Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

The development of software not only needs to consider the construction process, but also other aspects such as cost, human resources and communication among stakehold- ers. The lack of simplicity into this context becomes explicit when some restrictions, such as service oriented architecture, must be considered as the basic style to build sus- tainable applications into environments were practitioners are not aware of this software technology. In addition to this, most of the available software processes are not directly applicable nor are they reusable, so learning times becomes risk for the development of the project. Therefore, Tape Mbo’e (TME) has been proposed to support the building of such applications, into development environments like developing countries where we can have economic constraints and scarcity of proficient practitioners. The first application of TME has been to develop a service-based application whose goal is to provide the interoperability among legacy systems of different public agencies in Paraguay. Initial results of this experience indicated the feasibility and simplicity of TME when applied in this field. The evaluation process, its results and conclusions are described in this paper.

This special issue of the CLEI Electronic Journal consists of extended and revised versions of the Best Paper Nominee articles presented at the XVII Ibero-American Conference on Software Engineering (CIbSE 2014), which took place in Puco?n, Chile, in April 2014.

A favourable attitude towards a language is a crucial factor in the process of learning a foreign language (Shams, 2008). In light of this premise, this article reports on a case study conducted in two subsidised secondary schools that involved 154 students from Puerto Montt, Chile. A questionnaire of five dimensions was given to the participants in order to identify their attitude towards teachers’ methodology and language use in the English classroom, English as a subject at school, English as a global language, and learning EFL in Chile. Results indicated that the students’ attitudes towards English are favourable; however, the dimensions related to attitudes towards learning English and English as a subject at school obtained unfavourable responses. These findings reassert the notion that students appreciate English as a global language, but they are not committed to learning it at school.

This paper reports the preliminary results of the first phase of an ongoing educational intervention conducted with students enrolled in an ELT education program at PUCV. As an EFL teacher with fossilized errors cannot be an effective language model for students, the study set out to explore the feasibility and effectiveness of a recording and self-transcription task (Lynch, 2001, 2007; Mennim, 2003, 2012) as a route to noticing the gap and defossilization. Students (N=20) transcribed the oral texts they produced during the speaking section of the diagnostic test for English 5. The tasks were: (1) transcribing three minutes of their speaking time, (2) highlighting all the errors they identified in their own speech (3) coding them (e.g. grammatical, lexical, phonological) and (4) sending the annotated transcript to the instructor by email. Drawing on the theory of questionnaire design and processing (Dörnyei, 2003), a survey was designed and posted online (GoogleForm) and emailed to the students. The questionnaire asked students to evaluate the perceived benefits of a self-transcription task. The study data consist of the annotated transcripts and the questionnaire responses. The results of this study were much less positive than what has been reported in the literature (Boettinger, Park, & Timmis 2010; Burns & Joyce, 1997; Lynch, 2001, 2007; Mennim, 2003, 2012; Stillwell et al., 2010; Thornbury & Slade, 2006; Willis & Willis, 1996): students only noticed 25% of their errors in a transcript of three minutes’ talk. As such, an attempt is made to see why this might have been the case. Some pedagogical implications of this approach in the Chilean context are discussed.

This Project’s aim is to propose the creation of a unit in charge of renovating the traditional methodological conception of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) by combining the proposed learning outcomes of ESP courses, together with methodologies pointing to the achievement of learning outcomes proposed by English for General Purposes courses, as the use of foreign languages in the training process of specialists has been set as a mandatory condition for the contemporary professional. Then, the objective of this project is to create a unit in charge of the design of an English teaching plan common to all the programs of the Universidad de Atacama in Chile, which considers social and labor needs and which unifies the quality and modality of English courses offered by this institution. The impact this course would cause on the professionals of the Universidad de Atacama would constitute an extra tool for supporting the knowledge they have of their own specialty and for beneficiating the professionals’ performance, their professional projection, and their personal and social development. The study is exploratory, descriptive and quantitative at the time that it is transversal. It is expected that the resulting unit can be implemented in a near future.

