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FOREIGN LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT, UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL DE COLOMBIA

BOGOTÁ D.C. , COLOMBIA - 13TH MAY 2003

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New Image of the Department

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Editorial ...................................... 2Academic Issues ......................... 3 - 4Music .......................................... 5New Writing in Progress .............. 5Alex - Institutional Program ......... 6Alex - Experiences ...................... 7Guest Columnists ........................ 8 - 9Teaching Page ............................. 9Teacher's Corner .......................... 10Miscelaneous Bag ........................ 10 - 11Latest Events ............................... 11Contests ..................................... 12Upcoming Events ........................ 12

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ACADEMIC ISSUES

Our main section in this issue revolves around the concept of Philology andLanguages. Here we ask what the purpose of Philology is and how it canfind a place in the globalized society we are immersed in. Besides, this issueuncovers students’ opinions on the major of Philology and Languages andquestions about the field of study the major of Philology of Languages atUniversidad Nacional de Colombia really fits in.

FOREIGN LANGUAGESDEPARTMENT

The building of the Department of ForeignLanguages underwent a nice transformation af-ter a year of intense work. The white two-winged structure preserves its original look byrespecting the height and the facade of its con-struction, necessary requirements for a build-ing considered Historic National Wealth of thecity. Glasses and white walls combine to wel-come the academic community that was dis-persed for a year. Once again all the branchesthat make up the Department are under the sameroof.

Head of Human Sciences Faculty:Professor Carlos Miguel Ortiz SarmientoDirector of Vicedecanatura de Bienestar:Professor Neyla Graciela Pardo AbrilDirector of Cultural Spreading:Professor José David LozanoHead of the Foreign Languages Department:Professor Norma Chavarro Casas

Editorial Co-ordination:

Director: Professor M. Claudia NietoEditor: Juan Carlos SotoGraphic Designer: Carlos Alberto Aldana

The Writing Staff:

Professor Sonia Delgado de ValenciaProfessor Cesar Augusto Contreras (Manizales)Professor M. Claudia NietoProfessor Magda RodríguezProfessor Raquel Sanmiguel (San Andrés)Professor Lucía Helena Estrada (Medellín)Jalver UyabánCarlos Alberto AldanaBruno LovoAdriana NoratoJuan Carlos SotoLeonardo SolórzanoLina RodriguezVictoria Eugenia LondoñoJudy VillanuevaSonia GamboaJohn Alexander OyuelaAlso collaborated:Professor Melba Libia CárdenasEdwin MartinezGiovany SánchezCarolina SeguraMaría Elena Medina

Front Page:snapshot of therefurbished buildingof the ForeignLanguagesDepartment.Pictures taken byMaría ElenaMedina. Mission: to be a channel of communication among the

members that make up the academic community of theForeign Languages Department.

Vision: to grow as a publication, as individuals, as agroup, and as members of the academic community.The articles and texts do not reflect Capital Letter´s opinion.

The effort of people from Capital Letter continues in order to improve ourmission as a channel of communication in this third edition. For that reason,it is important to remark the co-operation of many people who haveparticipated in many ways- the staff of the Foreign Languages Departmentas such, English teachers, and English students.

We also want to thank the co-operation of people from Divulgación Culturaland Bienestar Universitario, whose help has been very important in ourwish to continue writing this publication.

The contribution of the students with their articles has been important;without them, Capital Letter could not be what it is and could not remain asa way of communication, which is our main purpose.

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EDITORIAL

GREETINGS

The world is changing and we are witnesses of this process. Difficult timesseem to come in order to transform human life in the whole planet and wecannot avoid to be affected by them. Our country, our cities, and of course ouruniversity are suffering changes. Economic and political issues, social aspects,and violence are some of the causes and the effects of this global change. Bythe time this editorial was written, the Universidad Nacional was beginning tobe the target of some of those changes: A new principal has assumed as thehead of the institution; a new administration started to rule; an academicorganization is being implemented; and one remarkable aspect is happening:the students are realizing that if they are united there is nothing impossible todo.

The role of the university in the society is going to be transformed. Ourimage, the image that the Colombian people have of this alma mater is aresponsibility all the students must face. It is the turn to show them what wereally are, students who are learning how to improve this city, this country,this world.

Capital Letter has been created for being a channel of communication amongall the academic community. We want to evidence the importance of thedevelopment of different student movements and their academic participationin order to build a better society. Now the question is if we are willing to builda better university. This is an invitation to think about what we as students aredoing through our activities to reach this purpose. It is necessary to evaluatethe role we have in this process.

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PHILOLOGY IN DAYS OFGLOBALIZATION by Jalver Uyabán

Did we say Philology? Is it that antique art thatgrasps the spirits inhabiting the written texts? Isit a mysterious discipline that studies the anatomyof a culture by dissecting its literary works? Or isit that strange word used by the ancient Greeksreferring to the love of learning through thelanguage?

Yes, we are talking about Philology and its rolein the "light" of the global fashion. It may becomeanother piece of memory in the global museumof the forgotten human sciences. In the future,there will be neither purpose nor place for thestudy of languages and cultures, since the neo liberalglobalization longs for a universal language -English -a unified channel - audio-visual - andonly one culture: an homogeneous and shapelessmixture named Globalized Culture.

This is very similar to fast food, it means, it islight, easy to produce, find, and eat, and it fits forall kind of hunger. The globalized culture does notneed to be explained or studied, it only needs to beconsumed. Then, in that context, what thepurpose of philology could be?

