new and strong bonds betweenthe School and the University. By observing how others live and work thesecommunities have been able to reflect on their own product and performanceand produce more insightful comments regarding their own position. Thus,a dialectic relationship occurs between the school practice and universitytheory, thanks to the knowledge exchange produced by Teacher DevelopmentPrograms. Such programs enhance collaborative thinking and action-orientedresearch both at the level of School and University.

If you would like more information about the way in which the path fromthe School to the University is being improved in order to discover moreacademic routes, it can be found in the journal PROFILE Journal andincludes the contributions ofthe participants and theirexperiences in this ongoingadventure. Alternatively,contact the PROFILEresearch group in the ForeignLanguages Department.

1 Programas de Formación Permanentede Docentes

Photo taken by David Martín

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EPISTEMOLOGY

‘Studenteacher’ orThe subject-object relationship in the classroom

Ronnall Castro QuinteroStudent VI Semester hegelarx@hotmail.com

It is clear for the majority of us that reality is made up of phenomena that we call ‘objects’, and thatwe 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 inimproving our practice as teachers and students.

First of all, subject-object is an epistemological category used for explaining the human process ofknowledge. It is an abstraction but one that is deeply connected to concrete things that exist in reality.Each one of the elements in isolation is incomprehensible yet they are inextricably related each other. Itis therefore impossible to consider them separately without makingmistakes when theorizing or acting on such a misconception.

A subject is any human being who knows the world consciously,for example a butcher, a doctor, a taxi-driver, a physicist, a farmer,or in our case a student or a teacher. They may not be awareexactly of what they do or why, but regardless, they put intopractice 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 andtransformed 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 reallydoing is studying ourselves in relation to that object. However, the existence of an object does not implythe existence of a subject. This is explained taking into account that subject-object is an epistemologicalcategory, whereas the concept of existence is expressed by an ontological process: ‘being’. In fact theobject exists in reality as a ‘being-in-itself’, before turning into an object, i.e. it exists without thesubject’s awareness of it. It becomes an object when someone meditates and acts consciously on it.

Considering the classroom as “a complex system of communication, investigation and construction ofknowledge, 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 thesubject-object relationship is not a simple abstraction but a question of life.

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

Students exist without the presence of a teacher in a classroom, teachers on the other hand don’t existwithout students. So can we really say that students are no more than objects existing independently froma subject? No, that would imply that the subject is the teacher, and it is precisely this theory we are tryingto overcome. Teachers and students are subjects and their object is to obtain knowledge about the wholeworld and themselves (ourselves) within it.

When saying teacher, we also say student. As the subject-object, it is absurd to consider them separatedly.The relationship student-teacher or ‘studenteacher’, which is the basis of the pedagogical phenomenon, is adynamic synthesis that comprises all the interactions that occur in a classroom. It is a unity in which bothparts learn from each other, and in so doing not only interpret but transform the world.

1 In this sense, spiritual could be interpreted as cultural. According to Hegel: “el espíritu es, esta sustancia absoluta que, en la perfecta libertade 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 nosotrosel yo” (Hegel, 1966: 123).

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La motivación como variabledeterminante en la adquisición de

una segunda lengua

muy osado afirmar que la adquiere en un períododeterminado y en otro la aprende porque estoindicaría que este proceso se ve de forma lineale irreversible. Por lo tanto, no se puede hablarde adquisición de una segunda lengua sininvolucrar el aprendizaje en dicho proceso,porque las habilidades comunicativas requierende un trabajo progresivo tanto en la lenguamaterna como en la segunda. Por eso, esimportante manejar las variables afectivasmencionadas por Krashen para hacer más amenoel ambiente en el cual se aprende y se adquierela segunda lengua, ya que el estudiante estarámotivado, sentirá confianza y perderá la ansiedadque le ocasiona un bloqueo mental.

La motivación es una variable determinanteen la adquisición/aprendizaje de una segundalengua porque estimula al principiante a serreceptivo en vez de defensivo frente a laspersonas que ya la han adquirido/aprendido. Porotro lado, el deseo de desarrollar habilidades enuna segunda lengua por razones prácticas yfuncionales también motiva al individuo.

Entonces, ésta es una invitación para todoslos maestros de lenguas extranjeras y porsupuesto para los futuros maestros que deseancontribuir en el proceso de adquisición/aprendizaje de una segunda lengua. Pretendeasí mismo fomentar el interés por las variablesafectivas presentes en el estudiante y que lepermiten el dominio natural de la lengua. Si elhablante no se siente motivado perderá el interéspor aprender y además creará una barrera mentalque le impedirá confiar en sí mismo y en sushabilidades en el momento que quiera usar lasegunda lengua.

Lo anterior muestra que la motivación ytodas las variables afectivas ocupan un lugarpreponderante en el proceso de adquisición/aprendizaje de una segunda lengua. Esindispensable recurrir a ella para generarexpectativas en el estudiante y así mantenervivo su deseo por adquirir/aprender un idiomadiferente al materno.

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

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ENTERTAINMENT

Magic the Gathering for newbies

Sergio Daniel Solórzano RochaStudent from the Extension Courses and 10th

Grade Student at Mayor de San Bartolomé Schoolsergiosd@gmail.com

Let’s imagine a fantasy world that is like theLord of the Rings plus the One Thousand andOne Nights, plus many elements of the Japanesemyths and many others from around the world.Let’s imagine that you can enter a world likethat as a very powerful wizard, with your ownmagical powers, armies, weapons, and tricks. Andthat your main goal is to defeat other wizards inorder to show who the best is.

W e all know that in real life it is very difficultto be a wizard and have personal armies. But anyway there are some ways to do that. You can forexample take drugs and imagine all that you want,but you can’t be sure that what you are going toimagine is what you want or you can try readinga book. However, if you are looking forsomething more interesting and that makes you“part” of the story, there is a game called Magicthe Gathering.

Magic the Gathering was one of the first reallysuccessful trading card games. It was created 12years ago by Richard Garfield. And since itscreation the game has not changed from the pointof view of rules, of the story and of the philosophy

behind it. The idea is to extinguish the total life ofyour enemy from 20 to 0 as fast as you can. It issimilar to chess because the idea is to make check-mate to your opponent’s king, thereforeextinguishing him. You take on the role of a wizardin a battle against another wizard and you try to“kill” him just before he kills you, just like in chesswhere you take the place of a king leading an army.

Whether you like the story of the game or theidea of competing you will need a deck of a minimum60 cards to play. That deck is going to be for youthe same as the F1 car is to the F1 driver. It is goingto be the tool with which you win or with whichyou fail just before the beginning. There arehundreds of cards you can choose from to makeyour own deck. These are classified into manycategories and the most important ones are colorsand types.

There are five colors: white, blue, black, red,and green. Each of these represents a kind of magicand also the way you like to play. That means thatif you like, for example red, you may think of it asfire against the others. Each color representssomething: white for life, blue for intelligence, blackfor death, red for chaos and green for nature. Eachcolor is “usually” as powerful as the others. Thereare also artifacts that are colorless. The artifactsrepresent the unnatural and the tools that can beused to become victorious. Again, as in chess, blackis as powerful as white. As colors are equallypowerful, the difference is in the way you combineyour cards in your deck. That idea is similar todiamonds and coal that are made of the samematerial (C atoms) but because they are organizedin different ways one is more valuable than theother.

The types, on the other hand, can be understoodas the different resources you have to fight in abattle. In the real world armies can use soldiers,artillery, money and strategy; the same goes for thegame. In the game, the creatures represent thesoldiers and each one with a special ability or“training”, as in real life not all the soldiers areinfantry and not all are commanders. As in real life,in this magical adventure not all the creatures areequal because some have more capabilities andpowers than others. In real life there is artillery butin the game there are spells. Artillery counts withmissiles, bombs or satellites that let armies crushtheir enemies or know what they are going to do(intelligence services).Spells represent the same inthe form of cards.

Finally, the last type of card is the one representingwealth in the category of lands. Each color has a

representative land: white for plains, blue forislands, black for swamps, red for mountains andgreen for forests. There are also multicoloredlands that can serve as mountains and swampssimultaneously. Each land is like a source ofmoney that in the game is called mana. Thereare five types of mana. For each color there is aspecial kind of mana depending on the land thatproduced it. You use that mana the same way acountry 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. This is appliedto the game so for white creatures, white mana isused and so on. In a real life war not all peopleearn the same amount of money and not all theservices cost the same. In magic it is exactly thesame but using the cards. You look for the bestand the cheapest ones in mana terms.

Last but not least the game is more than a“huge” amount of rules, categories and colors. Itis all about how you get the cards you think youneed to make the “perfect deck” to win everysingle game, something that is nearly impossible.The game is also about discussing with yourpartners and friends your ideas, decks, the lasttournament and the next. Magic the Gatheringbelongs to an international organization thatapproves official tournaments and provides prizesranging from single cards to thousand of dollarsin high level competitions to which only thereally good players are invited.Red dragon card

Green spell

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A virtual visit to Madame Tussaud’s Museum 1

Felix BurgosEnglish Student - V Semester

fellord@yahoo.com.ar

M useums are considered, together with libraries, as the principal sources of knowledge usedto preserve the recorded evolution of human society and the historical identity of a nation. In allEurope, London has the most museums and cultural activities for citizens and visitors fromaround the world to enjoy.

Last week, I was one of those so called “tourists” looking for a different way of spending myvacation. After an educational visit to the Royal Academy of Music, I found myself in front ofRegent’s Park looking for something new when rested my eyes upon a strange building which isthe home of the two most important attractions in London: Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museumand 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 andin 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 “in person” the greatest celebrities.Marie Grosholtz (Marie Tussaud after her marriage to François Tussaud) learnt how to makewax models with Dr. Philippe Curtius, a Swiss physician who first used wax modeling to illustrateanatomical structures and then to represent important people during the 16th Century. This wasthe 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 payif 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 newestattraction that uses a modern special presentation to show life in London throughout the yearswith extraordinary olfactory, sound and visual effects.

The next stage called 200 Years of Madame Tussaud was the most important for me, becauseit connects the past to the future. Collections here are presented as they were originally exhibited

in the XIX Century by MadameTussaud. This part of the Museumkeeps an emotional elegant relationbetween two different centuries.

The Grand Hall is dedicated toall the people who have gifted theworld with their invaluablecontributions. For me it was apleasure to be photographed in thecompany of Gandhi, WinstonChurchill and Pasteur. It was also anice opportunity to meet all themembers of Queen Band, whichwas my favorite.

The “Chamber of Horrors” is the mainattraction of the place. But, it is notrecommended that people who suffer fromheart diseases or, as in my case, have troublesleeping after having seen a terrorizingview of this particular exhibit. The mixtureof perfection and horror is the mostimportant feature of the chamber; Jackthe Ripper and the victims of the guillotinehave been the staring in my nightmaressince that day.

Finally, when I started feeling exhausted(as Madame Tussaud is a huge Museum), Idecided to sit and drink a cup of tea withJulia Roberts and Sean Connery at“Hollywood Legends” the last stage of thetour.

An hour and a half is not enough tocover all the stages of the museum, thereis a lot of history and fun inside its doors. Ihope to go back as soon as possible so thatI have the pleasure of watching my friendsturn green with envy and having themask, “Did you really meet these people?”…,when looking at my photographs.

1 This article was developed as a class exercise in the Basic EnglishIV class, during the second semester of 2004. Although I havenot been to England, I did exhaustive research about this beautifulmuseum and the places around it. I would like to thank my co-workers and teacher because they supported me givingsuggestions and making corrections to present to you the versionthat is now in your hands.

