Epistemological Reflection of knowledge

in the Language Center

The Language Center in its academic community promotes

the constant revision of the processes of learning and
teaching second languages. For the betterment of these
process, the implementation of a virtual component has
been given a central position in the implementation of
diverse strategies.

The Language Center in its academic community promotes

the constant revision of the processes of learning and
teaching second languages. For the betterment of these
process, the implementation of a virtual component has been
given a central position in the implementation of diverse
strategies.
The proposal and implementation of strategies are supported
by the UPB’s Integrated Pedagogical Model. This is turn,
presents: a curricular plan tailored around human abilities and
competencies, and a trans-formative approach based on the
social and collaborative construction of knowledge
implemented by the School of Education and Pedagogy of the
UPB, plus the Pedagogical Model of the Language Center
(Centro de Lenguas). This model is based on the development
of communicative competence from an intercultural
perspective in relation to languages, cultures and knowledge,
and on the Virtual Environments Education Model (EAV),
currently UPB Virtual, based on the triad of technology,
communication and education.
In the documents mentioned above, an educational project
emerges as an important process that privileges learning
fueled by the student's training in autonomy. In this process,
the learners assume a responsible attitude of their own
learning process from an ethical and political perspective. The
teacher, then, becomes a mediator and the relationship
between the student and the instructor can be based on a
dialogue for the building of knowledge in a collaborative way.
All this is complemented from additional and transversal axes
such as scientific training, reading and writing, and the
appropriation of information and communication
technologies (ICT), which can enhance the development of
skills and competences. All in all, the mastery of a second
language or additional language should allow students
interaction and integration and participation in various
communicative situations.

Along these lines, thinking about the learning processes and teaching practices
from the roles of a teacher- mediator and an active student that interacts in
diverse communication and education contexts, particularly in virtual learning
environments, leads us to propose activities that strengthen and promote in
the students their motivation, responsibility, critical thinking, development of
their communicative competence in a second language, appropriation in ICT,
use of learning strategies, among others.

To enrich the training model of the Centro de Lenguas, we

offer face-to-face courses that either have a virtual
component, or that support or complement virtual courses
offered for undergraduate students, advanced training, and
continuing education. The Centro de Lenguas is supported
by the UPB Virtual Model that proposes a pedagogical and
didactic plan based on conceptual foundations in the
relationship between technology, communication, and
education to articulate ICT in the learning and teaching
practices at the University,
The above mentioned triad is understood, from a technological point of view, as
the product of historically elaborated knowledge that brings, as a result, a set of
techniques governed by diverse culturally bound knowledge. Also from a
communicative perspective, it can be understood as a human bond that enables
an exchange in two senses, participation and understanding, allowing man to
develop his capacity for language-action-interaction in the construction of social
practices (culture and education); and from an educational perspective as social
practice that is constructed in communication (knowledge from the other and
with the other). In other words, this contemporary triad proposes a separation
between time and space, as it becomes a communication system that operates
between the local and the global, and as a technological mediation that
permeates, among others, the processes of learning and teaching second
languages.

To achieve the learning goals, various didactic

strategies are planned from three basic aspects of
virtual environments:

• Change in the role of the teacher, whereas

he/she is a creator of content, creator of
environments, designer of learning activities and
mediator of learning.

• Change in the student's role, whereas, he is a

knowledge manager, participatory and interactive.

• Modalities for the incorporation of ICT, or a

complement to face-to-face courses, as the
second setting of a course (60% - 40% bimodal), as
the main setting of the course or with emphasis
on the virtual and the presence in some periods of
the year.
Based on the above, and to sum up, in the Language Center we
take into account the conceptual, didactic and procedural aspects
in the design and redesign of our courses in the various virtual
learning environments that we propose:

• ICT should be a tool that facilitates multiplicity in the

representation of knowledge, simulation and problem solving; a
support to strengthen learning and teaching. It requires a reflection
of the teacher on how to use them and for what reasons.

• The activities in the e-learning platform should promote

understanding, interaction, and production in accordance with the
Integrated Pedagogical Model, the PEP of the School of Education and
Pedagogy, the Orientation of the Pedagogical Model of the Language
Center and the EAV Model.

• The Virtual learning environments (EVA) must promote interactive,

reflective and asynchronous work, as we hope that the modalities we
offer contribute to this achievement.

• In order to carry out valid and useful evaluation processes, we use both
formative and summative tools. These tools in turn, are also used to
assess the learning and teaching processes, to make decisions, to make
adjustments, and to redirect the processes, among others. In other
words, we weigh knowledge, procedures, and attitudes.

