Documenting indigenous students’ social representations about their english learning process in an english language teaching education program (ELTEP) of a public university

Abstract

This research report consists on a qualitative case study carried out at a public university in Bogotá, Colombia, specifically in an English Language Teaching Education Program (ELTEP). The aim was to describe the social representations that four indigenous students have in relation to the issue of learning English as a foreign language. The participants were interviewed three times in order to gather information, then we applied member checking to collect more data and validate the outcomes. The results show that the indigenous students have built strong and positive social representations about learning English, as they consider that this language provides them several opportunities in any personal and professional aspect. The outcomes also show that these representations vary according to the indigenous students’ proximity with their ethnic groups. In addition, the research concludes that indigenous students’ interactions at the university and social events influence their perspectives and objectives about the world; half of the participants prefer living in another country or urban zone of Colombia instead of going back to their communities while the others keep their desire for helping their communities to progress due to, they have a close relationship with their roots.