TR AVELLING

Location of the museum in London

Julia Roberts' wax figure

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Prophecy

Camilo Morales NeisaEnglish Student - VI Semester

cmoralesne@unal.edu.co

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 itwas different. On this occasion they were running for their lives. They made desperate efforts to get out of the compromising circumstance into which theywere 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 tovanish 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, everythinghad 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 corruptedtheir 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 everythingthat was shown in the sacred artifact. Their minds had been unfailingly consumed through the mysterious radiation emitted by the frame of the thousand worlds.

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 airsuffocating 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 itspoisonous and ominous smell of disaster. Tears of pain and impotence fell to the ground leaving a little track. Bloody drops mixed with lachrymose ones. Thecouple of hunted refugees would soon come face to face with their destiny.

Inside the refuge, no heart beat. Terrible expressions of gelid terror were reflected in the faces of those already dead fellows. An ethereal substance hadfinished 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 decidedto 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 markof the consequences of indifference.

Photo taken by Juan Carlos Becerra

Hay quienes escogen la soledad

Edgar Milton Santa GarcíaEstudiante de Francés - ISemestre

emsantag@unal.edu.co

H ay quienes escogen la soledadComo compañera,

Caminan con ella de la mano,Se ríen juntos,

Se miran largamenteSe 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 soledadToman siestas juntos,Toman el mismo bus,

Toman la misma palabra,Toman vino juntos.

Hay quienes escogen la soledadLa abanderan con corazones,

Marcan cuadernos con sus iniciales,La proclaman reina, princesa, caciqueLa llaman en el dolor de una derrotaLa beben como fuente sagrada.

Hay muchos que escogen la soledadHoy 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 acompañaHace bastante, Una carcajada salió de sus bocas secas

Carcajadas de perro resfriado.-Pero si estas…¡SOLO!-

¡Hay quienes escogen la soledad!

LITERATURE

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Bilingual education:Native language vs. Foreign/second language

Alexandra Arango Silva and Jorge Celis SantosEnglish Students - VIII Semester

americano202@yahoo.co.uk

Teaching English is not only an enabling process in which a teacher assistslearners so that they acquire this foreign language. It is also the process bywhich the cultures of English speakers become a part of one’s culture.Colombian native communities have undergone similar experiences withSpanish. Yet, it is essential to discuss the teaching of English. English is thelanguage used to conclude manyimportant world events. Hence,teaching English brings about aconcern: How can you teach itwithout weakening the learner’snative language? That is the reasonwhy we want to provide the readerwith a quick overview of the currentcircumstances concerning thedilemma of bilingual education.Moreover, we want to give our ownpoint of view regarding Spanish vis-à-vis English.

Needless to say, Spanish isevidently the predominant languagespoken in Latin America 1.Nonetheless, a good number ofpeople including linguists andphilologists do not know that thereare 50 million indigenous peoplewho speak more than 400 differentlanguages throughout Central andSouth America. The reason whythere are so many native languages is simple: some countries such as Mexico,Guatemala, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Peru have a high percentage of indigenouscommunities.

Therefore, multilingualism, variation, and language contact are frequentsituations in Latin America1. Several educational programs have been createdin order to respond to the educational needs and claims of Latin America’snative communities. These have been called Bilingual Education, Bilingualand Bicultural Education, Indigenous Education, Ethno education, andIntercultural Bilingual Education. Nowadays, virtually every Latin Americangovernment has introduced such programs which have been supported bythe state and the people themselves. Indigenous organizations have played avery important part in this endeavor.

Let us exemplify this experience by looking at the Bolivian example. It isa country whose population is chiefly indigenous2 (54% pure native indigenous,31% mestizos, and only 15 % whites). Its official language is Spanish,nevertheless, more than half of its population speaks native languages suchas Quechua (34,4 %), Aimará (25,2 %), and Guaraní (4,4 %). Over the lastfew years, people like Enrique Ipiña Melgar3 have been working to safeguardthose cultures and languages. This politician, who has done research ineducation, has sided with social movements which defend the minorities’rights in Bolivia. Ipiña has made a suggestion concerning the criteria thatteachers involved in Bilingual Education should meet, as well as the conditions

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

Deep down, Ipiña is not only playing a part in the debate on bilingualeducation, but also predicting that cultural practices such as teaching foreign/second languages, particularly teaching English (the language of the UnitedStates – the world’s most powerful country), will affect many social groupsin the world.

In Colombia, some linguists andforeign language professors havejoined the discussion. They have setout to highlight the importance of abicultural policy underlying bilingualeducation as well as clearing the airas far as the term bilingual educationis concerned.

Let us begin with what ProfessorCarlos Patiño Rosseli has saidconcerning this issue. He claims thatin Colombia there is a misuse of theterm Bilingual Education4. He saysthat this concept refers to twodissimilar circumstances: On the onehand, it refers to what is called inColombia Etnoeducación, which isbilingual and bicultural educationaimed at ethnic minorities who livein different areas of the country andwhich seeks to teach children thenation’s official language (Spanish),

as well as preserving their vernacular languages. On the other hand, it alsorefers to those schools, above all those in Bogotá, which teach children aforeign language – English, more often than not and which also use thisforeign language to teach subjects other than English. Thereby, Patiño Roselliconcludes that the former case is the most authentic and fruitful bilingualeducation illustration, since it takes place in a setting where there is acohabitation of two languages, each of them being one part of the society’smother tongue.

Genoveva Iriarte5 and Anne-Marie de Mejia6 have drawn the sameconclusion. De Mejia makes the same division Patiño Rosseli does. She callsthem Folk Bilingualism and Elitist Bilingualism respectively. Presenting thefindings of research carried out in Calí in 1994 and 1995, De Mejia maintainsthat those urban bilingual schools do have success in teaching studentsEnglish, however, to the disadvantage of Spanish7. Also, she states that it isparamount both for the Colombian government and those schools to havea clear bicultural policy included in the curriculum.

On the other hand, Iriarte Esguerra shares De Mejia’s view. In addition,she underlines the importance that the student’s native language has inlearning a foreign/second language as well as the necessity of respecting thedifferent languages and dialects existing in Colombia8.

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BILINGUAL ED U CATION

Activity in a bilingual school in Bogotá

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PUBLIC ED U CATION

PUBLIC INSTRUCTION:a failed attempt to establish a moderneducational system in Colombia

Isabel BuitragoEnglish Student - V Semester

isabel.buitrago@gmail.com

The importance of the educational system inthe second half of the nineteenth century inColombia had to do, among other things, withthe educational movements that occurred inother Latin American countries like Argentina,but most significantly with the Organic Decreeof November 1st 1870. This was passed by theFederal government1 in order to promote apopular Primary Instruction System for the wholenation. According to the author Jane Meyer Loy,this reform “was a protest movement by a smallnumber of elites who for a variety of interestswished to set up a modern system of primaryeducation”2. The objective of this article is toconsider the term public instruction as the firsteffort to establish an independent system ofeducation in Colombia, as related to the issue ofFederalism, its interest groups and pre-modernconditions.

Public Instruction was understood as a systemof education that included three main areas:teaching, inspection and administration3. Beforethe approval of the Decree, teaching was acontroversial topic in which the Catholic Churchwas considered as an important decision-makingbody. It had many politicalrights given by previousadministrations. The onlyexception being GeneralMosquera’s governmentin which the church’s civilrights and legal responsi-bility in public educationwere forbidden. The Ca-tholic Institution enjoyeda near monopoly overpeople as it was free toincorporate preaching intoteaching. This “divine”permission became theessential privilege of theepiscopate and the ab-solute responsibility ofpriests in the nineteenthcentury. However, Eus-torgio Salgar in hisadministration and in-terest for getting unity andpeace, recognized educa-tion was as the only way

to get intellectual independencefrom our European inheritance.As a consequence of this, theOrganic Decree of PublicInstruction was passed in hisgovernment program. Thisofficial decision establishedprimary educational centresamong the nine Federal Statesand at the same time promotedthe separation of teaching andreligious formation. This lattermeasure divided the nation intwo interest groups: the“Instruccionistas” who defend-ed the new system of educationand the “Ignorantistas”, whocontinuously opposed thepolicies Salgar passed in orderto support the system. Amongthose who were in favour ofhaving a fair and subsidizededucational system wereRadicals, Reformers, Masons, the ColombianGuard, and a minority group of Catholic people.The opposition was represented by the InstitutionalChurch4, some official newspapers such as LaCaridad5, different representatives from theConservative party; the oligarchy and the poorestsectors of this society that prohibited their childrento go to schools because the new system was collect-ively considered as the representation of the sin.

The Catholic hostility to secular educationincreased with regards to the question of inspection,

understood to be as the secondcomponent in public instruc-tion. Before the Organic Decreeinspection was carried out bythe main representatives of theCatholic Church, however, thisprocedure became responsibi-lity of non-religious teacherswho were eloquent supportersof the new system. They werealso in charge of the contentand methodology offered by theprimary schools in differentareas like languages, mathema-tics, geography, calligraphy andso on. These inspectors werepart of the Vigilance Commi-ssion which developed specificfunctions: the fulfillment of theinstitutionalized rules; theeffective attendance of childrento schools; the writing ofreports to the Director ofPublic Instruction about anyeventuality.

This rigorous system, notonly passed over theConstitution and the rightsof the Church, but alsorefused any “clerical coope-ration”6 in the developmentof the public instructionsystem. However, in 1876,the main representative ofthe Catholic Church, Arch-bishop Arbeláez, requested,among other aspects, thatthe priests deserved to teachsome classes and that allteachers should be Catholic.These requirements had todo directly with administra-tion as the final player in thequestion of public instruc-tion. The Archbishop metseveral times with theSecretary of Interior andForeign Relations, Manuel

Ancizar, and as result of these meetings, a pactwas sealed. This agreement consisted of usingschool texts approved by the Church and ofordering inspectors to carry out arrangementswith some priests in order to teach religion tochildren when their parents requested it.Nevertheless, this agreement was not enoughfor some conservative representatives and fortruly Catholic people who continued criticizingand reproving the secular methods and theirattempts towards a “modern” system ofeducation.

Besides proposing the importance of officialeducation at that time, the Decree of PrimaryPublic Instruction made evident the limited andpre-modern conditions that characterized theFederation. These being represented in terms ofeconomic progress, cultural and ideologicaldependence. They reflected the complex sceneryin which different actors from the nine FederalStates were unable to forge a unified front thatwould contribute to an early educationaldevelopment in the second half of thenineteenth century in our country.

1 This government was represented by Eustorgio Salgar’sadministration from 1870 to 1872 in Colombia.

2 MEYER LOY, Jane. Modernization and educational reform inColombia 1863-1886”. University of Wisconsin. 1969. P. 6

3 ESCUELA NORMAL: Periódico Oficial de Instrucción Pública.Estados Unidos de Colombia. Bogotá. Nº. 1. 1871.

4 The Institutional Catholic Church must be understood as theelite of this institution, different from the popular sectors thatfollow the Catholicism.

5 “La Caridad”, became the official Catholic newspaper after “ElCatolicismo”. “La Caridad”, promoted the Catholic ideology, theliterature and the religious teaching from 1864 to 1890.

6 MEYER LOY, op cit. P. 172

Periódico semanal, religioso, filosófico y literario

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Bilingual education:Native language vs. Foreign/second language

Alexandra Arango Silva and Jorge Celis SantosEnglish Students - VIII Semester

americano202@yahoo.co.uk

Teaching English is not only an enabling process in which a teacher assistslearners so that they acquire this foreign language. It is also the process bywhich the cultures of English speakers become a part of one’s culture.Colombian native communities have undergone similar experiences withSpanish. Yet, it is essential to discuss the teaching of English. English is thelanguage used to conclude manyimportant world events. Hence,teaching English brings about aconcern: How can you teach itwithout weakening the learner’snative language? That is the reasonwhy we want to provide the readerwith a quick overview of the currentcircumstances concerning thedilemma of bilingual education.Moreover, we want to give our ownpoint of view regarding Spanish vis-à-vis English.