By now, the globalization project needsdistributors for its cultural useless products. Thisis the reason why neo-liberalism is invading schoolsand universities running advertisements withinscriptions like "Teachers (read instructors) arewanted" or "students (read consumers) here is yourplace to learn".

Instructors know how to teach and what to teach,meanwhile philologists can also explain why toteach and the most important, why to learn:because all the peoples in the planet need topreserve and develop their cultures. Besides, thephilological why is too complete, too rich andtoo human to be put in a box of take awayknowledge. This knowledge is not a piece ofmerchandise in the “ supermarket of knowledge”*and that is why we may expect actions to putphilology out of the market. A deep criticismmust be done on the role and the relevance ofphilology, taking into account that our studiesshould help us to preserve the culture from theoverwhelming shadows of the globalization.

*La educación en el contexto neoliberal, MiñanaCarlos y Rodríguez José Gregorio. En La FalaciaNeoliberal, Críticas y Alternativas. Bogotá,Universidad Nacional de Colombia,2003,pág.301.

ACADEMIC ISSUES

This knowledge is not a piece of merchandise in the " supermarket of knowledge"* and that is why we may expect

WHAT STUDENTS THINK ABOUTTHEIR MAJORby Sonia Gamboa and Bruno Lovo

Capital Letter has been interested in knowing thestudents' opinion about the curricular program ofPhilology and Languages, and how the students feelbefore their subject of study.

In order to obtain this information, Capital Letterhas carried out a survey and has interviewed some studentsfrom III, IV, and VI semesters. The students' opinionsshow different views about the major among the students.

When people start studying this major, they donot know what philology is, different from peoplethat study medicine, architecture, arts, psychology,engineering, and other majors. Many people inthis major that are in the first semesters think thatthey are doing a holiday language course; othershave all their interest only in changing to anothercurricular program, and many of them do not wantto work as teachers. For that reason, students whobelong to the first semesters do not find somesubjects such as Linguistics and Functional Spanishinteresting and useful, and they take this branch oflearning as needlework.

But, what happens with the students in III, IV,and V semesters? They are always apathetic tocontinue their studies, and fail many subjects tryingto feel better. Others take as many subjects aspossible, trying to finish the major in a short time,but they are not aware of the loss of a huge amountof knowledge. On the other hand, students fromsuperior levels think that the Linguistics area isthe most important and that this represents anadvantage over other universities. They have aclear idea of working as teachers since they knowthat the widespread field of work for people fromthis career is teaching.

The majority of the students are in the mood forfinishing the major as quickly as possible, but a fewof them are interested in taking this curricularprogram in the best possible way in order to beskilled professionals. Many think that the professoris not a good one and that he/she has theresponsibility of teaching them really well, andthat criticize the major searching a guilty one fortheir own mistakes. Others think that the studenthas the responsibility of learning. But nobody doesanything for changing the thought in people whostudy this major in order to see the curricularprogram from another and better point of view.

One student proposed the idea of an inductionday for people who start studying the career, andit could be the opportunity for new people toknow the main branches of learning in Philology.This induction day could be organized by thestudents who are in higher levels - as it is done inother majors- and Vicedecanatura de Bienestarwith the co-operation of the Foreign LanguagesDepartment. This activity can give those newstudents the opportunity of knowing better themajor before they begin it. Maybe in this way wecan solve the problem among the students thatdo not have any idea about the curricular program.All these opinions can make the new studentsremain in Philology because they want to andnot because they have to.

A brief summary of the interview held withNorma Chavarro, Head of the ForeignLanguages DepartmentBy Judy Villanueva

Nowadays, our major is changing in manyaspects; we are conscious about some problemsthat we have. For this reason we decided tointerview the Head of the Department, professorNorma Chavarro, about her point of view onthe career and which our future as philologists is.This interview showed that one of the mostimportant problems we have is themisinformation among students, teachers andheads of our department.

Our major has almost 800 students, 80 teachersand the administrative staff. However, almostnobody or nobody knows what Philology is. Theobjectives of the directives, teachers and studentsare different. Maybe this is the reason whypeople do not feel identified with the career; wedo not know what major we belong to(Linguistics, Classical Languages, English orPedagogy).

But what is Philology? This is the essentialquestion for us. According to Diccionario de laReal Academia de la Lengua Española,Philology is "the science that studies one culturebased on its language". Are we really studyingthis science? Does our current curricular programanswer this idea of Philology? Norma Chavarrothinks that this major has a wrong name becauseit is evident that students are going to be Englishteachers, not philologists. She also explained inthe interview that now the Department has anew project in which Next page...

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MUSICACADEMIC ISSUES

there would be some changes: the title of the career,Licenciatura en Lenguas Extranjeras instead of Licenciaturaen Filologia e Idiomas; the length, it would take five yearsinstead of four; and the emphasis on Pedagogy, this subjectwould be stronger than in our current program.

However, this is just a proposal and students have not definedwho they are. This conducts us to other questions: What dowe students think about the changes? Which is our position?Has the department counted on our opinion as students? Weare in a point where neither teachers nor students have adirect and institutionalized channel of communication. A goodexample of the misinformation, as a cause of our problems ispresent from the moment prospect students intend to applyto the career. The names that promote the major appearunder the headings of English, French and German withoutspecification that they are degrees in Philology. For thisreason, future students do not know what they are actuallygoing to study. Now the answer to our question is evident, weneed to communicate to each other in order to improve ourmajor.

