Maritza Rosas-Maldonado

Teachers’ past learning experiences, also referred to as “apprenticeship of observation,” can affect their beliefs and, in turn, their teaching practices. This study focused on the apprenticeships of observation of Chilean novice English teachers and sought to identify the possible influence of their past English teachers on their teaching and learning views in an English as a foreign language context. The qualitative multiple case study design gathered the narratives of 18 teachers using an open-ended survey and in-depth interviews. Results showed that the teachers’ apprenticeship of observation influenced their socio-emotional and affective views on teaching with a main concern on teacher-student relationships. From a sociocultural perspective, it was found that feelings associated with these experiences helped them understand their own practice. Las experiencias anteriores de aprendizaje de los y las docentes —“aprendizaje por observación”— pueden afectar sus creencias y su práctica. Este estudio se enfocó en las experiencias vividas por docentes noveles de inglés en Chile y en cómo sus propios docentes anteriores de inglés influyeron en su visión de la enseñanza y aprendizaje del idioma. En este estudio cualitativo de casos múltiples se recolectaron narraciones de 18 docentes mediante una encuesta abierta y entrevistas en profundidad. El análisis demostró que las experiencias vividas por los y las docentes influyeron en su visión socioemocional y afectiva de la enseñanza con foco en la relación docente-estudiante. Desde una perspectiva sociocultural, se evidenció que los sentimientos asociados a estas experiencias facilitaron la comprensión de su propia práctica.

This action research study aims to explore the contribution of the use of points of improvement as a reflective strategy to support eleven Chilean EFL pre-service teachers’ ability to plan communicative-oriented lessons. Through questionnaires and a focus group, participants’ responses were examined using thematic analysis. Findings yielded that their beliefs about communicative-oriented lessons were in fact linked with the communicative approach. Lastly, their perceptions towards the use of points of improvement as a reflective strategy showed more awareness in the classroom, narrowing the gap between their pedagogical and disciplinary knowledge.

This qualitative case study examines the perceptions of three novice EFL teachers regarding their past mentoring experiences in school settings. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to elicit their overall views as well as obtain insight to specific aspects of this process according to the Five Factor Model on Mentoring (Hudson, 2007). Findings indicate that the personal attributes of mentors were perceived as being most relevant. However, based on the perception of the teachers, aspects such as school requirements and feedback are not widely considered by their mentors despite the fact that these elements impact the mentoring process. It is expected that by analyzing teacher perceptions, more knowledge will be gained about future EFL student teacher preparation so that programs will be able to better address the specific needs of mentees during their practicum period.

Despite the vast body of research on communication strategies (CSs) and the way L2 learners manage to get their message across via these mechanisms, there is little research on Spanish as L2 in an interactional context and between different types of dyads. This is why this study attempts to examine a possible relationship between Spanish L2 learners’ use of communication strategies and the type of interactant (learner and native speaker). For this, twenty-four face-to-face interactions of two types of dyads carrying out two tasks were analysed by drawing on

Indexación: Web of Science; Scielo. This study aims to examine the different communication strategies (CSs) EFL learners employ when communicating orally, and determine the relationship between the learners’ proficiency level and their CS use. Spoken data from three conversations held by Spanish learners of English of different levels were analysed in order to determine the type of CSs they used when interacting with a native speaker (NS) in an informal environment outside the classroom. The identification of the CSs was carried out following Dörnyei and Körmos’ taxonomy (1998). Overall results show that there is an association between the learners’ proficiency level and their CS usage. Results from a detailed analysis confirmed this relationship and revealed that the learners’ linguistic competence is not only related to the frequency of the CSs used but mostly to the type of CS.Resumen: El objetivo de este estudio fue analizar las diferentes estrategias de comunicación (EsC) que utilizan aprendices de inglés como L2 al comunicarse oralmente, y determinar la relación entre la competencia lingüística de estos estudiantes y el uso de las EsC. Se analizó un corpus oral obtenido de tres conversaciones entre estudiantes de inglés de distintos niveles de competencia con el propósito de descubrir el tipo de EsC que éstos utilizan al interactuar con un hablante nativo en un ambiente informal fuera del aula. La identificación de las EsC utilizadas se realizó mediante la taxonomía propuesta por Dörnyei y Körmos (1998). Desde un punto de vista general los resultados muestran que existe una asociación entre el nivel de competencia lingüística de los estudiantes y las EsC que éstos utilizan. Esto fue corroborado mediante un análisis más detallado de los datos que demostró una relación no sólo entre el nivel de competencia y la frecuencia de uso de las EsC sino principalmente con el tipo de estrategias utilizadas por cada nivel.http://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?pid=S0718-09342016000100004&script=sci_abstrac