Needless to say, Spanish isevidently the predominant languagespoken in Latin America 1.Nonetheless, a good number ofpeople including linguists andphilologists do not know that thereare 50 million indigenous peoplewho speak more than 400 differentlanguages throughout Central andSouth America. The reason whythere are so many native languages is simple: some countries such as Mexico,Guatemala, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Peru have a high percentage of indigenouscommunities.

Therefore, multilingualism, variation, and language contact are frequentsituations in Latin America1. Several educational programs have been createdin order to respond to the educational needs and claims of Latin America’snative communities. These have been called Bilingual Education, Bilingualand Bicultural Education, Indigenous Education, Ethno education, andIntercultural Bilingual Education. Nowadays, virtually every Latin Americangovernment has introduced such programs which have been supported bythe state and the people themselves. Indigenous organizations have played avery important part in this endeavor.

Let us exemplify this experience by looking at the Bolivian example. It isa country whose population is chiefly indigenous2 (54% pure native indigenous,31% mestizos, and only 15 % whites). Its official language is Spanish,nevertheless, more than half of its population speaks native languages suchas Quechua (34,4 %), Aimará (25,2 %), and Guaraní (4,4 %). Over the lastfew years, people like Enrique Ipiña Melgar3 have been working to safeguardthose cultures and languages. This politician, who has done research ineducation, has sided with social movements which defend the minorities’rights in Bolivia. Ipiña has made a suggestion concerning the criteria thatteachers involved in Bilingual Education should meet, as well as the conditions

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

Deep down, Ipiña is not only playing a part in the debate on bilingualeducation, but also predicting that cultural practices such as teaching foreign/second languages, particularly teaching English (the language of the UnitedStates – the world’s most powerful country), will affect many social groupsin the world.

In Colombia, some linguists andforeign language professors havejoined the discussion. They have setout to highlight the importance of abicultural policy underlying bilingualeducation as well as clearing the airas far as the term bilingual educationis concerned.

Let us begin with what ProfessorCarlos Patiño Rosseli has saidconcerning this issue. He claims thatin Colombia there is a misuse of theterm Bilingual Education4. He saysthat this concept refers to twodissimilar circumstances: On the onehand, it refers to what is called inColombia Etnoeducación, which isbilingual and bicultural educationaimed at ethnic minorities who livein different areas of the country andwhich seeks to teach children thenation’s official language (Spanish),

as well as preserving their vernacular languages. On the other hand, it alsorefers to those schools, above all those in Bogotá, which teach children aforeign language – English, more often than not and which also use thisforeign language to teach subjects other than English. Thereby, Patiño Roselliconcludes that the former case is the most authentic and fruitful bilingualeducation illustration, since it takes place in a setting where there is acohabitation of two languages, each of them being one part of the society’smother tongue.

Genoveva Iriarte5 and Anne-Marie de Mejia6 have drawn the sameconclusion. De Mejia makes the same division Patiño Rosseli does. She callsthem Folk Bilingualism and Elitist Bilingualism respectively. Presenting thefindings of research carried out in Calí in 1994 and 1995, De Mejia maintainsthat those urban bilingual schools do have success in teaching studentsEnglish, however, to the disadvantage of Spanish7. Also, she states that it isparamount both for the Colombian government and those schools to havea clear bicultural policy included in the curriculum.

On the other hand, Iriarte Esguerra shares De Mejia’s view. In addition,she underlines the importance that the student’s native language has inlearning a foreign/second language as well as the necessity of respecting thedifferent languages and dialects existing in Colombia8.

continues on page 18

BILINGUAL ED U CATION

Activity in a bilingual school in Bogotá

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PUBLIC ED U CATION

PUBLIC INSTRUCTION:a failed attempt to establish a moderneducational system in Colombia

Isabel BuitragoEnglish Student - V Semester

isabel.buitrago@gmail.com

The importance of the educational system inthe second half of the nineteenth century inColombia had to do, among other things, withthe educational movements that occurred inother Latin American countries like Argentina,but most significantly with the Organic Decreeof November 1st 1870. This was passed by theFederal government1 in order to promote apopular Primary Instruction System for the wholenation. According to the author Jane Meyer Loy,this reform “was a protest movement by a smallnumber of elites who for a variety of interestswished to set up a modern system of primaryeducation”2. The objective of this article is toconsider the term public instruction as the firsteffort to establish an independent system ofeducation in Colombia, as related to the issue ofFederalism, its interest groups and pre-modernconditions.

Public Instruction was understood as a systemof education that included three main areas:teaching, inspection and administration3. Beforethe approval of the Decree, teaching was acontroversial topic in which the Catholic Churchwas considered as an important decision-makingbody. It had many politicalrights given by previousadministrations. The onlyexception being GeneralMosquera’s governmentin which the church’s civilrights and legal responsi-bility in public educationwere forbidden. The Ca-tholic Institution enjoyeda near monopoly overpeople as it was free toincorporate preaching intoteaching. This “divine”permission became theessential privilege of theepiscopate and the ab-solute responsibility ofpriests in the nineteenthcentury. However, Eus-torgio Salgar in hisadministration and in-terest for getting unity andpeace, recognized educa-tion was as the only way

to get intellectual independencefrom our European inheritance.As a consequence of this, theOrganic Decree of PublicInstruction was passed in hisgovernment program. Thisofficial decision establishedprimary educational centresamong the nine Federal Statesand at the same time promotedthe separation of teaching andreligious formation. This lattermeasure divided the nation intwo interest groups: the“Instruccionistas” who defend-ed the new system of educationand the “Ignorantistas”, whocontinuously opposed thepolicies Salgar passed in orderto support the system. Amongthose who were in favour ofhaving a fair and subsidizededucational system wereRadicals, Reformers, Masons, the ColombianGuard, and a minority group of Catholic people.The opposition was represented by the InstitutionalChurch4, some official newspapers such as LaCaridad5, different representatives from theConservative party; the oligarchy and the poorestsectors of this society that prohibited their childrento go to schools because the new system was collect-ively considered as the representation of the sin.

The Catholic hostility to secular educationincreased with regards to the question of inspection,

understood to be as the secondcomponent in public instruc-tion. Before the Organic Decreeinspection was carried out bythe main representatives of theCatholic Church, however, thisprocedure became responsibi-lity of non-religious teacherswho were eloquent supportersof the new system. They werealso in charge of the contentand methodology offered by theprimary schools in differentareas like languages, mathema-tics, geography, calligraphy andso on. These inspectors werepart of the Vigilance Commi-ssion which developed specificfunctions: the fulfillment of theinstitutionalized rules; theeffective attendance of childrento schools; the writing ofreports to the Director ofPublic Instruction about anyeventuality.

This rigorous system, notonly passed over theConstitution and the rightsof the Church, but alsorefused any “clerical coope-ration”6 in the developmentof the public instructionsystem. However, in 1876,the main representative ofthe Catholic Church, Arch-bishop Arbeláez, requested,among other aspects, thatthe priests deserved to teachsome classes and that allteachers should be Catholic.These requirements had todo directly with administra-tion as the final player in thequestion of public instruc-tion. The Archbishop metseveral times with theSecretary of Interior andForeign Relations, Manuel

Ancizar, and as result of these meetings, a pactwas sealed. This agreement consisted of usingschool texts approved by the Church and ofordering inspectors to carry out arrangementswith some priests in order to teach religion tochildren when their parents requested it.Nevertheless, this agreement was not enoughfor some conservative representatives and fortruly Catholic people who continued criticizingand reproving the secular methods and theirattempts towards a “modern” system ofeducation.

Besides proposing the importance of officialeducation at that time, the Decree of PrimaryPublic Instruction made evident the limited andpre-modern conditions that characterized theFederation. These being represented in terms ofeconomic progress, cultural and ideologicaldependence. They reflected the complex sceneryin which different actors from the nine FederalStates were unable to forge a unified front thatwould contribute to an early educationaldevelopment in the second half of thenineteenth century in our country.

1 This government was represented by Eustorgio Salgar’sadministration from 1870 to 1872 in Colombia.

2 MEYER LOY, Jane. Modernization and educational reform inColombia 1863-1886”. University of Wisconsin. 1969. P. 6

3 ESCUELA NORMAL: Periódico Oficial de Instrucción Pública.Estados Unidos de Colombia. Bogotá. Nº. 1. 1871.

4 The Institutional Catholic Church must be understood as theelite of this institution, different from the popular sectors thatfollow the Catholicism.

5 “La Caridad”, became the official Catholic newspaper after “ElCatolicismo”. “La Caridad”, promoted the Catholic ideology, theliterature and the religious teaching from 1864 to 1890.

6 MEYER LOY, op cit. P. 172

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A virtual visit to Madame Tussaud’s Museum 1

Felix BurgosEnglish Student - V Semester

fellord@yahoo.com.ar

M useums are considered, together with libraries, as the principal sources of knowledge usedto preserve the recorded evolution of human society and the historical identity of a nation. In allEurope, London has the most museums and cultural activities for citizens and visitors fromaround the world to enjoy.

Last week, I was one of those so called “tourists” looking for a different way of spending myvacation. After an educational visit to the Royal Academy of Music, I found myself in front ofRegent’s Park looking for something new when rested my eyes upon a strange building which isthe home of the two most important attractions in London: Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museumand 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 andin 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 “in person” the greatest celebrities.Marie Grosholtz (Marie Tussaud after her marriage to François Tussaud) learnt how to makewax models with Dr. Philippe Curtius, a Swiss physician who first used wax modeling to illustrateanatomical structures and then to represent important people during the 16th Century. This wasthe 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 payif 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 newestattraction that uses a modern special presentation to show life in London throughout the yearswith extraordinary olfactory, sound and visual effects.

The next stage called 200 Years of Madame Tussaud was the most important for me, becauseit connects the past to the future. Collections here are presented as they were originally exhibited

in the XIX Century by MadameTussaud. This part of the Museumkeeps an emotional elegant relationbetween two different centuries.

The Grand Hall is dedicated toall the people who have gifted theworld with their invaluablecontributions. For me it was apleasure to be photographed in thecompany of Gandhi, WinstonChurchill and Pasteur. It was also anice opportunity to meet all themembers of Queen Band, whichwas my favorite.

The “Chamber of Horrors” is the mainattraction of the place. But, it is notrecommended that people who suffer fromheart diseases or, as in my case, have troublesleeping after having seen a terrorizingview of this particular exhibit. The mixtureof perfection and horror is the mostimportant feature of the chamber; Jackthe Ripper and the victims of the guillotinehave been the staring in my nightmaressince that day.

Finally, when I started feeling exhausted(as Madame Tussaud is a huge Museum), Idecided to sit and drink a cup of tea withJulia Roberts and Sean Connery at“Hollywood Legends” the last stage of thetour.

An hour and a half is not enough tocover all the stages of the museum, thereis a lot of history and fun inside its doors. Ihope to go back as soon as possible so thatI have the pleasure of watching my friendsturn green with envy and having themask, “Did you really meet these people?”…,when looking at my photographs.

1 This article was developed as a class exercise in the Basic EnglishIV class, during the second semester of 2004. Although I havenot been to England, I did exhaustive research about this beautifulmuseum and the places around it. I would like to thank my co-workers and teacher because they supported me givingsuggestions and making corrections to present to you the versionthat is now in your hands.

TR AVELLING

Location of the museum in London

Julia Roberts' wax figure

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Prophecy

Camilo Morales NeisaEnglish Student - VI Semester

cmoralesne@unal.edu.co

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 itwas different. On this occasion they were running for their lives. They made desperate efforts to get out of the compromising circumstance into which theywere 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 tovanish 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, everythinghad 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 corruptedtheir 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 everythingthat was shown in the sacred artifact. Their minds had been unfailingly consumed through the mysterious radiation emitted by the frame of the thousand worlds.