Thanks to the current juncture, some groups have beenorganized in order to understand and solve some worryingsituations regarding the naming of the new Principal of theuniversity, our position about him, and what our positionsabout the new policies are.Furthermore, those meetings arebecoming a place of debate where the students, teachers andthe heads of our career can share their points of view.Maybethis is a good element in order to construct bettercommunication among the Philology community. This is aninvitation for all people who are interested in improving ourmajor and working together for getting common objectives.

PETRONA MARTÍNEZ:Authenticity and RhythmBy M. Claudia Nieto

The name may ring a bell to some.Well, she is a Colombian bullerenguesinger who was recently nominatedfor a Latin Grammy Award under thecategory of "Best Folk Album"together with Totó la Momposina.

Petrona is a 'bullerengue cantaora'born in San Cayetano, Bolívar, 64years ago. She learned her craft fromher grandmother and aunt who spenttheir time tuning melodies while doinghousework. The Bullerengue is afemale tradition from the Caribbeancoast of Colombia. It is improvisedsinging accompanied by claps andplay drums. Its lyrics deal basicallywith episodes of the daily life ofcommon people from the town, likethe one that narrates the "Dolor deBarriga de Ramón Pío" .

Petrona has a vibrant and colorfulvoice and an innate passion forrhythm. Her songs are originalcompositions that contain part of herlife. She sings to the new-born as wellas to the one who has just died. Shealso dedicates part of hercompositions to the people whoextract sand of the stream to be ableto survive, activity that she herselfperformed once.

Although she has dedicated her lifeto music, she only became popularin 1999 when she was widelyrecognized as a 'cantante revelación'.She has recorded some LPs andrecently released two CDs called 'Lavida vale la pena' and 'Bonito quecanta'. Her fame surmounts theboundaries of Colombia and her nameis now familiar in countries likeFrance, Spain, England, and Portugalthanks to the multiple personalshows offered there.

Petrona is an example ofauthenticity and rhythm. The onlythings she cares about are knowingand feeling. In her own words: "Elbullerengue es la candela de migarganta y la felicidad de mi cuerpoy de mi alma". That is why she singslike this: "Oye, mi amigo:/La vidavale la pena/ Coge la pala en la mano/y vamos a sacar la arena/ Pa'ganarnos el arroz./ Oye mi amigo:/La vida vale la pena".

Let's listen to Petrona and enjoythe magic of the bullerengue. Wehope Petrona will continueperforming and showing the worldthe roots of our Caribbean culture.

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NEW WRITING IN PROGRESS

By Juan Carlos SotoObeisance to Jorge Luis Borges

A year ago, I was reading the magazineANONYMA and, to my surprise, I found a shortspace dedicated to the Argentinean writer Jorge LuisBorges. I observed in detail the illustration thataccompanied those beautiful words. Then, the museof literature came here in order to inspire me theseunpretending words I want to share with you.

I wrote them in Spanish first, and now I dare totranslate my poem into English. I hope they keeptheir deep sense, and you, dear reader, do agreewith the essence, the sublimation of Borges. Here itis:

Borges is waiting for himself,wishing to see himself coming and not to feel alone anymore

there he is sat in a whatsoever corner of his beloved Buenos Aires.The mistake here is that he is alone,

The mistake here is that the light has left his eyes,The mistake is that he will never arrive to that meeting pacted in

the crevices of his prodigious memory,and if he luckily arrives, he won't be able to distinguish

between the young Borges, haughty, fearless, eager of words,

the young man who knows everything,and the other, the wise Borges from the end of time,a modest, prudent old man who, with no pretension,

only the immortality of his words,is waiting patiently for the fall of the night,

lighted by the moon of the Llanura Gaucha.Be a little more patient dear Borges

Because as soon as possible, and without your notice,Your whole life will converge in a unique place,

The one you longed for a long time ago.There, those will wait for you,

The other men you are,The ancient Borges,

The young one,The Borges who is sitting here,

The Borges who will be immortal.

REVIEWSor Juana Inés de la Cruz: Eclíptico Sueño

Carlos Aldana is astudent of VI semester ofthe English major. Whenhe took the course ofLiterature I he wrote thisessay as the final paperof the semester.

His essay Sor JuanaInés de la Cruz: EclípticoSueño is a very

interesting text where the author analyses thedifferent aspects that the famous Mexican nuntreated in the detailed descriptions of her dream."Deep sleepy jungle, descriptive and philosophicalat the same time, plenty of breath and with no greatcomparison; this poem is certainly hard, a littlefantastic, and if it is possible to say, weird butsplendid". This is the manner Carlos Aldana usesto describe the masterpiece, as a dream that is theobject of his essay where he shows an accurateinterpretation, but without trying to replace itsgreatness.

Although he does not analyse every single part,fragment by fragment, he takes the essence of thepoem and reveals it through a detailed study ofphilosophic topics, which are rational and fantastic,and are hidden in the beautiful words of Sor Juana.The author develops his writing using a veryorganized structure that is the base and guide for hispaper. If you are interested in reading the completeessay, you can find it at the main library on campus.

