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Informe de Seminario para optar al grado de Licenciado en Lengua y Literatura Inglesa / Conceiving language and languages as cultural systems, being the main focus of the linguistic anthropological perspective, this study intends to apply this approach in order to understand language teaching as a determined cultural system. Chileans Social Representations towards Alexis Sanchez’s use of English in his first interview in that language will be characterized and its possible theoretical and methodological implications in English teaching. Through empirical and qualitative research, focus groups and personal interviews were applied to English university professors, English university students, and university students of science. Based on the thick description metaphor by the anthropologist C. Geertz, the preliminary results show the existence of a serie of cultural models related to a) native speaker ideal, b) speaking English well and poorly, c) the existence of different levels of English d) good or bad communication depending on fluency, grammar, syntax, e) the concept of error, and how all these categories reflect the reality of English teaching. These results suggest that the social actors involved in English teaching and learning, express those social representations based on an ideal of communication and an ideal of English language, which at the same time, influences the way of teaching English as a foreign language in Chile.

Tesis para optar al grado de Magíster en Lingüística mención Lengua Inglesa / Autor no autoriza el acceso a texto completo de su documento. / During the last few decades, research has investigated the role of body language in human communication. However, when it comes to the teacherstudent interaction, little attention has been paid to the real function that teaching gestures have. For this reason, the present study assesses the beliefs that teachers have regarding their own body language in the classroom, and the effects that these gestures actually have. In this research study, five English teachers from a private school in Peñalolén in Santiago, Chile, were observed, video recorded and interviewed. Each participant was observed and later interviewed to find out their beliefs on the role and importance that teaching gestures play in the classroom. Each videotaped lesson was later contrasted with their beliefs to see if there existed a consistency between their beliefs and their practices. The study revealed that the essential orientation of teachers is to use gestures as explanatory devices for the most part; however, closer examination suggests that during performance, teachers use gestures for classroom control more frequently than for other purposes such as explanation, or evaluation. Four out of the five teachers that were interviewed inclined towards using teaching gesture to explain new vocabulary or grammar mainly, but they did not consider how important and frequent gestures were for classroom control or even evaluation. This case study, therefore, draws attention to the fact that even though English teachers hold strong beliefs about the importance of body language in the classroom, this is inconsistent with their performances. Assessment of the effects of these discrepancies is suggested for further studies to address.

Informe de Seminario para optar al grado de Licenciado en Lengua y Literatura Inglesa / The following thesis reports on a qualitative study of the Estándares Orientadores para Carreras de Pedagogía en Inglés by MINEDUC (2014). Since there are values associated with standards, the creation and application of them entail an ideology that reflects a particular shared vision. Then, the goal of this study is to identify these values in order to understand the ideologies behind the standards for teacher training in Chile, by means of characterising (a) their structure, (b) their content and (c) their social function. The Estándares Orientadores para Carreras de Pedagogía en Inglés consists of 10 standards which state the necessary skills and knowledge an early English teacher should have. These standards were analysed by assigning codes to their content in order to observe general ideas that could be interpreted as ideologies. These ideologies were categorised into three domains: structure, where standards are constructed as principles, declarations and illustrations; content, where it is explained that teachers of English should know, apply, and value their knowledge and abilities; and social function where standards seem to be created as a set of curriculum features, and not as mere guides. Ideologies identified were interpreted also in the light of an interview conducted to the head of standard design team. The ideologies identified in this study are relevant to the discussion of current English teacher training processes in Chile, and the impact that public policies have on the teaching of English in the country.

Magíster en Gestión y Dirección de Empresas / El siguiente trabajo de tesis, tuvo como objetivos personales, el desarrollar un proyecto de emprendimiento personal, el cual fuese rentable y sustentable en el tiempo, implementable en el mediano plazo, simple, excelente y por último, muy entretenido. La necesidad que existe a nivel de ejecutivos chilenos, en relación al dominio de un segundo idioma, es evidente. Los estudios y evaluaciones realizadas por el Ministerio de Educación, universidades y organismos privados, deja de manifiesto tal carencia, especialmente en el marco de crecimiento y desarrollo hacia una economía internacional y globalizada, a la cual apunta Chile. Es por lo expuesto en el párrafo anterior, que este proyecto pretende satisfacer una creciente demanda, por aprender, perfeccionar y practicar periódicamente, la fluidez del idioma inglés, en adultos entre 30 y 50 años de edad, quienes residen en barrios acomodados, ZODUC (zonas de desarrollo urbano condicionado), en las afueras de Santiago. Además de, ofrecer talleres lúdicos de reforzamiento para niños, hijos del mismo segmento antes mencionados, que se incorporan a este nuevo mundo bilingüe y globalizado. El proyecto pretende entregar una oferta novedosa, cercana y entretenida, con un fuerte soporte tecnológico y bajo una nueva metodología de enseñanza del idioma, basado en la expresión oral y la confianza de comunicarse constantemente, sin restricciones de conocimiento y nivel de avance. Para ello, se evalúa el proyecto ocupando la metodología de un plan de negocios. Después de desarrollar el proyecto en su conjunto, la evaluación económica final arroja, las siguientes cifras: para el escenario más optimista, el cual captura el 35% de la demanda estimada (más de 31.000 hrs. mensuales) un VPN = MM$834 con una TIR = 123,6%, para el escenario intermedio del 25% (22.600 hrs. mensuales) un VPN de MM$331 con una TIR del 59,4% y por último, para el escenario pesimista = break even = 19% de la dda. estimada (17.600 hrs. mensuales), para una TIR igual a la tasa de descuento del 15%. Finalmente como conclusión, se pude decir que el proyecto es muy rentable, controlar los FCE (factores críticos de éxito), es fundamental para poder lograr lo números calculados en la evaluación económica y como plan de crecimiento es primordial hacerlo rápido, a través de franquiciados, antes que lleguen posibles competidores, haciendo uso de economías de escala y disminuyendo costos fijos que permitan rentabilizar cada centro, con menos de 10.000 hrs. mensuales.