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 airsuffocating 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 itspoisonous and ominous smell of disaster. Tears of pain and impotence fell to the ground leaving a little track. Bloody drops mixed with lachrymose ones. Thecouple of hunted refugees would soon come face to face with their destiny.

Inside the refuge, no heart beat. Terrible expressions of gelid terror were reflected in the faces of those already dead fellows. An ethereal substance hadfinished 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 decidedto 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 markof the consequences of indifference.

Photo taken by Juan Carlos Becerra

Hay quienes escogen la soledad

Edgar Milton Santa GarcíaEstudiante de Francés - ISemestre

emsantag@unal.edu.co

H ay quienes escogen la soledadComo compañera,

Caminan con ella de la mano,Se ríen juntos,

Se miran largamenteSe 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 soledadToman siestas juntos,Toman el mismo bus,

Toman la misma palabra,Toman vino juntos.

Hay quienes escogen la soledadLa abanderan con corazones,

Marcan cuadernos con sus iniciales,La proclaman reina, princesa, caciqueLa llaman en el dolor de una derrotaLa beben como fuente sagrada.

Hay muchos que escogen la soledadHoy 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 acompañaHace bastante, Una carcajada salió de sus bocas secas

Carcajadas de perro resfriado.-Pero si estas…¡SOLO!-

¡Hay quienes escogen la soledad!

LITERATURE

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EPISTEMOLOGY

‘Studenteacher’ orThe subject-object relationship in the classroom

Ronnall Castro QuinteroStudent VI Semester hegelarx@hotmail.com

It is clear for the majority of us that reality is made up of phenomena that we call ‘objects’, and thatwe 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 inimproving our practice as teachers and students.

First of all, subject-object is an epistemological category used for explaining the human process ofknowledge. It is an abstraction but one that is deeply connected to concrete things that exist in reality.Each one of the elements in isolation is incomprehensible yet they are inextricably related each other. Itis therefore impossible to consider them separately without makingmistakes when theorizing or acting on such a misconception.

A subject is any human being who knows the world consciously,for example a butcher, a doctor, a taxi-driver, a physicist, a farmer,or in our case a student or a teacher. They may not be awareexactly of what they do or why, but regardless, they put intopractice 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 andtransformed 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 reallydoing is studying ourselves in relation to that object. However, the existence of an object does not implythe existence of a subject. This is explained taking into account that subject-object is an epistemologicalcategory, whereas the concept of existence is expressed by an ontological process: ‘being’. In fact theobject exists in reality as a ‘being-in-itself’, before turning into an object, i.e. it exists without thesubject’s awareness of it. It becomes an object when someone meditates and acts consciously on it.

Considering the classroom as “a complex system of communication, investigation and construction ofknowledge, 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 thesubject-object relationship is not a simple abstraction but a question of life.

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

Students exist without the presence of a teacher in a classroom, teachers on the other hand don’t existwithout students. So can we really say that students are no more than objects existing independently froma subject? No, that would imply that the subject is the teacher, and it is precisely this theory we are tryingto overcome. Teachers and students are subjects and their object is to obtain knowledge about the wholeworld and themselves (ourselves) within it.

When saying teacher, we also say student. As the subject-object, it is absurd to consider them separatedly.The relationship student-teacher or ‘studenteacher’, which is the basis of the pedagogical phenomenon, is adynamic synthesis that comprises all the interactions that occur in a classroom. It is a unity in which bothparts learn from each other, and in so doing not only interpret but transform the world.

1 In this sense, spiritual could be interpreted as cultural. According to Hegel: “el espíritu es, esta sustancia absoluta que, en la perfecta libertade 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 nosotrosel yo” (Hegel, 1966: 123).

comes from page 5

La motivación como variabledeterminante en la adquisición de

una segunda lengua

muy osado afirmar que la adquiere en un períododeterminado y en otro la aprende porque estoindicaría que este proceso se ve de forma lineale irreversible. Por lo tanto, no se puede hablarde adquisición de una segunda lengua sininvolucrar el aprendizaje en dicho proceso,porque las habilidades comunicativas requierende un trabajo progresivo tanto en la lenguamaterna como en la segunda. Por eso, esimportante manejar las variables afectivasmencionadas por Krashen para hacer más amenoel ambiente en el cual se aprende y se adquierela segunda lengua, ya que el estudiante estarámotivado, sentirá confianza y perderá la ansiedadque le ocasiona un bloqueo mental.

La motivación es una variable determinanteen la adquisición/aprendizaje de una segundalengua porque estimula al principiante a serreceptivo en vez de defensivo frente a laspersonas que ya la han adquirido/aprendido. Porotro lado, el deseo de desarrollar habilidades enuna segunda lengua por razones prácticas yfuncionales también motiva al individuo.

Entonces, ésta es una invitación para todoslos maestros de lenguas extranjeras y porsupuesto para los futuros maestros que deseancontribuir en el proceso de adquisición/aprendizaje de una segunda lengua. Pretendeasí mismo fomentar el interés por las variablesafectivas presentes en el estudiante y que lepermiten el dominio natural de la lengua. Si elhablante no se siente motivado perderá el interéspor aprender y además creará una barrera mentalque le impedirá confiar en sí mismo y en sushabilidades en el momento que quiera usar lasegunda lengua.

Lo anterior muestra que la motivación ytodas las variables afectivas ocupan un lugarpreponderante en el proceso de adquisición/aprendizaje de una segunda lengua. Esindispensable recurrir a ella para generarexpectativas en el estudiante y así mantenervivo su deseo por adquirir/aprender un idiomadiferente al materno.

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

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ENTERTAINMENT

Magic the Gathering for newbies

Sergio Daniel Solórzano RochaStudent from the Extension Courses and 10th

Grade Student at Mayor de San Bartolomé Schoolsergiosd@gmail.com

Let’s imagine a fantasy world that is like theLord of the Rings plus the One Thousand andOne Nights, plus many elements of the Japanesemyths and many others from around the world.Let’s imagine that you can enter a world likethat as a very powerful wizard, with your ownmagical powers, armies, weapons, and tricks. Andthat your main goal is to defeat other wizards inorder to show who the best is.

W e all know that in real life it is very difficultto be a wizard and have personal armies. But anyway there are some ways to do that. You can forexample take drugs and imagine all that you want,but you can’t be sure that what you are going toimagine is what you want or you can try readinga book. However, if you are looking forsomething more interesting and that makes you“part” of the story, there is a game called Magicthe Gathering.

Magic the Gathering was one of the first reallysuccessful trading card games. It was created 12years ago by Richard Garfield. And since itscreation the game has not changed from the pointof view of rules, of the story and of the philosophy

behind it. The idea is to extinguish the total life ofyour enemy from 20 to 0 as fast as you can. It issimilar to chess because the idea is to make check-mate to your opponent’s king, thereforeextinguishing him. You take on the role of a wizardin a battle against another wizard and you try to“kill” him just before he kills you, just like in chesswhere you take the place of a king leading an army.

Whether you like the story of the game or theidea of competing you will need a deck of a minimum60 cards to play. That deck is going to be for youthe same as the F1 car is to the F1 driver. It is goingto be the tool with which you win or with whichyou fail just before the beginning. There arehundreds of cards you can choose from to makeyour own deck. These are classified into manycategories and the most important ones are colorsand types.

There are five colors: white, blue, black, red,and green. Each of these represents a kind of magicand also the way you like to play. That means thatif you like, for example red, you may think of it asfire against the others. Each color representssomething: white for life, blue for intelligence, blackfor death, red for chaos and green for nature. Eachcolor is “usually” as powerful as the others. Thereare also artifacts that are colorless. The artifactsrepresent the unnatural and the tools that can beused to become victorious. Again, as in chess, blackis as powerful as white. As colors are equallypowerful, the difference is in the way you combineyour cards in your deck. That idea is similar todiamonds and coal that are made of the samematerial (C atoms) but because they are organizedin different ways one is more valuable than theother.

The types, on the other hand, can be understoodas the different resources you have to fight in abattle. In the real world armies can use soldiers,artillery, money and strategy; the same goes for thegame. In the game, the creatures represent thesoldiers and each one with a special ability or“training”, as in real life not all the soldiers areinfantry and not all are commanders. As in real life,in this magical adventure not all the creatures areequal because some have more capabilities andpowers than others. In real life there is artillery butin the game there are spells. Artillery counts withmissiles, bombs or satellites that let armies crushtheir enemies or know what they are going to do(intelligence services).Spells represent the same inthe form of cards.

Finally, the last type of card is the one representingwealth in the category of lands. Each color has a

representative land: white for plains, blue forislands, black for swamps, red for mountains andgreen for forests. There are also multicoloredlands that can serve as mountains and swampssimultaneously. Each land is like a source ofmoney that in the game is called mana. Thereare five types of mana. For each color there is aspecial kind of mana depending on the land thatproduced it. You use that mana the same way acountry 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. This is appliedto the game so for white creatures, white mana isused and so on. In a real life war not all peopleearn the same amount of money and not all theservices cost the same. In magic it is exactly thesame but using the cards. You look for the bestand the cheapest ones in mana terms.

Last but not least the game is more than a“huge” amount of rules, categories and colors. Itis all about how you get the cards you think youneed to make the “perfect deck” to win everysingle game, something that is nearly impossible.The game is also about discussing with yourpartners and friends your ideas, decks, the lasttournament and the next. Magic the Gatheringbelongs to an international organization thatapproves official tournaments and provides prizesranging from single cards to thousand of dollarsin high level competitions to which only thereally good players are invited.Red dragon card

Green spell

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N E W TECHNOLOGIES

UsefulWeb DLE: A website for dynamicTeaching and Learning

www.usefulweb-project.tk

Mauricio Joven Bonello and Dario Andrés LealEnglish Students - Last Semester

dalealc@unal.edu.comaoopa@gmail.com

U sefulWeb is a monographic project which intends to integrate the mostimportant features offered by the Internet in terms of English LanguageTeaching and Learning ( E L T L). This project was born out of the need forour Languages Department to take advantage of the opportunities offeredby 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 usedincorporating such tools.

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

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

E-mail: This is one of the most popular resources people use on theInternet 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 indifferent ways. Email complements chat rooms because after having had aconversation with a foreigner, the only safe way to chat with him/her again isby having his/her e-mail address so that you can keep contact with them tocontinue practicing English. The second one is the contact that it facilitatesbetween the teacher and his/her students so that they can send and receivehomework and ask questions by sending e-mails. Another way in which wecan say that this tool contributes to E L T L is that students can openaccounts with interfaces in English so that they practice English not only byreading e-mails in the Target Language but also by interacting with theinterface.

The Forum: This is the tool that offers the greatest variety of possibilitiesbecause of the characteristics that make it manageable and adaptable tospecific needs. The forum makes it achievable to discus and exchange opinionsby posting messages in a non-synchronic way2. At the same time, it is easier towork with a specific purpose, like education, because it allows people withsimilar interest to join groups in which they can learn, debate, and, of course,use the language. The possibilities for one-to-one (student-student/student-teacher), or one-to-many (teacher or student to all members of the forum)

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

Having fulfilled, to some extent, our primary communication shortages,we can think of another important requisite when learning a foreign languagein the particular conditions we have here in Colombia. Not everybody canbuy the newest andmost up to date booksto work on the differentskills to improve theirproficiency. That is whywe have thought ofdatabases and links.

Databases and links: Apart from communication, the Internetoffers other possibilities, academically speaking as it has become thegreatest source of information with its different databases and links.Databases are tools which allow Students and Teachers to searchtheoretical data such as definitions, lists, abstracts and analysis ofcertain academic information. Databases in Internet offer theopportunity of getting a huge amount of organized information forstudents and teachers to research, discuss and enrich the academicenvironment. Some examples of data bases in Internet and its areas ofuse are ERICK for Didactics and www.sparknotes.com for Literature.