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Teachers will have to provide as many re-sources as possible for students to be able todiscover their strengths and weaknesses, tolearn to maximize the former and compensatefor the latter, to work in teams and cooperatewith others, to begin making decisions andassuming responsibility for their mistakes,etc. We are not prepared for doing all thesethings alone (autonomy does not mean to dothings on your own); there is a need for sup-port in this process and it is the teacher’sresponsibility to provide this help.

We have just come to one last importantconcept: paradigm. After this short and ba-sic discussion about autonomous learning,have you felt any changes? We hope you have.ALEX is beginning to break the previousteaching – learning process scheme where theteacher makes decisions and controls, andstudents follow. In this new project, learnerswill become decision-makers who will learnto control their own process. Teachers? Theywill be beside students, accompanying themalong the first part of their path.

1 Webster’s new twentieth centuryunabridged dictionary, p. 499.2 Michel, Guillermo (1994) Aprende aaprender (12ª ed.) México: Trillas, p. 20.3 Holec, Henry (1981) Autonomy and ForeignLanguage Learning, Oxford: Pergamon, p.3.

ALEX-INSTITUTIONAL PROGRAM

ALEX: What are some of the concepts involved in this new program?

Learning, thus, is a never ending activeprocess. That is why it is essential to learn tolearn, and here autonomy begins to play itsrole.

Autonomy. .. . AUTONOMY. Again, take afew seconds to think what autonomy means toyou. Many ideas may come to your mind:making decisions, self-governing, takingresponsibility, individual work, making changes,organizing, leading, independence, ... As definedby the dictionary of Real Academia de laLengua, autonomy is "the skill to govern yourown actions." This concept applied to learningwill take us to Holec's perspective onautonomous learning: "the ability to take chargeof one’s own learning.”1 If this is an ability, itmeans that it needs development. How manyof us can say we are autonomous learners?Maybe very few would say we are. Most of usare the result of an educational system whereautonomy is neglected, where learner’sdecisions and interests are left aside and whereinstitutional and even political parameters arethe basis of the decisions taken in theclassroom. That is what makes the developmentof autonomous learning even more difficult: thefact that we have to rethink learning; rethinkinglearning, reflecting upon learning, will result innew different attitudes and new moreinteresting roles, from the part of the teacher aswell as from the student.

On their way to become autonomous, learn-ers, in their new roles, will gradually begin tomake decisions about such things as their ob-jectives, what they want to learn, what the re-sults and benefits will be, how they will reachtheir goals, when, how assessment will be done,and so forth. Being this a new process for learn-ers, it is necessary for teachers to adopt newpositions with respect to the way they pro-vide support and guidance to students. Stu-dents cannot, by any means, be left alone inthe first stages of this long hard, but rewarding,process.

By Magda Rodríguez - ALEX: BOGOTÁ

ALEX is a program to develop learningautonomy in students so that they can applythe principles of this new paradigm to theirlearning of a foreign language.

The first aspect to deal with is the conceptof development. How would you definedevelopment? Take a few seconds and thinkof your definition of the term. Developmentcomes from 'develop' - from the Frenchdévelopper - meaning "to cause to growgradually in some way; to cause to becomegradually fuller, larger, better." ALEX is aprogram that seeks to improve students'learning skills and strategies in such a waythat they will become better students.However, as the definition of developmentimplies, this is a gradual process requiringpatience and work. Patience because the finalresult is not obtained spontaneously, but stepby step; work because all great goals arereached with constant effort, whether mentalor physical. The great goal is that learnersacquire appropriate communicativecompetences in a foreign language through thedevelopment of autonomy.

A second concept to deal with is learning.Many definitions have been thought aboutwhat learning is, ranging from the oldbehaviourist paradigm to the different moderncognitive stands. ALEX has adopted thefollowing position with respect to learning:learning involves the assimilation of ourexperiences so that they can become a part ofour life and produce changes in us. "Learningis the process by which we obtain newknowledge, abilities or attitudes throughexperiences that will produce a change in ourcharacter or behaviour." As experiences aregradually assimilated, we begin to acquire newviews, attitudes, ways of thinking, behaviours,all of which will make us different in manyways; all these shifts will lead us to newexperiences.

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ALEX - EXPERIENCES

ABOUT ALEX IN MEDELLINby Lucía Helena Estrada

We started implementing this new programthe previous semester and we have learnt a lotfrom this first experience. Last semester wehad around 613 students willing to begin; manyof them gave up for several reasons includingacademic obligations, not effective strategiesto schedule their time and evenmisunderstanding of the project ALEX.

Last semester some students did notunderstand the importance of working extra-time in the lab and they found the ASESORIAuseless, so they did not want to attend it at thebeginning. This semester the teacher staff havebeen working on different strategies for studentsto have an effective use of the resource roomand ASESORIAS. Nowadays, the resourcesroom is full most of the time, there is even aspace problem because the lab is not big enoughfor the number of students we have in thismoment. Students are more conscious so theyare eager to visit it and from the very first weeks

they were asking for tutors.

This semester teachers are working ondifferent projects to improve our resourceroom. Some of them are organizing material inorder to re-classify and systematize it. Othersare designing new material for specific skillsand levels or adopting class activity documentsas support documents so that students havemore opportunities to work by themselves.

We believe in autonomy and we are all workingon it as well!

