PRESENTATION

 

PRESENTATION

 

PRESENTACIÓN

 

 

Claudia Gómez Palacio*

* Directora/Editora Íkala, revista de lenguaje y cultura Escuela de Idiomas Universidad de Antioquia UdeA Calle 70 No. 52-21, Medellín, Colombia

 

I am very pleased to present issue 18(3) of Íkala, revista de lenguaje y cultura to both editorial and scientific teams, reviewers, authors, colleagues, and dedicated readers of the journal. I am very proud to present the journal as this is my first position as a Director/Editor, and I have learned unlimited and indescribable amount of things in such a short period of time. Thanks to the journal editorial and scientific teams and all the colleagues who have accompanied me and given me their support. Also, thanks is extended to all of the reviewers who gently helped me evaluate the articles.

This new issue is also in our hands today thanks to curators, Mauricio Hincapié Acosta and Fernando Valencia Vélez, both from Museo Universitario de la Universidad de Antioquia. Undoubtedly, they became my art advisors, aiding me to choose the best pieces of art for this and future issues of the journal. In addition, I must acknowledge Museo Universitario de la Universidad de Antioquia for allowing me to use Instalation Pupitre from their art collection as the cover of this issue. The museum also helped me contact artist, Yosman Botero who not only authorized the use of Instalation Pupitre, but also provided all of his collection, Sketch, to be used as dividers for the journal.

I must express my gratitude to John Jairo Giraldo Ortiz, Director of the School of Languages; Fabio Arismendi, guest editor for French; Farima Alidadi, English copyeditor; Rose Platteau, French copyeditor; Jonathan Deyrson Orrego, editorial assistant; Esteban Arenas Yepes, administrative assistant, Carlos Villa, Todográficas' manager, and professors Juan Guillermo Ramírez, Pedro Patiño, and Edwin Carvajal, as well as Juan Felipe Vargas from the vice-chancellor research office who have supported me with considerate suggestions.

I am also pleased to announce that Íkala, revista de lenguaje y cultura was recently included in ProQuest: PRISMA, Thompson Reuters: Intellectual Property & Science, and EBSCO: Communication Source and Fuente Académica Premier. The inclusion in these databases is due to all the efforts of our former editors, who worked tirelessly to bring Íkala to this stage of recognition. Therefore, thank you to Wilson Orozco, Sergi Casals, Luz Mery Orrego, Danièle Musialek, and Yanik René Mitchell.

Íkala, revista de lenguaje y cultura brings in this new issue three articles about empirical studies, one theoretical article, one methodological article, and one book review. It also includes the general index and the author guidelines.

The first empirical studies article is La formación integral: Una aproximación desde la investigación, whose authors are Ana Elsy Díaz Monsalve and Ruth Elena Quiroz Posada. In their manuscript, professors Díaz and Quiroz present the results of a study in which they interviewed 19 teachers of primary school at public institutions in Medellin, Colombia to find out what their ideal of whole education is. Díaz and Quiroz used the technique of critical discourse analysis by Teun Van Dijik (2003) to analyze the information collected and found five thematic areas. Professor Díaz and Quiroz also found that foreign language teachers' ideal of interpretations have involved ethnicity, moral, values, and rules.

In the second empirical studies article Creating and implementing a didactic sequence as an educational strategy for foreign language teaching, authors Betlem Soler Pardo, Luis S. Villacañas, and Eva Pich Ponce discuss the implementation of a didactic sequence in an English as a Foreign Language Class of sixth grade students from the public school ''Escola Juame I El Conqueridor'' of Catarroja, Valencia, Spain. Professors Soler, Villacañas de Castro, and Pich implemented the DS in order to explain to the students how to produce an expository text.

During the implementation, the authors carried on four workshops in which different strategies such as guessing vocabulary from meaning to become familiar with the context were used. A checklist was also provided to the students to assess their own expository texts in order to promote students' autonomy. Professors Soler, Villacañas de Castro, and Pich found that students became familiar with all the characteristics of an expository text and were always attentive and willing to participate in their own learning process.

Developing writing through blogs and peer feedback is the third empirical study that has been included in this issue. Authors, Oscar Mauricio Gómez Delgado and Jermaine S. McDougald invited students from an English teacher education program to design blogs and insert entries that would be edited by their peers. Their findings show that students can improve or maintain their coherence in a text thanks to peer's feedback and the intervention of students' cognitive and affective factors. Gómez and McDougald also found the importance of student-centered strategies to foster students' participation in their own learning process in addition to the improvement of students' autonomy. As part of their conclusions, Gómez and McDougald suggest using alternative assessment in the classroom since students' assessment information can be as valid as the one provided by the teacher.

To continue with the topic of writing, Juan David Gómez González in his article Cognitive demands and the EFL writer: Observations on kind, degree, and agency discusses the relevance of EFL students' cognitive processes at the moment of revising their own texts. Gómez explores the connections between dual process theories and EFL students' composition, and argues that most research on the process EFL students go through when revising a text has mainly focused on students ''ability to write, how the instructor assesses students' writing, and the complexity of tasks.'' Gómez then invites instructors to expose students to revision strategies such as drafting, peer revision, and blind peer assessment to help them become aware of their own mistakes.

In his article La rúbrica y la justicia en la evaluación, Edgar Picón Jácome defends his thesis that if a rubric is used in the classroom with the advocacy of teachers and students, who have designed the rubric together and agreed upon the topics to be assessed, fairer assessment will be promoted. Picón bases his thesis on the assumption that validity and transparency in evaluation can be fostered in the classroom if scoring rubrics are used to assess students' performance. He also adds, ''consensual design supports democracy, promotes positive washback and facilitates equitable assessment practices''.

At the end of the issue, Juan G. Ramírez Giraldo reviews the book Traducción de una cultura emergente: La Literatura Gallega Contemporánea en el Exterior written by Áurea Fernández Rodríguez, Iolanda Galanes Santos, Ana Luna Alonso, and Silvia Montero Küpper. In the review, Ramírez invites Latin American and European scholars whose research mainly focuses on translation studies to start a ''productive dialogue,'' which he considers is not stated in the book, but it is somehow perceived as necessary.

Enjoy issue 18(3); we did it with all our professionalism, responsibility, and love for what we do!