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

To conclude, we can say that we could be missing out on a great varietyof material which is there: on the web. We must look carefully at and reflecton the possibilities we, as students and teachers, have on the web. All theaids and possibilities can be understood by many of the learning theories weknow and can even be the birth of a new educational era. Maybe you thinkit is not possible or it is a way to “replace” teachers. Why don’t you make ita strong tool to enrich your work and to demonstrate the improvementsthat can be made by a teacher U S I N G technology? That is what UsefulWebintends to do, to put together the aids found on the Internet on a singlewebsite for our students and teachers to access and use them, to have aforum for communication among the communities, to have a classified guideof websites to visit and learn from them and last but not least, this projectexpects to be considered as an effort to at least make students and teachersconsider this Useful Web as a valid attempt to introduce those who had notpreviously realized how these kinds of tools are valuable for educationalpurposes 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 aformative webpage and that can be easily adapted to suit their syllabuses tothe use of similar materials.

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” EdicionesAljibe, Málaga, 2002.

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W e must look carefully at andreflect on the possibilities we,as students and teachers,

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EXTENSION ACTIVITIES

Extension Programmes in Progress

LEARNING

Learning about the Fear of Learning

David MartinEnglish Student - VII Semester

scissorman999@ yahoo.com

H ave you ever feltthat your students werenot giving of their best?What would you do ifthey did not want toshow their abilities?Maybe we are facing abig problem: the fear oflearning. This fear iscalled sophophobia, “apersistent, abnormal, andirrational fear oflearning” according tothe Grandiloquent

Dictionary 1. This poses a threat both to physicaland mental health. Its treatment can takemonths, even years. Sophophobia creates thefeeling of danger when it is present in the learningprocess causing panic attacks, shortness ofbreath, rapid breathing, irregular heartbeat,sweating and nausea.

I would like to address the issue of sophophobiain our classrooms. It is the kind of fear that interruptsthe process of attaining knowledge amongst ourstudents producing in them depression and sadness.When you are giving a class, regardless of conditions,some students are afraid to learn. Their skills, abilitiesand intelligence are deeply hidden behind the wallof fear. Not only their academic development canbe seriously affected but their self esteem andmotivation also are at risk, and probably, the restof their lives too.

I have been working in a school as an Englishteacher and I have noticed some of the abovefeatures in the learning process of my students. Theirfear has been reflected by:

a) Timidity: despite that some students do knowwhat you are talking about, they do not dare tospeak, ask questions or reply, because they arereally quiet and shy. They understand each word,sentence or explanation given; however, theydo not want to show their abilities to the class.

b) Failure: when students are working in class theyshow high levels of understanding, but whenthey have an evaluation they forget basicknowledge. I realize they fail because they want

to. They don’t want to stand out becausestanding out increases their fear of learningand so they prefer to fail.

c) Self - Negation: this is an aspect that teacherswill hardly notice without talking to students.Sentences as “I can’t”, “I’ve just forgotten”,“Sorry, I do not know” are the usual repliesgiven by students when asked about theirperformance. They just put down themselves,they do not believe in their abilities andthinking. They believe that they do not wantto learn.

The solution to this problem can takedifferent forms. The first option is to talk directlyto them about what is going on and show themthat fear is part and parcel of being a humanbeing, and that as humans we have to overcomechallenges by confronting them because they areelements of our development. If the students areunder 18, a meeting with parents might help.An appointment with the psychologist could beof great help too. Let us not forget our role asteachers. We have to take care of our studentswhen difficult situations arise. Just say: Face Fear!!

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

Shortening the Path from the School to the University

Javier Augusto RojasEnglish Student - VIII Semester

javirse@yahoo.com.mx

At first, the distance from the School to the University was covered by aneglected and little used road. The people at the School regarded the road toosteep and the university too high, whereas at the university people consideredthe journey to School to be a useless and even a senseless activity. As a result,the pragmatic and real knowledge produced by the School remaineddisconnected from the theoretical text-based knowledge gotten at University.

In order to make the journey easier and more attractive, the PFPDs1 werecreated in 1995. Those served to bearing in mind the importance and benefitsto consider/evaluate of a more open path in order to promote interculturaland inter academic contact between the two kinds of knowledge. Ever since,the journeys from School to University and vice versa have become amongstthe most enriching. Now, more often than not these programs includeResearch, Innovation and Updating. There are also shorter programs whichoffer updating only, and focus on very specific topics.

As we speak, 125 primary and high school teachers from Localidad 4 SanCristobal together with 10 teacher-researchers from the Foreign LanguagesDepartment at La Universidad Nacional are embarking on the latest programcalled Programa de Actualización. It entails three main components, namely,

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

The cultural and academic exchange has allowed for cooperation, as wellas sharing of experiences and the generation of new and strong bonds betweenthe School and the University. By observing how others live and work thesecommunities have been able to reflect on their own product and performanceand produce more insightful comments regarding their own position. Thus,a dialectic relationship occurs between the school practice and universitytheory, thanks to the knowledge exchange produced by Teacher DevelopmentPrograms. Such programs enhance collaborative thinking and action-orientedresearch both at the level of School and University.

If you would like more information about the way in which the path fromthe School to the University is being improved in order to discover moreacademic routes, it can be found in the journal PROFILE Journal andincludes the contributions ofthe participants and theirexperiences in this ongoingadventure. Alternatively,contact the PROFILEresearch group in the ForeignLanguages Department.

1 Programas de Formación Permanentede Docentes

Photo taken by David Martín

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THE FRENCH CORNER

Portraits de la Colombie, en français

Véronique BellangerProfesseur du Département de Langues Etrangères, Université Nationale de Colombie, Siège Bogotá

Veroniquebellanger2001@yahoo.fr

D ans le cadre du développement de larecherche par projets de l’enseignement-apprentissage de la culture française au sein de lafilière de philologie et langues(spécialité français),différents projets de classe ont été menés à bien,et ont pu aujourd’hui obtenir la reconnaissancenationale et internationale d’institutions derenom.

“Portraits de la Colombie, en français” est lefruit de l’avant-projet présenté au Cavilam etTV5, au cours du séminaire de formation deformateurs en août 2004, et développé en classeavec les étudiants de français 5 de notre filière, et aujourd’hui avec ceux des cours de civilisationfrançaise 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 desuniversités, lycées(niveau terminale), et instituts de langues au niveau national.

Les professeurs seront invités à introduire dans leur classe la pédagogie par projet commealternative méthodologique pour que leurs étudiants présentent leur ville ou région à traversune photo et un texte en français. Cette présentation doit être le résultat de la réflexioninterculturelle 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 expositionnationale et la diffusion d’un multimédia dans les Alliances françaises, et d’une présentationinternationale au festival du documentaire à Paris en Octobre 2005 et à l’Université de Bordeaux3. 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, desAlliances françaises, de l’Université de Bordeaux 3, de l’Alliance française de Lyon, de laFundación B.A.T, de l’ESAP, de la Corporación Cultural de Barranquilla, de la FundaciónOrtega y Gasset, de Unimedios (Universidad Nacional de Colombia), de la chaine tv5, deServientrega et d’Aviatur.

Nous vous invitons dès aujourd’hui à y participer! Contactez-nous1 au mail suivant:portraitsdelacolombieenfrancais@yahoo.fr

1 Staff PCF: Cuellar Rivera Hugo Andrés, Rangel Bayona Manuel Mauricio, Rodriguez Eisenhower, Suárez Celi Vanessa, Rico Garavito FabioAndrés, Moya Morales John Martín, Suárez Tapiero John Jairo, Novoa Castiblanco Ivonne Astrid, Carvajales Catalina, Tous Carlos, AvendañoAlejandro, Vallejo Amanda.

Photo: Luis Eduardo Nieves

Photo: Projet Bogota au centre du monde

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

Carolina Martinez Chaparrocarolita32@yahoo.com

Carol Ivonne Villamil Benalcarolivonnebsb@yahoo.com

M algré la richesse pluriculturelle et plurilingue denotre pays, on sait bien que cette diversité n’est reconnue nipar nous les colombiens, ni par le monde en général. Cetteméconnaissance des cultures est due au manque dediffusion et d’information de la culture et de la civilisationindiennes; en plus, il y a une certaine indifférence aumoment de défendre et d’établir une véritable loi quigarantisse la sauvegarde et la vie des cultures ditesminoritaires.

C’est pourquoi nous avons décidé de faire une étudeapprofondie sur la communauté indienne INGA et demontrer les résultats de notre recherche de la façon la plusefficace pour essayer d’interdire sa perte d’identité et deculture. La récollection de données et d’informationconcernant cette communauté a été longue et difficileparce qu’il n’y a pas beaucoup de théorie et d’informationqui soit véritable et complète dans les livres. On a essayéde structurer l’information d’après des cours de langue etculture, diverses conférences auxquelles nous avons assisté,des interviews faites aux membres de cette communautéet aux individus qui ont eu des contacts avec eux et despetits articles trouvés sur internet.

Une des bases fondamentales de cette étude a été lespolitiques linguistiques en Europe, principalement, cellesde France. Le fait d’avoir des documents consacrésessentiellement à la défense et à la reconnaissance deslangues minoritaires laisse voir l’importance et le respectqu’ont ces pays envers le «cadeau» culturel que lescommunautés font aux grandes cultures d’aujourd’hui. Uneautre base théorique de ce projet est liée aux scienceshumaines et à celles de la culture: anthropologielinguistique; sociolinguistique; ethnographique; etlinguistique culturelle parmi d’autres.

La propos fondamental de cette investigation est celuide connaître la culture INGA et de la montrer à un mondequi ne connaît pas la richesse et les merveilles que cette culturenous offre. Aussi, on souhaite faire naître des sentiments derespect, de tolérance ainsi que la capacité de reconnaître lesautres avec leurs différences et leurs égalités et aider à laconservation des langues et cultures de notre pays.

Aujourd’hui, un des outils les plus efficaces au momentde communiquer ou de donner ou d’obtenir l’informationest l’Internet, car c’est le moyen massif de communicationen Colombie et du monde en général.

Pour cette raison, nous ferons une page web sur les Ingasqui donnera aux gens de presque tout le monde la possibilitéde connaître et de faire partie de la richesse culturelle desgroupes indiens. La page sera élaborée en 3 languesdifférentes, lesquelles à notre avis sont les plus connues dansle monde entier. Ce sont l’espagnol, le français et l’anglais.

Nous espérons que ce mémoire servira de pont entreles cultures de notre pays et les organisations nationales etinternationales partageant notre intérêt, afin d’aider lespeuples indiens dans leurs projets de sauvegarde de lalangue, de la culture, et des mœurs.

MémoireFilière de philologie et langues-Français. Directrice du mémoire:Véronique Bellanger: veroniquebellanger2001@yahoo.fr

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Juan Carlos Rodríguez RendónEstudiante de la carrera de francés y de ruso electivo

xyah1985@mail.ru

RUSSIAN

JAPANESE

Lina María CondeEnglish Student - VII Semester

linamaconde@hotmail.com

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Goodbye to monographs

Mariluz OrtizEnglish Student - VII Semester

marialunados@yahoo.com.ar

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

W ithout further discussions the ConsejoSuperior Universitario has approved theagreement that will regulate the reform ofgraduation Projects. The decision hasparalyzed many of us who thought that therewould be more opportunities to discuss thereform, but the official statement sent to theuniversity community on the 20th of Marchhas confirmed the exclusion of monographsas they were originally proposed.