WHAT IS HAPPENING WITH ALEX INBOGOTÁ?by Lina Rodríguez and Leonardo Solórzano

THE ALEX PROGRAM IN MANIZALES by Cesar Augusto Contreras

This current year, the Universidad Nacional deColombia, branch of Manizales, is celebrating55 years of its creation (1948). However, theteaching of foreign languages here just started in1958 and lasted until 1972, when hotrevolutionary political movements of thatepoch, promoted by many students, made thecourses collapse and disappear as subjectspertaining to the academic programs.

Then, some sporadic courses in English andother languages such as French, Italian orJapanese continued to be scheduled as electivesubjects.

But now there is a new option in order to providestudents with a better and permanent variety oflanguages courses: ALEX.

After ALEX was created and formally began asan institutional program of the UniversidadNacional de Colombia (year 2002), more than550 new students were enrolled to take thecourses. In the first semester of the year 2003,580 more were also admitted to courses inEnglish, French and Italian. 16 hired teachersare joined to the ALEX Program and a microSelf Access Center (SAC) is now in the phase ofimplementation since no Department or Sectionof Foreign Languages has ever existed at thisbranch of the university up to now.

At present, there is a very favorable, enthusiasticatmosphere about the ALEX Program. Ingeneral, students feel that languages are veryimportant for their professional and personaleducation as well as an effective, helpful tool intheir lives. For these reasons, among others, thisprogram is rapidly meeting the expectations ofthe student population in our institution.

Some Foreign Languages Students’ opinions onALEX after three months of implementation.

In our last issue, we showed what ALEX was andits objectives. In summary, ALEX is a programbased on autonomous learning (with the teacher asa guide) in order to go beyond language…to learnits culture. To have an idea of Foreign LanguagesStudents’ opinion about the implementation of thisprogram, we devised and applied a survey.

We found some generalized ideas. The first sur-prise was to know that the ALEX courses do notreplace the electivas for Foreign Languages Stu-dents. ALEX is intended for students from all ca-reers except Languages. Second, what the studentsexpected from this program was the access to theResources Center as an important tool of the pro-gram. So far, students have not been able to do so.The Resources Center was supposed to have mate-rials, such as tape recorders, videos, reference booksand many other audio-visual or reading materials.This fact has constrained students’approach to anautonomous model. It is expected that ALEX opensthe doors of the Resources Center by the end ofthis term.

There are some facts that also worry students.The first is the number of hours a week. A student’sopinion on this issue is that, 'We ask for more timebecause with three hours per week we are notgoing to be able to learn'. A second aspect has todo with the number of students in theclassrooms;quoting a student’s opinion, 'There areeven 50 students in a classroom and we cannotinteract with each other'. Another student who istaking an elective argues, 'The level of speakinghas decreased about 50% compared with the elec-tives because almost nobody participates in classsince there are many people, and the methodologydoes not allow it'.

Now we just can wait to see how ALEX is going tobe developed when it has the necessary resourcesand when students have and understand the infor-mation about this program. This can be just a prob-lem of communication and lack of resources thatcan be solved with time, since this is the first timethis program has been carried out. The studentsand the teachers also have to give the most theycan to make this program grow.

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6. Complementary Psychological tasks. Such isthe case when the individuals are very keen on aspecific skill, as for example reading, but are notable to transfer this skill to another field. Everyperson can demonstrate different competencelevels in all the eight intelligences.

7. A set of nuclear identifiable operations. Eachintelligence has a set of nuclear items in charge ofprompting the different natural activitiescorresponding to each one. For example, in themusical intelligence its components would includethe ability to separate different rhythmicalstructures.

8. Possibility of encoding it in a system of symbols.According to Gardner, one of the best indicatorsof human behaviour is the capacity we have touse symbols. The word "cat" is not a cat but thesymbolic representation of the animal that permitsme to recall its image.

Gardner insists that there are some importantelements within the Multiple Intelligences Theorythat have to be taken into account:

1. All human beings have the eight intelligences.2. Most of the people can develop each one of theintelligences until an appropriatelevel of aptitude.3. The different intelligences work interwoven ina complex way.4. There are different ways of being intelligentwithin each category.

The eight intelligences we have been talking aboutso far are:

Language IntelligenceThe person with this intelligence rememberspoems and short readings easily, enjoys tellingstories and work with puzzles and tongue twisters.They express themselves properly and can followthe rhythm of various languages. As representativeof this intelligence we can mention Gabriel GarcíaMarquez.

Logical- mathematical IntelligenceGoing from the concrete to the abstract is easyfor a person with this intelligence, since thinkingin a conceptual mode is her / his natural way.

Spatial-Visual IntelligenceThe person with this intelligence will use charts,maps, drawings, designs and colouring forexpressing himself or herself in a better way. Agood example of a person with this intelligencewould be Christopher Columbus, and in general allfishermen, and architects as well.

GUEST COLUMNISTS

Musical IntelligenceMozart used to remember long melodies with easeand modified them on purpose according to hismood, surprising every body with his creativity.A person with this intelligence can differentiatesequential patterns in sounds, and expresses his/her feelings through songs and by playing musicalinstruments.

Kinestetic intelligenceThe person can be easily identified because he orshe can move smoothly and beautifully. They canbe great dancers and sport-people, since they havegood motor abilities that they demonstrate withphysical dexterity.

Interpersonal intelligenceThe person with this intelligence can understandand interpret the feelings of the people aroundhim or her. They are popular and have manyfriends and they enjoy to play in teams and solveproblems in group.

