Abstract

MEJIA-MEJIA, Susana. Is Colombia Becoming Bilingual?: Analysis of the Academic Gap in English Language Education between the Public and Private Sectors. educ.educ. [online]. 2016, vol.19, n.2, pp.223-237. ISSN 0123-1294.  https://doi.org/10.5294/edu.2016.19.2.3.

The aim of this paper is to explain the factors that determine the gap in the level of English language proficiency between public and private schools, and to determine whether it has narrowed over time as a result of public policies to generalize bilingualism in Colombia. The language scores on the Saber 11 tests for 2008 and 2013 were analyzed for this purpose. An educational production function that involves family, personal and school factors and an approach to the unobservable component of the skill is introduced. The difference in performance has remained more or less constant, but with a slight reduction; however, the unexplained portion, attributable to the students' motivational component, was found to have declined considerably, indicating that public policies are working in terms of helping students to become interested in learning a foreign language.

Keywords : Evaluation of educational policies; bilingual Colombia; teaching English; performance in school; evaluating secondary education.

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