The inclusion of the Graduation Projectas a subject of the curriculum, its reductionto 25,000 words; the elimination of juries;the restriction of the possibility ofcollaboration with other classmates are justsome of the changes that this reform brings.The modification strongly affects theinterests of the students and the quality ofeducation that the University hasdemonstrated, not only in the StateEvaluation, but also to society.

To begin with, a restriction on time andspace has been imposed which might soundto many of us as something positive in thesense that the time expected to develop anassignment is going to be one semester andnot two, three, four or, in the worst case, anever ending project. At the same time, wehave to say goodbye to the huge tome, whichmeant for some people just a summary ofbooks and nothing original. But we have tobe careful and not fall into the snare ofmediocrity; a good investigative projectneeds ample time. The problem here is thatthere are not going to be research projects assuch; in fact it is just going to be a “researchexercise” as it was called by the previousHead of the University.

Another important issue is the eliminationof juries, public presentation and honourablementions or distinctions, three aspects thatsupported and ensured the success of projects.The juries are replaced by one reader -besidesthe director- which means fewer points of viewsand fewer contributions to the project. In thesame way, the termination of presentations inpublic deprives the community from becomingacquainted with the work of our students orprofiting from the process of investigation. Themonograph projects marked with passing,meritorious or honours grades disappeared assuch in the new scheme. If a student obtainedeither the meritorious or the honours marks,that guaranteed him somehow better workopportunities, further studies and researchpossibilities. That possibility is gone too.

According to article 7 of this reform2 thereis going to be an Honoured Student in eachyear level; this is a student who will have thebest average of grades in the whole major. Agood incentive if the student cares so muchabout the grade. This aspect however does notdifferentiate us, the Universidad Nacional deColombia, from any institute. What reallymade the difference was the RESEARCHCOMPONENT.

An additional issue of concern regardingthe reform is the speed of its implementation.If this reform is accepted as it is, we have toknow about and evaluate other pendingreforms that can be applied very soon and thatcan be harmful to the University.

It is true that the number of graduates issurely going to increase, the obstacles that somestudents experienced with the monographhave now ended, but to what cost? OurUniversity is being undermined by the interestsof the market where production, competenceand effectiveness are the only concerns. Soonwe will have to say goodbye not only to thequality of investigation, but also to otherimportant elements that are fundamental toour University.

1 Free adaptation from a popular adage.2 Acuerdo 001 de 2005 del Consejo Superior Universitario.

A CADEMIC REFORM

La motivación como variabledeterminante en la adquisición

de una segunda lengua

Yira Pastrana DíazEnglish Student - IV Semester

ylpastranad@gmail.com

Los estudiosos del lenguaje se hanpreocupado desde hace algunos años porcomprender el proceso de adquisición deuna segunda lengua y de ahí el dilema de siésta se adquiere o se aprende, pero ¿Por quéno se deja de lado la controversia y se piensaen las variables afectivas involucradas en elproceso? ¿Acaso la parte emocional no juegaun papel determinante en cualquier procesode aprendizaje?

La adquisición/aprendizaje de unasegunda lengua abarca varios aspectos entrelos cuales se destaca el lado emocional delhablante y cómo éste puede contribuir a unaadquisición/aprendizaje más efectiva(o).

Para explicar el fenómeno adquisición/aprendizaje de una segunda lengua se hanpropuesto algunas teorías como las de StevenKrashen1, entre las cuales se encuentran lasde hipótesis de adquisición/aprendizaje, la delorden natural, la del monitor, la del inputcomprensible y la de hipótesis del filtroafectivo. Esta última plantea que cuando seaprende una segunda lengua en un ambienteno natural se produce ansiedad en elestudiante, y ésta a su vez es un filtro afectivoque dificulta el aprendizaje/adquisición dela segunda lengua. Las variables afectivas sonla ansiedad, la motivación y la confianza ensí mismo. Estos factores son más importantespara el aprendizaje subconsciente que parael aprendizaje consciente, porque cuando haybarreras afectivas estas causan un “bloqueomental” que no dejará que los datos seanprocesados, es decir, adquiridos completa-mente, aun cuando el estudiante loscomprenda.

De acuerdo a las hipótesis de StevenKrashen la adquisición predomina sobre elaprendizaje, pero ¿en qué momento elaprendiz reconoce que está adquiriendo oaprendiendo una segunda lengua? Sería

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LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

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O PINIONS

Monólogos de la lengua extranjera

Jalver Uyaban CortésLic. En Filología e Idioma Inglés

compa21@yahoo.com

Por estos días, en los que se proponen reformas curriculares, nos rondan más preguntas querespuestas, 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 Filologíae Idiomas existe un hilo conductor para ese tejido: la lengua extranjera o, si tenemos en cuentaque la lengua es una de las manifestaciones del pensamiento, el pensamiento extranjero. Lapreocupación por el pensamiento extranjero queda demostrada al comparar el número deasignaturas 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, elestudio del pensamiento extranjero a través de la lengua se ha tornado en un monologo aburridoy alienante (en el peor de los casos). La competencia lingüística se convirtió en un fin, cuandoen realidad es un medio para interactuar con otros pensamientos; y tal error de percepción hadesembocado en varias inconsistencias. Primero, los materiales didácticos (libros, videos, cintasde audio y otras publicaciones) muestran en su mayoría lo ideal que resultan el modo de vida yla cultura extranjera. Parece ser que muchos de los materiales de enseñanza sólo muestran unacara de la moneda y ocultan (con distintas motivaciones) los episodios y pensamientos infamesde su propia cultura. Es como si en el camino de aprenderuna lengua extranjera sólo importara la lengua en sí mismay los pensamientos que ésta transmite fueran accesorios,cuando la realidad bien puede ser inversa. Segundo, salvocontados y afortunados casos, en las clases no se hace unintento por contrastar la literatura extranjera con lanativa, como tampoco sucede con la historia y lacivilización. En un tercer lugar tenemos que el no contar

con profesores extranjeros tambiénacrecienta este malestar, pues priva a losestudiantes de la oportunidad de interactuarcon una mente formada en la cultura que sepretende estudiar. Y por último, la traducción,una de las áreas más importantes del ejerciciofilológico, se ha dedicado a la “importación”de pensamiento traduciendo obras al español,pero no se “exporta” nada, por que no se hapensado aún en la posibilidad de traducirliteratura nativa a lengua extranjera. Es pocoel interés del Departamento por acabar elmonólogo de la lengua extranjera, pues sólohasta hace muy poco se inicio tímidamenteel estudio de la enseñanza de español paraextranjeros.

No son pocas las implicaciones de estemonologo ya insoportable para muchosestudiantes, puesto que ha llevado a muchaspersonas a considerar la carrera como canterade profesores, y a los estudiantes como aspi-rantes a servidores del bien foráneo. Por todoello, resulta imperativo que tanto directivoscomo profesores analicen críticamente estasituación e implementen políticas concretas.Por parte de los estudiantes, es necesario unesfuerzo individual que le permita ver másallá de lo evidente en lo que se estudia, másahora, cuando algunos monólogos pretendenimponerse en el mundo.

Have we really opened our minds?

Diego Andrés Marín CerónEnglish Student - VII Semester

marin_ce2003@yahoo.com.mx

In memory of Rene DescartesForeign language teachers and learners

commonly believe that a person who learnsanother language opens his/her mind to theworld. This statement is based on the factthat acquiring another language implieslearning about another culture and thisprocess makes possible the recognition ofthe diversity of cosmovisions that thehuman mind is able to produce.

However valid this statement may seem,it has two weaknesses: (a) it is based on anunclear 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 wehave come to believe in some miscon-ceptions that will be discussed later on.

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 recognizetheir prejudices and stereotypes and is eager to change them for other thoughts moresuitable to the aspect of reality they supposedly represent.

If we really want to rid our minds of prejudices and stereotypes we have to begin by recognizingthem as such. However, that recognition is not automatic; it requires that we be engaged in aprocess of continuous questioning of the absolute certainty of any belief that we consider trueuntil we have clearly appreciated the reliability of the arguments that support it. It means thatwe must question ourselves whenever we make a judgment about another person, anotherculture or about any phenomenon of reality that we can perceive, specially, if we have not haddirect contact with any of them. By doing so, we will be able to find which of our beliefs have asolid ground and which do not.

A person who studies a foreign language has the opportunity to recognize some of his/herprejudices and stereotypes. It is possible as a result of their learning that person will appreciate therelativity of the system of beliefs present in his/her culture, and come to understand of languageas 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/herculture. However this does not guarantee that he/she has opened his/her mind. If that individualhas not learnt to question the absolute certainty of any belief, that awareness will lie dormant intheir consciousness. S/he will not open his/her mind. In fact, s/he might even acquire moreprejudices from the culture s/he is trying to comprehend.

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La competencia lingüística seconvirtió en un fin, cuandoen realidad es un medio para

interactuar con otrospensamientos

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RESEARCH

La investigación se aprende: ¡INVESTIGANDO!

Grupo de investigación “Investigamos”Véronique Bellanger, Melba L.Cárdenas, Ligia Cortés, Yudiht Martin, M.Claudia Nieto, Antje Ruger

aruger@unal.edu.co

Según las estadísticas propias de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia, la permanencia de los estudiantesde la carrera de Filología e Idiomas supera los siete años y, por lo tanto, es una de las más altas de lainstitución. Las mismas estadísticas indican que el tiempo que se emplea para realizar el trabajo de gradoes una de las causas para una situación tan preocupante (Obregón, 2001)1. Con base en las estadísticaspresentadas por Obregón y en las situaciones que vivíamos como directoras, jurados, o profesoras de losseminarios monográficos tomamos la decisión de investigar la naturaleza de los trabajos de grado ennuestra 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 estudiantesque 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 monográficosy 22 directores de trabajos de grado pertenecientes a los tres Departamentos implicados: Literatura,Lingüística y Lenguas Extranjeras. Se diseñaron encuestas y entrevistas semiestructuradas. Los datosarrojados 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 lossiguientes productos:

• En la fase inicial se elaboraron tablas sistemáticas que reúnen datos básicos acerca de la situaciónacadémica 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 informede avance a la División de Investigaciones de la Sede Bogotá. En este informe se describió el procesode la elaboración de los trabajos monográficos mediante la metáfora “El viaje por la ruta Pregrado-

Monografía”. Esta comparación aduce a la odiseaque vive la mayor parte de nuestros estudiantespara llegar a la meta esperada, es decir, la obtenciónde su título. En el análisis de dicho viaje noscentramos en tres aspectos, a saber: la preparacióndel 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 presentaral Comité Asesor de la Carrera. En este formato se tienen en cuenta, por un lado, aspectos formales ylos componentes del trabajo, por el otro lado se relacionan la rigurosidad científica así como aspectosde lengua y argumentación. Este formato servirá de guía para los estudiantes a la hora de elaborar sustrabajos 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 diferentesámbitos: Unos interrogantes iniciales se incluyeron en una ponencia en el Congreso Latinoamericano deEstudios Germanísticos (Sao Paulo/ Brasil, septiembre de 2003). En el último Congreso de la AsociaciónColombiana de Profesores de Inglés, ASOCOPI, (Santa Marta, octubre de 2004) se presentó el esquemade categorías resultante del análisis de datos. Para la Revista Colombian Applied Linguistics Journal seprodujo un artículo que enfatiza las condiciones requeridas para la óptima culminación de las monografíasen las investigaciones finales de pregrado. Se está preparando otro artículo que reúne los resultadosfinales del estudio. Además, presentamos aspectos de nuestra investigación en el Segundo Congreso deInstituciones Formadoras de Licenciados en Lenguas Extranjeras, (Pamplona, abril 2005), en el CongresoInternacional de Profesores de Alemán (Graz/ Austria, agosto de 2005) y en el Sexto Seminario Nacionalde Profesores de Francés (Bogotá, Junio de 2005).