Intrapersonal intelligenceRecognising strong and weak areas of ourpersonality is not an easy task. However, for theperson with this intelligence to be reflective andintuitive make him and her feel comfortable andshows preference for being alone than in largegroups.

Naturalistic intelligenceThe person prefers to walk along the river thanbeing inside a room. Nature and himself establisha pantheistic continuos. This person will be ableto distinguish among the different trees and flowersof the environment. Darwin, Mutiz, Sabio Caldas,ecologists of our times as well, are people thathave this intelligence more developed than anyother one.

It is important to recall that no intelligence existsby itself. In general terms all the intelligencesexist and work at the same time, with more or lessemphasis depending upon the natural abilities ofevery one. However, we can help other peoplenearby, our students, children, sons and daughters,among others, to recognise which intelligencesthey have more developed in a natural way. Itmight be interesting to propose a life project tobring the other intelligences to a good standardthat, surely, will awake in ourselves a lot ofpotentials that had been slept for years in ourminds.

How can we organise a syllabus based on M.I.?First of all taking into account that every learnerhas a different route to approach knowledge andthat is the best way for us to understand whatintelligence he/she has more developed . Next page...

Since the moment Gardner identified otherintelligences different from the linguistic andmathematical ones, much has been said andwritten about this subject all around the world.The author of this new theory first thought inPsychology rather than Pedagogy for applyingit. However, it has been within this lastdiscipline that his theory has been used withmore emphasis, and it has been proposed as anexcellent tool for working in the classroom.

Gardner (1999) says that all human beingsposses the eight intelligences and that our dutyas teachers and is to promote in the learnersthe use of all of them to enhance thepossibilities of both educators and learners toacquire knowledge relevant for their own lives.

For an intelligence to be considered as such ithas to fulfill eight requirements, otherwise itwould be only a skill or a talent but not anintelligence:

1. It can be potentially isolated in the braindue to brain damage. For example, if a personsuffers an accident that involves the Brocaregion, he or she may have limitations inlanguage but not in math, or in dancing oreven in singing.

2. There can be individuals that show superiorskills in one intelligence but not in other ones.That is the case of Raymond in Rain Man,who could calculate accurately but could nothave good relationships with other people.

3. It can be identified culturally and withindividuals that perform it as a final state. Itmeans that there are human beings thatperform in this intelligence, as Mozart for themusical or Mutiz for the naturalistic.

4. It has to be present in the evolution of thespecies with more or less emphasis accordingto the needs of the different cultures. Forexample, the spatial intelligence can beobserved when the bees are able to find flowersfar away from their territory and communicatetheir findings to the group by means of a dance.

5. Psychometric discoveries complementaryof other measures like IQ (intelligencequotient), or Cooopersmith for measuring self-esteem.

MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES APPLIED TO PEDAGOGYby Professor Sonia Delgado de Valencia

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Observe how your learners misbehave and youwill discover what kind of intelligence they have.

In the classroom it is necessary to introducereadings, formulas, drawings, music, kinesteticactivities, walks and visits outside the room, andpromote group work and good relationshipsamong the students. Little by little they willdevelop their M.I. up to a point where all ofthem have a standard level that will make thembetter citizens of the world.

Gardner (1999). Inteligencias Reformuladas, Ed. Paidos, Madrid.

A language ‘melting pot’Article from San Andrés byProfessor Raquel Sanmiguel

Although San Andres is part of Colombia, whenliving here, it does feel like being in a differentplace altogether…. especially if you movearound, mix and have your eyes, ears, and heartwide open.

As you enter our small campus, for example, ifyou open your ears you will hear our executiveSecretary and some of our collaborators speakCreole to one another. If you open your eyes,you will see a sign inviting all people on campusto speak English and/or Creole on Fridays, aspart of a pedagogical project. And, if you openyour heart, you will feel great to see young na-tive faces walking in and out of our classrooms,being prepared to be the first students to enterour University by areas of study.

San Andres is as Caribbean as the ‘melting pot’the whole region is. Cultures mingle, languagesdevelop ‘in contact’ with one another, countlessreligions, lifestyles and beliefs co-exist, and peaceis still a precious gift to be enjoyed. Complexityis at the heart of all aspects of culture, languagesbeing a unique characteristic.

How do we handle the complexity of languages:English, Creole or Spanish? Spanish, we use it allover, it is the national language… Creole, wevalue it, we encourage it, we respect it, we try tounderstand it, we study it… English, spoken neatlyby the oldest in the island, supported, encour-aged, and taught by the church, valued by all as aninternational language and a door to the Carib-bean, to the world… is there to be encouragedtoo.

… Ever thought of widening your language learn-ing experience?… Ever experienced teaching in a multi-lingualcorner of Colombia?

GUEST COLUMNISTS THE TEACHING PAGE

PROFILE

Melba Libia Cárdenas

Majored in Modern Languages, associated teacher of Universidad Nacional, editor of PROFILEmagazine. She has been teaching the English Didactic courses since1992 and the Action Research Seminar since 1999. Professor Cárdenashas been a teacher-researcher since she finished her undergraduate studies.As a teacher-researcher, she has covered different and useful topics asevaluation, teacher training, didactics and Action Research in Education.

Some of her major concerns are: in-service teacher training to improvethe English language teachers' performance, and teacher's involvementin research as a way of increasing their abilities and opening theirpersonal views in the language-teaching process.

