Identidad cultural y experiencias de aprendizaje: un estudio con estudiantes jóvenes en un colegio publico

Abstract

El semillero de investigación “Enseñanza y aprendizaje de lenguas extranjeras, cultura y justicia social” assigned to the research group ESTUPOLI looks into the teaching and learning of English language related to social justice aiming to understand the social, politic, racial and cultural agendas which underlie the education as well as emphasize inclusive, binding, and critical perspectives. From the insights of the “semillero”, we carried out this research project about EFL young learners’ cultural identity and how it seems to be disregarded due to the context and the English learning experiences in which students are involved. To point this out, students’ understandings seem to be directed towards the usefulness of English, the connection between English and anglophone countries, specially U.S and U.K; since it seems that their culture appears to be superior to ours. Regarding this, those English learning experiences seem to be out of students’ realities where they conceive language as a tool to obtain “better” opportunities instead of being a space enriched by cultural elements of L1 and L2. This research was carried out as a qualitative ethnographic study owing to the need of understanding beliefs, experiences, and interactions within learning English in I.E.D Simón Bolivar - Bogotá. The instruments employed to collect data were semi-structured interviews and cultural logs. The preliminary findings depict how the learner’s perceptions demonstrate that students’ cultural identity is being shaped by two different aspects: context that includes aspects such as culture, globalization, etc., and English learning experiences reflected in Colombian language policies. Inside the group, we are in charge of supporting and collaborating with the different projects that are being developed; in the case of our research project, we were in charge of the whole activities during the process such as the classes observation, collecting data, interviewing, analyzing data, and reporting back our findings to the “semillero”.