Nuestros participantes coinciden en afirmar que un ejercicio de investigación en nuestro programaacadémico es de suma importancia para la formación de profesionales y le garantiza a la carrera el estatus deformación universitaria seria, acrecentando su credibilidad nacional e internacional, y garantizando lacalidad de sus egresados. A pesar de inconvenientes de diversa índole, la satisfacción por el resultado de esteejercicio es generalizada. Todos los egresados enfatizan que la monografía incide en su campo de acción

Todos los egresados enfatizanque la monografía incide en sucampo de acción profesional

profesional, incluso si el tema de ésta no serelaciona directamente con la profesión que estánejerciendo. La dirección de los trabajos de gradomediante tutorías personalizadas en la mayoríade los casos se evalúa como apropiada. Las causaspara el tiempo excesivo que emplearon nuestrosparticipantes en su trabajo de grado son variadas.Además de razones personales y la falta de unaplanta docente suficiente, los problemas másgrandes se identificaron en la fase de preparacióny orientación para la investigación.

Aparte de la aplicación precipitada de lasrecientes reformas del trabajo de grado a nivelde toda la Universidad Nacional, en nuestracarrera se están tomando las primeras medidaspara subsanar algunos de los problemas mássentidos por la comunidad académica de nuestracarrera: en el curso de “Metodología de laInvestigación” se incluye también la inves-tigación educativa. Se han establecido acuerdosacerca del programa de esta asignatura entre losprofesores encargados y con la Coordinaciónde la carrera. Se está ofreciendo a los estudiantesuna orientación acerca de los posiblesSeminarios Monográficos y se ha despertado ladiscusión acerca de los objetivos concretos delos mismos. El Comité Asesor de Carrera hadefinido algunos lineamientos que hacen mástransparentes los procesos administrativosacerca del trabajo de grado.

Sin embargo, aún nos queda por consolidarlos diferentes grupos de interés investigativo y,sobre esta base, desarrollar desde el comienzode la carrera las competencias investigativas yargumentativas de los estudiantes.

1 Obregón, D. (2001). Revisión de los requisitos de grado: El trabajode grado. Universidad Nacional de Colombia: Bogotá.

2 El título exacto de la investigación que cuenta con financiaciónde la División de Investigaciones de la Sede Bogotá es: “Lostrabajos monográficos realizados por los estudiantes de la carrera deFilología e Idiomas (Inglés, Francés y Alemán) entre 2000 y 2003:análisis y perspectivas”.

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LINGUISTICS

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A New Stage in the LinguisticsScenery

Raúl Enrique García LópezEnglish Student - II Semester

raulspot2@yahoo.com

“Enfin, plus je prens garde à leffet queproduisent mes paroles, quand je les profèredevants ces Corps, plus il me semble quellessont entenduës; et celles quils profèrentrépondent si parfaitement au sens des miennesquil ne me paroist plus de sujet de douterqu unne Ame ne fasse en eur ce que la miennefait en moi”1.

Linguistics is a science that is relativelyyoung. It became an independent field ofstudy around one hundred years ago due toSaussure‘s work. The 20th century haswitnessed the hasty growth of a science thathas now become fundamental to many othersciences such as sociology, psychology,biology, medicine, and even politics. Despiteits rapid development, it has also prompted anumber of speculations about the nature oflanguage.

Noam Chomsky is one of the greatestlinguists in recent history. His work has beenparamount during the last fifty years. Histheory of Transformational-GenerativeGrammar is perhaps the most widelyaccepted proposal on the nature and behaviorof language having met with little opposition.Nevertheless, the fact that Chomsky usessuch arguments as the introductory quotationto this article is highly disappointing.Chomsky‘s work, though undeniablysignificant in many aspects, roots itself in onenon-scientific principle: rationalism.Language as a result is deemed to be anexclusively human faculty and innate“device” acquired from birth. Accordign toChomsky therefore, language could not haveevolved, as all human features, fromDarwinian natural selection. This assertionhas no real evidence to support it, beingbased on philosophical assumptions, ill-suitedto scientific theories. It is for this reason thatI concentrate on more human concepts,important when developing new linguistictheories at university level; particularly in

the field of Neurolinguistics and from a lessdogmatic rationalism.

The current task of linguistics

It is an undeniable fact that the only greatdifference between humans and animals islanguage. It is clear that animals‘ physical andsensorial sophistication and capacity foradaptation far exceeds out own. However, theorganization and predominance of man in theplanet is subject of no discussion at all. Baringin mind these facts it is worth asking why it isthat language constitutes such a gap betweenhumanity and animals and how its maincharacteristics have evolved.

In order to find an answer to these questionswe need to trace the origins of humanity.Unfortunately, unlike other sciences, linguistscan not count on physical evidence to providethe bases for their work. There are no recordsof the dawn of language. To solve thisinconvenience Mauricio Swadesh proposes:

“El lenguaje…es similar a la mayoría de lasherramientas y técnicas usadas por los sereshumanos…es apropiado buscar evidencia enlos objetos de piedra usados por los hombresprimitivos”2.

From this proposal, along with Darwin’stheory of natural selection and some otheranthropological theories we learn that throughthe continual use of common verbal expressionsaccompanied by unarticulated shouts, theseprimitive utterances gradually became words.Thus language evolves: unique manifestationsin response to external stimuli. Developmentof prehistoric societies and behavior allowedthese manifestations to mix, which, along withthe evolution of the brain, provided languagewith a proficiency level that took humans faraway from their initial animal condition. AsLieberman states: “…these specialized biologicalmechanisms evolved by the process of Darwiniannatural selection from similar, homologousmechanisms in other animals”3.

It is evident that in the dawn of humanityman did not use language for the same purposeshe does now. Language features such asspecialization (the ability to use language for

purposes which are not fundamental forman’s survival), discretidad (the possibility todivide and differentiate languageconstituents such as morphemes, phonemes,reflexividad4 are present in today’sevolutionary stage of humans, but it wouldbe daring to say that they have been part oflanguage since its dawn. Language hasdeveloped over time.

Regarding the characteristics mentionedabove, it must be said that they pertain tohumans in their current state of evolution5.Not forgetting however the probablecharacteristics of prehistoric language andtheir gradual transformation into a language

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EXA M S

Is ECAES a mirror of excellence atthe Universidad Nacional de Colombia?

Dayana Andrea Osorio E.English Student - VII Semester

Yayis0822@yahoo.co.uk

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

In general, the results of these exams show that public universities dobetter than private universities. The Universidad Nacional de Colombia(U.N.) sees the ECAES as one more element to evaluate excellence. Althoughthe U.N. did well on the exam, its students got the top positions in 29undergraduate programs, the University still considers the ECAES “a verytheoretical exam since it raises hypothetical cases and does not take intoaccount real and effective practice”.2 According to Daniel Bogoya, the ideaof 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, andtherefore, they can have a lot of interpretations depending on the programsand the items the exams evaluate. For instance, the results reveal the capacitythat an institution can develop in general terms. They also allow researchersand evaluators to do systematic and detailed analysis with respect to similarprograms run by other institutions.

The exam has been conceived as a test that will report results in order toshed light on other issues. For instance, it can provide authentic informationabout each undergraduate project and its social impact, and the possibilitiesof improving the programs. Another way to use the exams is to conductmore research based on their results. One important correlation drawn fromthe results of ECAES 2004 was that the eight universities with more researchgroups registered in the CvLAC, (Currículum Vitae Latinoamericano y delCaribe)of Colciencias, were the same eight that had more students with topscores on the exams3 .

However, the coverage given to the results of ECAES by the media pointingout the first places generates an unconscious but natural categorization ofinstitutions4. In spite of that, these results do not assess the academic performanceof the students, which is the true purpose of the exam. In some ways, theresults of ECAES show a crisis brewing in higher education since the studentswere only able to answer 40% of the questions correctly. Moreover, the studentsof top universities could only get a maximum of 53%. These results questionthe belief that high fees at private universities are synonymous with excellencein education. The results also show that most universities have not been ableto get away from the pedagogy that still praises the recollection of informationby memory as in primary and high school5.

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

According to Victoria Diaz, coordinator of the PRI (Procesamiento deResultados del ICFES) group, 43 undergraduate programs were evaluated,

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

One of the reasons for the low results is that there were few studentsevaluated in comparison to other programs. Another one is that the curriculaat these colleges are still conforming to the requirements of the Ministry ofEducation. Moreover, there were open questions on the questionnaires –theother program with open questions was architecture, while other tests onlyhad close ones-6.

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

According to Bibiana, the main components of this exam taken intoaccount to evaluate our program are: a pedagogical component, whichincludes 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 inthe fact that they have limited knowledge in the educational field. This isdue to the few subjects concerning pedagogy that the Philology and Languagesprogram offers. Their strengths are their knowledge in linguistics and readingcomprehension. Even though the education component in the Philologyand Languages curriculum is not as complete as those at other Teachers'colleges, it is still very good.

Nevertheless, she also thinks the ECAES itself has weaknesses. Forinstance, the fact that these exams are very theoretical and do not take intoaccount the practical component. They either take into account the culturalcomponent of the foreign language in question, which in our case is theBritish and American culture. Finally, she advises students to be calm whentaking the exam since “it is not something to be afraid of, if we have beenstudious”. However, she considers it is necessary to reinforce the weaknessesmentioned before.

W e can conclude that ECAES is not a mirror of excellence at theUniversidad Nacional because it only takes into account certain aspects ofeducation like theory, and it does not include creative ways of thinking andreal practice. However, these exams confirm that the U.N. is one of the bestuniversities in Colombia since it is a leader in many fields of knowledge. Inspite of that, the Universidad Nacional needs to go beyond the Colombianborders and compare its educational level internationally in order to becompetitive.

1 “La U. Nacional, Primera en 13 de 43 programas” El Tiempo, febrero 14 del 2005http://el tiempo.terra.com.co

2 “La Nacional ratifica su liderazgo” UN Periódico, febrero 27 del 20053 “La clave de los buenos resultados en Ecaes” El Tiempo, marzo 13 del 2005

http://el tiempo.terra.com.co4 “La Nacional ratifica su liderazgo” UN Periódico, febrero 27 del 20055 “El estado de la educación superior” El Espectador, marzo 20 del 2005. Pg. 1B6 “Licenciaturas explican los bajos resultados en pruebas de calidad” El Tiempo, marzo 1 del 2005.

http://eltiempo.terra.com.co

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Have we really opened our minds?

W e arrive in this way to an interesting observation: What it is thatenables a person to open his/her mind is something beyond theacquisition of a foreign language. We can call it here a critical attitudetowards our biased ideas.

It stands to reason therefore that the lack of awareness or attitudeshas led us, students and teachers of foreign languages, to threemisconceptions that can be posited in the following way:a) You open your mind simply through the acquisition ofcommunicative 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 per se an openminded person.

I will, in the confines of this essay concentrate briefly on the thirdpoint: The person who knows more than one language is consideredan open minded person because s/he has acquired the instrumentwith which to communicate with other peoples of the world. What ismore, s/he is considered a bridge that eases communication amongdifferent cultures.

Yet, that globalizing concern has led us to forget that the mosteffective way of demonstrating that we are willing to overcome thesuperficiality of our stereotypes and prejudices is through dailyinteraction. Nothing better than the direct contact with the peoplewe meet every day to demonstrate that we have stopped labelingthem a priori according to racial, sexual, political and social prejudicesto mention but a few. If we want to demonstrate that we have openedour minds the place is here, the moment is now.

ENDINGS

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Native language vs. Foreign/second language

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

However, we also consider that it is also significant for us, as foreignlanguage 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 andwidespread in foreign language education in Colombia, is an internationallanguage (so was Latin two thousand years ago), used to carry out researchin areas such as science and economics.