These concerns can be seen in her written production (e.g. "TeacherResearchers as Writers: A Way to Sharing Findings" 1, "Teacher Research

as a Means to Create Teachers' Communities in In-Service Programs" 2, "Action Research byEnglish Teachers: An Option to Make Classroom Research Possible" 3), and also in her participationin the "Programas de Desarrollo profesional para Docentes de Inglés de Educación Básica y Media"in the Foreign Languages Department at UN (1995-2000). So, as it can be seen Professor Cárdenashas a strong interest in English language teachers' performance and its incidence in the learningprocess. Furthermore, students who belong to the FLD should appreciate teachers like her.

She is strongly committed to her role and has a big need of sharing and giving the tools toimprove the reality of the students who will be her successors.

1 Revista Colombian Applied Linguistics Journal. Number 5. Maestría en Lingüística Aplicada a laEnseñanza del Inglés de la Universidad Distrital: In progress.2 Revista HOW. A Colombian Journalfor English Teachers. ASOCOPI. Number 9, 2002 3 Revista Colombian Applied Linguistics Journal.Volume 2, Number 1. Maestría en Lingüística Aplicada a la Enseñanza del Inglés de la UniversidadDistrital: Julio 2000

Action Research: a way of transforming our classroomsBy A.N.

Action Research( AR) is a new type of research based on what is going on in the classroom and inthe educational environment in order to have an effective teaching-learning process. Action Researchdefines a 'problematic' situation observed within the classroom and, depending on the classroomneeds, creates different strategies to explain it or improve it. The strategies are developed toexplore the situation(s) -the teachers, the students or both-; and then, its idea is to explain or solvethe identified problems with the aim of improving our daily practice as teachers.According toGregory (1988), mentioned by Richards (1994), 'Action research is used to refer to teacher-initiatedclassroom investigation which seeks to increase the teacher understanding of classroom teachingand learning, and to bring about a change in classroom practices' .

As most of the research approaches, Action Research is based on observation, it is done in the dailywork of teachers by themselves or other colleagues. The teacher-researcher has the collaboration ofother colleagues, the students, the parents, or other participants involved in the academic community,but always the participants involved are conscious of the needs they have and the research processthey are participating in. Action Research involves small-scale research projects. In addition, it isa reflective process constituted by different phases: planning, action, observation and reflection. Inconclusion, to develop Action Research.

The teacher-researchers should be prepared to manage and collaboratively participate with at leasttheir students to create by action and reflection the strategies needed to improve the classroomatmosphere or the teaching-learning process.Richards, J and Lockhart, C. (1994) Reflective teaching in second language classrooms. CUP

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TEACHER'SCORNER

ACTIVITY

MISCELANEOUS BAG

(Beginners - 5 minutes per student )

Classmates call out questions until theyguess what is being mimed.

Preparation:

Write an action or a sequence of 2 or 3actions on a card. Prepare enough of thesefor each student so each one has one.Mimes should be related to eating andcooking or tasks around the home, forexample:

- "You are standing in front of the cooker.You're frying a pancake in a frying pan.Toss it to turn it over"- "You have a loaf of bread. Pick up aknife and slice off 2 pieces"- "You are pouring milk into a glass. Somemilk spills onto the floor. Find a cloth andclean up the milk"- You are dusting a table. You knock off avase. It breaks, clean up the broken glass"

Procedure:

1. Give a card to each student. If necessary,take performers out into the hall one at atime to demonstrate their activity, thensend them back into mime.2. One student at a time goes in front ofthe class to repeatedly mime the actionson his/her card. Classmates guess whatthey are doing asking only Yes/Noquestions until someone guesses thecorrect action.

Taken from Hess, Natalie and Pollard,Laurel. (1995) Creative Questions (1995)England: Longman.

A REFLECTION FOR PEACE.By: V.L

Currently, news has registered the war USA -Iraq. Activists from many countries in the worldhave expressed their disagreement with this war.Many people have gone out to the streets withpamphlets in which they have shown messagesrejecting it. Another way of demonstration wasshown in the Oscar awards in which there werealso expressions against the conflict among someof the winners.

In spite of the fact that some singers and actorshave expressed their opposition, they have beencensured by some channels and some importantmembers of entertainment that consider thesereactions as a position against the country.However, it is important to remark that all thatpeople do in favour of peace is more valuable, atleast, this is a way to convoke reflection.

If instead of inciting the war to resist terrorismPresident Bush had appealed to good sense andliving in peace, maybe he would have gotten amore global coalition to get a purpose of peace.Without tolerance we will always be witnesses ofwars and these always will be the legacy of newgenerations.

The Fox and the GrapesA new Version by J.C.S.

Once upon a time in a forest, walking throughthe huge trees, a fox was searching for somethingto eat. She had no eaten for two days and wasstarving. Suddenly, the Fox saw a beautiful vineplenty of grapes. She ran to a tree and jumpedto reach some grapes but they were so high thatthe Fox could not reach them.

The Fox continued jumping and one of thegrapes said "I had not seen an animal as stupidas this one, look at it, what is it doing now? "The Fox then thought about a different way forreaching the grapes. She started climbing thetree but that was difficult. Meanwhile the grapesstarted to laugh because the Fox was veryclumsy at climbing.