• The formative evaluation becomes a methodological strategy through

systematic exercises of self-evaluation and co-evaluation. The summative
evaluation is understood as the way to corroborate the fulfillment of the training
purposes established through this virtual component. In the academic
community of the Language Center, we agree on the percentages assigned to the
activities or communicative tasks that the learner performs in the course,
depending on the virtual modality for which he or she opts and on the skills,
abilities, and competencies that are expected to be promoted. throughout his
performance in the courses. Generally, 3-4 evaluative moments are proposed.
 • Examples of tasks and instruments for learning and
evaluation are: the use of traditional and alternative tasks,
true/false, multiple choice, matching of elements; short
response, long response, developmental test, tasks or tests
that have to do with processes of inquiry, works and projects,
tests of execution of real and / or simulated tasks, among
others. Additionally, we use tasks or instruments based on ICT
as portfolios, Wikis, and Podcasts.

• The proposed actions and learning activities should guide

the student in a clear, precise, sequential and logical way in
order to privilege significant learning and encourage their
autonomous work.

For the design of our language courses in virtual learning environments, we

understand interaction as a social situation between two or more individuals in
which a response or exchange is generated. The interaction involves two
phases: intrapersonal and interpersonal that make possible the appropriation
as a result of an active, social and communicative process.

Regarding interactivity, we refer to the active participation of students as

members of a community within a virtual environment that allows them to
assume greater awareness and responsibility regarding their learning process.
Interactivity can be generated through four types of relationships:
student-environment, student-content, student-teacher, and student-student.
Therefore, the actions and learning activities proposed in our courses in virtual
environments should promote interactions through which students build
knowledge and make use of the target language for communicative purposes,
through processes of understanding, interaction, and production.
 The actions are defined as subtasks that guide the student to the
completion of the learning activity or communicative task. We
consider the communicative task as an activity that reflects real-life
situations and involves students in the understanding, use, and
interaction in the second language with a communicative purpose,
allowing the student to demonstrate the development of their
competence (learning) through their performance in the
accomplishment of the task.

Finally, this reflection of knowledge invites us to continue

rethinking within the academic community about various
issues related to education in virtual learning
environments, such as the development of
communicative competence, interculturality,
interdisciplinarity, processes of reading and writing, the
evaluation of learning, the use of different languages, all
from our founding concept: languages, cultures and
knowledge.
Referencias

Epistemological Reflection of knowledge

in the J.Language
Agudelo, Center Approach for Language
(2007). An Intercultural
Teaching: Developing Critical
Cultural Awareness. En Íkala, revista de lenguaje y cultura
12(18), enero-diciembre. Medellín: Universidad de Antioquia.

Defining and Organizing Language Learnin g Strategies. (n.d.).

Retrieved March 30, 2017, from National Capital Language
Resource Center website.

Giraldo R., María Elena (2010). El concepto de ambiente virtual

de aprendizaje desde una perspectiva mediacional.
Monográfico Maestría en Educación Universidad Pontificia
Bolivariana, N° 1 y 2. Medellín: Editorial UPB.

Grupo de Investigación en Ambientes Virtuales – EAV. (2006).

Un modelo para la educación en ambientes virtuales.
Medellín: Editorial Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana.

Instituto Cervantes (2002). Marco común de referencia para el

aprendizaje, la enseñanza y la evaluación de las lenguas
extranjeras. Consejo de Europa. Versión en español:
http//www.cervantes.com

Maturana, L. M., Restrepo, M. I. & Ferreira, M. P. (2009).

Módulo-guía en evaluación de los aprendizajes en lenguas
extranjeras. Medellín, Colombia: Reimpresos, duplicación de
textos y documentos académicos de la Universidad de
Antioquia.
Epistemological Reflection of knowledge
in the Language Center
Oxford, R. (2003). Language Learning Styles and Strategies: An
Overview. Retrieved in August, 2015 at
http://web.ntpu.edu.tw/language/workshop/read2.pdf

Peláez Cárdenas, A. (2006). Propuesta de evaluación de los

aprendizajes para la educación en ambientes virtuales. En Un
modelo para la educación en ambientes virtuales. Grupo EAV.
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Sol, M., Vallejo, M., Velásquez, M. (2009). Estrategias

metodológicas para la formación en autonomía en el
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Medellín: Facultad de Educación, Universidad Pontificia
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Vallejo, M., Martínez, J.D. (2011). Tarea y competencia

comunicativas: reflexiones desde un grupo focal: la evaluación
formativa. En Íkala, revista de lenguaje y cultura 16(28),
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Vicerrectoría Académica UPB (2012). Guía para la

Transformación Curricular de los Programas Académicos de
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Centro de Lenguas

Course: Reading Comprehension Strategies

Teacher's name: Martha Patricia Ferreira Melo, José Orlando Gómez Salazar y Jorge Humberto Villegas Alzate
School/Faculty: School of Education and Pedagogy - Language Center