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

1 www.cvc.cervantes.es/obref/congreso/valladolid/ponencias/unidad_diversidad_del_español2 Salvat Universal, Diccionario Enciclopédico. Barcelona: Salvat Editores, S.A., 1997.3 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’sauthors put into practice by his country’s government.

4 Revista de la Academia Colombiana de la Lengua, Número 6 (Julio del 2004).5 Professor from La Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá.6 Professor from La Universidad del Valle, Colombia.7 She supports this statement in view of the fact that some schools teach Natural Sciences in L2 and

Religion and Arts in L1.8 IRIARTE-ESGUERRA, Genoveva. Bilingüismo y Sociolingüística. En, Memorias del Seminario: Bilingüismo,

Función Cognoscitiva y Educación. Bogotá: Fondo de Publicaciones del Gimnasio Moderno, 1997.9 VILLAMIZAR, Rodrigo y MONDRAG Ó N, Juan Carlos. Lecciones de los países del Asia-Pacifico en tecnología,

productividad y competitividad. Bogotá: Editorial Norma S.A., 1995.

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A New Stage in the Linguistics Scenery

with differentiable semantic, syntactic, phonological and phoneticscomponents as it is possible today in the case of discretidad.

All this evidence contrasts with the assumptions that prevail in thecurrent linguistic scenery that postulate state the presence of a biologicalmodule inserted in the human brain that distinguishes humans from animals.Lakoff (1999) better opposes this belief by saying: “If syntax (language) is tocharacterize the essence of human nature, if it is to define what distinguisheshuman beings from the apes, then it could have not been present in any form ofthe apes…it must come all at once, by genetic mutation, not gradual selection”6.

It is undoubtedly a fascinating debate. Despite the fact that Linguisticshas reached momentum within the academic and scientific scenario duringthe last years, the author of this text is certain that Linguistics is still a veryincipient science. In any case the development of linguistics should not andmust not lead us to a dogma of human features but to the scientific findingsattached to man as an evolutionary being. It is necessary to expand thedebate that Linguistics is currently undergoing. It is time to lessen theimportance and promulgation the generative tradition has had in ourtheoretical panorama so we can engage ourselves in the statement of atheory much more aligned with the current task of Linguistics and open adiscussion among the student population. This might lead to great andunexpected results. Departments of Linguistics should now embark on newprojects distant from the lightly delimiting Chomskyan tradition. Under anycircumstance theorists must not surrender to the charm of philosophicalassumptions, which though extremely important in other sciences, must notrule the roots of a science such as Linguistics.

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 deMéxico, 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.

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The articles, texts and opinions expressedhere do not necessarily reflect the position

or policies of Capital Letter.

CAPITAL LETTERMission: to be a channel of communication among themembers that make up the academic community of theForeign Languages Department.

Vision: to grow as a publication, as individuals, as agroup, and as members of the academic community.

G REETINGS

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 madeby members from our Human Sciences community which wants to share their variedinterests 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

Head of Human Sciences Faculty:Professor Germán Arturo Meléndez AcuñaAcademic Vice-dean:Professor Olga RestrepoVice-dean of Bienestar Universitario:Professor Zulma Cristina Santos.Director of Divulgación Académica y Cultural:Professor Francisco Montaña IbáñezHead 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 CommitteeProofreadingAlitia Best, Maria Elisa Moorwood and Nicholas SpencerCapital Letter StaffLina María Conde A. Mariluz OrtizBibiana Hernández Javier Augusto RojasDayana Andrea Osorio E.Graphic Reporter: Juan Carlos Becerra

The Writing Staff:Alexandra Arango S. David MartínVéronique Bellanger Yudiht MartinIsabel Buitrago Camilo Morales N.Felix Burgos M. Claudia Nieto C.Melba Libia Cárdenas B. Mariluz OrtizRonnall Castro Q. Dayana Andrea Osorio E.Jorge Celis S. Yira Pastrana DíazLina María Conde A. Juan Carlos Rodríguez R.Ligia Cortés N. Javier Augusto RojasRaúl Enrique García L. Antje RugerMauricio Joven B. Edgar Milton Santa G.Dario Andrés Leal Sergio Daniel Solórzano R.Diego Andrés Marín C. Jalver Uyaban C.

Also collaborated:Carolina Segura, LOLO (cartoon) and Xatlí Zuleta

Printed by Sección Publicaciones, Dirección Nacional deDivulgación Cultural

Sponsors: Dirección de Bienestar de Sede and Facultad deCiencias HumanasCoordinator of Publications for the Human Sciences Faculty:Verónica Bermúdez

INDIFFERENCE IS THE N A M E OF THE G A M E - EDITORIAL

O ne of the questions we usually ask ourselves is why things are the way they are. Thereshould be more peace, more security, more courses, more processes going on, more research,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, studyopportunities or research processes for ourselves and the others? What has been ourperformance 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, wealways complain about lack of opportunities to develop the writing skills and when theoccasion comes we take no notice of it. The case of the present discussion originated fromthe indifference regarding the invitation extended to the community to attend the Talleresde Redacción planned and scheduled by the staff of Capital Letter. Just to exemplify, in thefirst workshop there were 21 people, from which 14 were students of industrial engineering,2 from 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 are tirelessly working to improve themselves as well as those peoplearound them. The great pity is that they were very few. A big percentage of the populationis indifferently observing things happening, just happening to faceless and nameless people inemotionally 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.

Participants in the Talleres de Redacción

CURSO 10 - IED ALFREDO IRIARTE

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O U R PRESENCE

Fête française à l’Université Nationale

Ligia Cortés NavesCoordinatrice - Section Française

Lcortesn@unal.edu.co

C’est devenu une tradition! Le vendredi 18 mars, la section de françaisdu DLE célébrait une fois de plus la journée internationale de la francophonie,occasion d’honorer les pays qui la constituent (63 officiellement), la languefrançaise (qui reste la deuxième du monde sur le plan de l’importancepolitique), et plus généralement les francophones à travers le monde (264millions de personnes ont le français en partage en tant que langue maternelle,langue seconde ou d’apprentissage et, plus largement, 600 millions depersonnes vivent dans les Etats et gouvernements de l’Organisationinternationale de la Francophonie.)

Rappelons que le terme de francophonie apparut pour la première fois en1880. C’est le géographe français Onésime Reclus (1837-1916) qui l’a employépour désigner les espaces géographiques où la langue française était parlée.

A l’Université, ce fut une journée bien chargée. Au programme, pourcommencer, un exercice bien français : dictées organisées par MarthaMartínez et Eric Naves. Toutes nos félicitations aux lauréates : CarolinaMora pour le niveau avancé et Liz Johanna Buitrago pour le niveauintermédiaire. Ensuite, parallèlement ou successivement : exposition dephotos avec Orlando Salgado, chansons interprétées par les étudiants,présentation du projet Portraits de la Colombie en français sous la direction deVéronique Bellanger, dégustation de crêpes, karaoké encadré par Javier Reyeset Juan Guillermo Duque, projection de films (Les invasions Barbares avec leBásico V d’Enrique Orjuela, Astérix et Cléopâtre avec Ena Alvarez),présentation d’une pièce de théâtre par Liliana Guzmán et Juan CarlosRodríguez (A la place de l’autre), et organisation de jeux de société (Questionspour un champion, sous la responsabilité de Fabio HugoOrtiz, et Monopoly et visite de Paris avec AlexandraOcampo).

Finalement, ce fut une journée riche en événements,où chacun a pu participer selon ses goûts et sonniveau…

Cette fête doit beaucoup de son succès à sesprincipales animatrices: Karine Rubillon et EnaAlvarez. Encore merci à elles, et à toutes celles et àtous ceux qui ont mouillé leur chemise.

EVENTS

THANKS

Capital Letter wants to thank the Vicedecanatura de Bienestar Estudiantilfor their invaluable support. Our special thanks to professors Alitia Best,Maria Elisa Moorwood and Nicholas Spencer for their help in proofreadingthe material submitted in English. We also want to thank Juan Carlos Becerrawho contributed with his expertise in the creation and selection of somegraphic material. Thanks to Clara Inés Clavijo R., graphic designer from theNational Direction of Divulgación Cultural, who has always advised thepublication in its several issues. Thanks to participants to the Talleres deRedacción and to the third version of the Unplugged Festival.

National Elt ConferenceFollow up

Last April 22 the National EltConference Follow up took place inCorferias in the frame of the Book Fair.The Universidad Nacional de Colombiawas represented by professor MarthaCamargo. Professor Camargo developeda workshop on the topic of interculturalcommunication. The full name theproposal presented by professorCamargo was Communicating

interculturally: becoming competent. Capital Letter wants to congratulateprofessor Camargo for having the name of the Universidad Nacional deColombia present in the mind of the participants to this important event.

40th ASOCOPI National Conferenceand ELT Anual Conference

The 40 th ASOCOPI National Conferencewill be held this year in association with theELT Organization. The event will take placein October, from the 14th to the 17th in thepremises of Agustiniano Salitre School.

The presence of teachers belonging to primary, secondary and tertiaryeducation is expected. For more information, contact :

http://www.asocopi.org/Conference.html

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FOREIGN LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT, UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL DE COLOMBIA

BOGOTÁ D.C., COLOMBIA - 19TH MAY 2005

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

INDEX

FOREIGN LANGUAGESDEPARTMENT

FREE

TRABAJO DE G R A D O

ED U CATION

The majority of the authors who contributed with the present editioncentered their discussions on topics concerning the educational field. Theirinterests range from the early conception of education in our country tothe latest possible advances with the introduction of new technologies ofinformation and communication. The teaching and learning of foreignlanguages also entails interesting debates such as the conception of bilingualeducation and the conceptions and misconceptions occurring whenlearning/acquiring a foreign language.

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The recent legal dispositions issued by theConsejo Superior Universitario in its Agreement001of 2005 regarding the partial modification ofthe Agreement 101 of 1977 which deals withthe Students’ Regulations (ReglamentoEstudiantil) have been submitted to theacademic community without furtherdiscussion. M ore dialogue on the topicconcerning the changes in conception anddevelopment of the Monograph Projectsdeveloped by students at the UniversidadNacional de Colombia had been expected.

The topic in question is by no meansunfamiliar to teachers and students. It has always been present inthe discussions held in the Foreign Languages Department’smeetings, among teachers; among students; between teachers andstudents because of its meaning and importance in the professionaldevelopment of our current and future graduate students.

The current edition presents twoperspectives on the subject of monographprojects. The first one deals with researchdone in our Department with respect to themonograph projects as they were carried outbefore the issue of Agreement 001, 2005. Theauthors reflect on the role of research in theundergraduate program of Philology andLanguages with its three options, English-French-German, show partial results, andoverall conclude about the participants andthe processes involved in research endeavorsat the Foreign Languages Department of theUniversidad Nacional de Colombia.

The second outlook is provided by a student who analyzes thepros and cons of the reform. Her article identifies the nonconformitywith the current state of affairs as the capacities of people are notbeing challenged. Only the future will let us know if the measurestaken were the appropriate ones in a country that is seeking eagerlyfor a change in paradigms that will hopefully benefit all Colombians.

Cartoon designed by Juan Carlos Becerra

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Estudiantes de Ciencias Humanas interesad@sen trabajar en los comités de redacción deinglés, francés y alemán de la Revista de

Filología e Idiomas Anonyma.

Mayor información:anonymaun@hotmail.com www.anonyma1.ya.st

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

The PROFILE Journal has continued sharing the resultsof classroom research projects and reflections in thearea of English language teaching. This is done througharticles written by teacher educators and guest teacherswilling to disseminate innovations and research findings.

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 widercommunity so that we can examine our thoughts andlocal teaching conditions and contrast them with whathappens elsewhere.

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

THE DEPA RTMENT'S PUBLICATIONS