Editorial

http://dx.doi.org/10.14483/udistrital.jour.calj.2014.1.a00

Polyphonies and research horizons for the Colombian Applied Linguistics Journal

Welcome to our Colombian Applied Linguistics Journal new issue. The present journal edition proposes a hermeneutical exercise on domains of applied linguistics inviting readers to be “implied” revisiting and renewing research horizons at national and international levels around three research interests: Education and professional development of language teachers, Literacy processes and new literacies in two languages and Discourse studies in educational contexts. These academic paths are also the foci of our graduate programme in Applied Linguistics to TEFL at Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas, and they constitute our own research agenda.

We propose this Volume 16, Number 1 issue of the Colombian Applied Linguistics Journal as a springboard of intersubjectivities, new voices and new multidirectional horizons because it might be contradictory thinking of single and fixed research horizons for knowledge generation in applied linguistics in myriad second-language contextual scenarios. It seems rather necessary to move the eyes lengthwise the horizons. Our editorial research view understands that our mission, as in any research programme, should relate to the context and to the multiple social uses of languages. As I have pointed out elsewhere (Castañeda-Peña, 2010), in the words of Martin-Barbero (2009, p. 12), we believe that in Latin America,

“[we] are required to have a new way of thinking and researching that, amid the frantic globalization that threatens cultures, obliges us to 'rebuild local senses' [...] because all cultural interaction is always performed by actors located, and the meanings of the practices employed [...] will ultimately lead to temporally and spatially embedded social practices.”

As might be inferred, we articulate the Colombian Applied Linguistics Journal, in cooperative dialogue with local, regional and international voices and with other polyphonies and other research horizons. We hope that our explicit goal of “transversal dialogue of implied and applied linguistics knowledge” stimulates debate and reflection on the senses of researching about Education and professional development of language teachers, Literacy processes and new literacies in two languages and Discourse studies in educational contexts as scenarios where the social and plural occur.

In regard to Education and professional development of language teachers we concur with the various contributing authors in the fact that recognizing the individual who produces and interprets meanings becomes a research approach that transits different routes where perceptions and discourses about becoming a language teacher are as well fluid and transitory. In this line of thought, Ortega pioneers the effort to “create the first Chilean corpus of spoken English as a foreign language, in the interest of analyzing the errors that are most likely to be made and fossilized by native speakers of Chilean Spanish” adding local knowledge to corpus linguistics in relation to language learning and teacher education.

In relation to Literacy processes and new literacies in two languages the authors in this issue explore the perception of other meanings, along with the identity transformations in the context of collective ways of appropriation of new forms of literacies Accordingly, Banegas pushes forward the reading act and makes us realize that the attraction to a text involves the reader’s personal experience interpreting the pragmatics behind the text according to textual devices made available by the text’s arquitecture. Rojas reviews within the framework of transformative and critical pedagogies a local research piece published by Géminis where it is important to rescue the role of resiliency in English language lessons where literacies are developed, and Barraza enlightens the reader’s experience appealing to the social appropriation of interactive graphic organizers. Quintero, Avilés and Suárez provide us with a panorama of how Spanish as a second language is being taught at a specific Colombian region. Finally, Farias and Araya assess the multiple possibilities of visual literacies around the development of communicative competences.

With respect to Discourse studies in educational contexts this issue proposes a reflective and sociolinguistic framework where it is necessary to stimulate the emergence and articulation of new research ideas involved with social value where discourses are understood from an ideological and context-sensitive perspective. In that sense, Fandiño invites us “to construct a coherent discourse that allows developing teaching models and learning experiences within the theoretical framework of the postmethod condition, world Englishes, and critical multiculturalism”. Jing reviews the intertwined relationship between theme and rheme trying to unveil how a text unfolds. This is important to understand how language learners make sense, “locate, orient, and develop the messages in their English output”. Gerding, Fuentes, Gómez and Kotz also contribute to the understanding of how anglicisms become part of written Spanish in the media and the implications this may have for the vitality of Spanish and for second language teaching. This line of argument is also addressed by Moya who enquires the situation of linguistic varieties where languages are in contact impacting educational ideologies and policies.

As I have said before, for our Colombian Applied Linguistics Journal it is an ethical and research-based commitment to be a forum for polyphonic dialogue when deepening the understanding of the social-plural as seen in applied linguistics. For that reason we would also like to welcome our newly-appointed 2014-2015 Scientific and Editorial-Academic Committees as well as a new group of international reviewers whose work is strengthening the polyphonic and research quality of the Colombian Applied Linguistics Journal.

They are:

Scientific Committee 2014-2015
James Lantolf, PhD
Greer Professor of Language Acquisition and Applied Linguistics
The Pennsylvania State University, USA

Brian Tomlinson, PhD
Professor of TESOL
Anaheim University, USA

Thomas Luschei, PhD
Professor of Education
Claremont Graduate University, USA

Eve Gregory, PhD
Professor of Language and Culture in Education
Goldsmiths College, UK

Patrick Smith, PhD
Professor of Literacy and Biliteracy
University of Texas at El Paso, USA

Amparo Clavijo, PhD
Professor of Literacy
Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas, Colombia

Gavin Brown, PhD
University of Auckland, New Zealand

Lawrence Zhang, PhD
University of Auckland, New Zealand

Sandra Soler Castillo, PhD
Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas, Colombia

References

Castañeda-Peña, H. (2010). Editorial: A nuestros lectores en Signo y Pensamiento, 29(57): 10-14.

Martín-Barbero, J. (2009). Colombia: una agenda de país en comunicación en Entre saberes desechables, y saberes indispensables. Centro de Competencia en Comunicación para América Latina, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, pp. 11-35.