This paper is a preliminary report on the “CLIL State of the Art” project in Colombia, drawing on data collected from 140 teachers’ regarding their attitudes toward, perceptions of, and experiences with CLIL (content and language integrated learning). The term CLIL is used here to refer to teaching contexts in which a foreign language (in these cases, English) is the medium for the teaching and learning of non-language subjects. The data that has been gathered thus far reveal that while teachers presently know very little about CLIL, they are nevertheless actively seeking informal and formal instruction in CLIL. Many of the surveyed teachers are currently teaching content areas through English; approximately half of them reported having had positive experiences teaching content and language together, though the remainder claimed to lack sufficient knowledge in content areas. Almost all of the participants agreed that the CLIL approach can benefit students, helping them develop both language skills and subject knowledge (meaningful communication). Nevertheless, there is still considerable uncertainty as to the actual state of the art of CLIL in Colombia; greater clarity here will enable educators and decision-makers to make sound decisions for the future of general and language education.

One of the limitations of meaning-focused instruction in the EFL context is that a communicative approach is not sufficient enough to ensure higher levels of oral accuracy. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the effects of two different focus-on-form techniques, unfocused and focused recasts, on EFL learners’ oral accuracy. Three pre-intermediate intact classes were randomly selected as the focused recast, unfocused recast, and control groups. In the focused recast group, the focus of correction was on simple past tense errors. In the unfocused recast group, the recast was provided for all errors. In the control group, there was no corrective feedback. Learners’ oral accuracy as the number of Error-free T-units per T-units was measured. One-way ANOVAs indicated that the differences among groups were only significant in sessions five and six. Tukey’s HSD (honest significant difference) indicated that the focused recast group outperformed both the unfocused and the control groups in these sessions and there were no significant differences between the other two groups. These findings suggest that focus on form can be an effective tool for the development of the oral accuracy in EFL situations. In addition, recasting learners’ oral errors could enhance oral accuracy.

Based on two case studies, this study investigates the application of the Point, Explanation, Example (PEE) model to essay composition in a multi-lingual IELTS preparation class. This model was incorporated into an eight-week programme of instruction to ESL adults in London, England. Students preparing for the IELTS exam were asked to write pre- and post-instruction essays on a given topic within 40 minutes. Employing the IELTS band descriptors (IELTS, 2013) and analyses of coherence and cohesion in line with Systemic Functional Linguistic concepts (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004; McCarthy, 1991), samples of students’ writing were analysed. Data from students’ pre- and post-instruction interviews was also gathered and analysed. The findings of this study suggest that the PEE model is to some extent effective in improving the essay composition performance of IELTS students, in particular in the area of cohesion and coherence. Students find the PEE model useful in regard to the clarity and structure that the model seems to add to their essays.

University Teachers training is a key aspect when regarding the quality of education imparted to future professionals and when qualifying the contribution of human resource to society. Taking into account discussions of analysis suggested by local and foreign authors, this reflection paper proposes an analysis of teachers training at university level in Colombia and paths to contribute on its development. The main contributions to the debate are: a) establishing a unified policy of teachers training in Colombia is essential, despite the lack of political desire from government agencies; b) recovering the relevance of the pedagogical knowledge in order to improve teachers training by emphasizing on communicational aspects; c) finally, highlighting the importance of carrying out pedagogical and educational research projects which seldom take place.

This study sought to elucidate the challenges of critical literacy practice in the Iranian context. The objectives were twofold: (a) to find out which challenges teachers and students face in the practice of critical literacy and (b) to explore the state of critical literacy in language education. To this end, a sample of 12 English teachers and 120 students majoring in TEFL took part in the study. Data collection procedure was based on students’ reflective notes, semi-structured interviews, and classroom observations. The analysis of the interviews revealed that factors including a) lack of the teachers’ familiarity with the concept and tenets of critical literacy, b) students’ poor English proficiency, c) lack of attention to critical literacy in curriculum and d) political issues were the major challenges. Classroom observations and students’ reflective notes showed that teachers did not encourage students to become involved in ideologies imbedded in the texts.