Informe de Seminario para optar al grado de Licenciado en Lengua y Literatura Inglesa / The main goal of the present study is to do research on group and individual word associations with the purpose of identifying similarities and differences between native and nonnative speakers at different levels of proficiency both in English and in Spanish. For this purpose, data were elicited through two word association tests, one in English and one in Spanish. Both tests included 30 stimulus words, and they were given to a total of 42 participants. The data obtained were described, analysed, and quantitatively compared in order to answer the research questions. Finally, some conclusions were drawn from the research analysis. In relation to the formal arrangement of the present study, it consists of six major sections. First, the Introduction, followed by the study, which is subdivided into Objectives, Research Questions, Theoretical and descriptive framework, and Methodology. The third section is the Discussion of results, followed by the conclusions. The two last sections are Bibliography and Appendixes

En síntesis, la comprensión lectora fluida y eficiente involucra una serie de procesos simultáneos, varios de los cuales ya han sido identificados por estudios teóricos y prácticos, pero todavía no se ha logrado un modelo que integre la información con que se cuenta. Nuestro trabajo, además de explorar este tema en un contexto nacional, intenta aportar a un mejor entendimiento de cómo la comprensión lectora se ve influenciada por dos dimensiones de la competencia léxica: tamaño y profundidad. Sin duda, en el contexto pedagógico, este tipo de contribuciones son sumamente importantes al momento de considerar innovaciones en los modelos teóricos y didácticos de la enseñanza/aprendizaje de inglés como L2, y así enriquecer la calidad del aprendizaje en los estudiantes de pregrado.

As learning English has become a necessity all over the world for some time now, due to the phenomenon of globalisation, analysing the aspects involved in second language-acquisition studies has acquired great relevance in the field of applied linguistics. During the past three decades, much attention has been given to the cognitively oriented models of L2 learning and acquisition with greater emphasis being put on learners and learning rather than on teachers and teaching, as was the tendency in the past. The way learners process new information and the different strategies they employ to understand, learn and communicate this information have been primary concerns of researchers of foreign language learning. In that context, the study of the different strategies used by learners of an L2 to resolve communication problems so as to effectively convey their messages has become a relevant issue.

Informe de Seminario para optar al grado de Licenciado en Lengua y Literatura Inglesa / As a part of Second Language Acquisition, vocabulary knowledge plays a fundamental role in the development of skills such as reading comprehension and inferencing skills (Nassaji, 2006; Schmitt, 2010a). Likewise, metacognitive awareness ensures learners to compensate for the lack of knowledge in a given subject, including vocabulary knowledge (Read, 2000). Thus, the present study observes the influence of metacognitive awareness, reading comprehension abilities, inferencing skills and vocabulary knowledge in a second language in the program imparted by ‘Plataforma Uchile’. Factors such as the score obtained on Math and Language Standardized tests (PSU) and average grades from high school (NEM) have also been considered. Possible correlations among the aforementioned factors were taken into account. A mixed, non-experimental and cross-sectional study was carried out using descriptive and correlational analysis of data. Further, in order to analyse the perception of the students towards learning a English as a second language qualitative data obtained by a questionnaire was analyzed. 108 students from “Plataforma Uchile” English program were observed. These students belonged to Facultad de Ciencias Sociales (FACSO) and Instituto de Comunicación e Imagen (ICEI). Major findings indicate the existence of significant correlations among certain factors, namely inferencing skills, reading comprehension, metacognitive awareness, vocabulary knowledge and PSU in this particular sample. Nonetheless, no correlations were found regarding the students’ average grades from high school. Considering the qualitative analysis, many students expressed a positive preference towards learning English, although they regarded this activity mainly as a necessary or useful tool for occupational and academic purposes only.

Informe de Seminario para optar al grado de Licenciado en Lengua y Literatura Inglesa