But although the Fox was not good enoughfor climbing, this was a very clever animal. Shewaited during a few minutes and sat down.Then, the Fox started to think about a betterway to make grapes come down. Ingeniously,the Fox said "Do you know that grapes canlive much better on soil than over there,upwards? You are so high that you might falldown and hurt yourselves." "That is not true"- said the grapes "we cannot grow on the soil".The Fox had reached her purpose. She madethe grapes believe what she had said.Then, the Fox told the grapes she would leavebecause there was nothing interesting to see.

As soon as the fox left, the grapes decided toprove if what she had said was true. Theystarted jumping one by one and after all of themwere on the ground, they noticed that beingthere was not a good place to be. Besides, itwas not a good idea staying there. Immediately,the Fox appeared again. The grapes were horrified. "Oh! please do notscream, I am here to help you", said the Fox. "Are you?", ask her one of the little fruits. "Yes,certainly", answered the traitor. " I will throweach one up to reach your limb, but listen tome, I will do it only once, and I do not havetime to play with you, right?" The grapesaccepted guiltlessly.So, the Fox launched the grapes but none ofthem could reach the limb and as fast as theyfell, the cheat animal ate them. "Why are youdoing this?" asked her one of the grapes, "yousaid you would help us!" To this utterance theFox answered, "Yes, I did, and I am doing whatI told you, however, do you remember Iexplained that I would do it only once? If youcannot go back to your place I do not care, thatis not my problem. Now, shut up tiny grape, Iam still hungry"."Sometimes being innocent means beingignorant".

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MISCELANEOUS BAG

IRONY, PARADOX, AND PROPOSALSBy John A. Oyuela

All of us, in any time of our lives, haveexperienced sensations produced bycontradictory and -in some cases- improbablesituations. Recently, I have felt those sensationsbecause of the current state of ColombianLiterature's; and I want to summarize thatsituation in just two terms: Irony and Paradox.As an example of what I mean by irony, I willmention an Irish man named Jonathan Swift.After that, I will mention an English man namedTerry Eagleton who defines paradox; finally, Iwill propose an idea that is both ironic andparadoxical.

SWIFT AND IRONY

Jonathan Swift wrote about the incoherence ofthe epoch he lived in. One of his most important,ironic, and well known writings is A modestproposal for preventing the children of poorpeople in Ireland from being a burden to theirparents or country, and for making thembeneficial to the public. Here, Swift wanted todenounce the poverty and starvation of the Irishlower-class people, but beyond that he alsowanted to question the indifference of the Irishhigher classes. The belief in Swift's days wasthat the poor people got what they deservedand could elevate themselves to a better positionif they wanted to, a view that later evolved into"social Darwinism." Swift used irony when heproposes that Irish mothers had babies and sellthem to their English lords as delicacies. This isSwift's ironic sense.

THE ENGLISH LITERATURE PARADOX

The book Literary Theory: An introduction(1983) by Terry Eagleton, gives in the two firstchapters a summary about how English literaturebecame recognized and important around theworld. There, Eagleton appoints to GeorgeGordon (a nineteenth century English literatureprofessor in Oxford) who said,: "England is sick,and…the English literature must save it. As(according to what I understand) the churcheshave failed and the social remedies are slow, theEnglish literature has now a triple function: itmust still, I suppose, delight us and instruct

us, but also, over everything, save our cores andhealing to the State" Those words had a dramaticeffect on the whole Victorian England. As a result,the subject English Literature gotinstitutionalized as a necessary subject toapprove school and technical studies.Paradoxically, English Literature became aNational Issue and its recognized as one of thebest ones world-wide. Of course, nobody wouldhave thought that Literature was able to saveEngland when the problems did not refer to it …anyhow, it was able to.

MY PROPOSALS

First of all, I must recognize that what I proposeis in a certain way ironic and paradoxical becauseit is exactly the opposite of what I have beentrying to illustrate with Swift and Eagleton'sexamples. It is sad that, we as students of Human Sciences,we do not have -at least in principle- to attendColombian Literature classes. As I understand,the only one program that offers and demand theattendance to Colombian Literature classes is theLiterature Program. Knowing that situation, Iallowed myself to think on the subject and topropose a new subject for all the careers at theNational University, it would be namedColombian Literary Studies. Such subject couldallow students to understand the current nationalproblems and, what is the best, to proposesolutions throughout a noble way: Literature.The irony and paradox of all this is that I had touse external patterns to propose a way forunderstanding our own concerns: ColombianLiterature. I wonder, why do we have to readEuropean or American authors and customs sincewe have our own authors and customs? I am notproclaiming a pseudonationalism, but apossibility of constructing a massive identity:the Colombian one. Finally, as Héctor Abad -a Colombian writer-says in one of his columns in a famous magazine:"When our time comes, we will had left manyunread books, but life is also leaving a great amountof open possibilities." So, let's work it out beforeour time comes.

Eagleton, T. Literary Theory: An introduction.P.36 (1983) Spanish edition (1994

LATEST EVENTS

RECOGNITION

Capital Letter wants to highlight the workof the people who participated in the firstlogo contest, second semester, 2002:

Carlos Alberto AldanaLuis Fernando CobosEliana WilchesCarolina PenagosCamilo Andrés Patiño

The British Council gave one of ourstudents, Richar Vargas LópezCode Number 445513, a scholarship tostudy English during the first period of 2003at its prestigious institution. Richar was the winner of the Short StoryContest sponsored by Capital Letter duringthe second semester of 2002.

COLOMBIAN PRESENCE ABROAD

1) 37th International Annual IATEFLConference, 22-26 April 2003, Brighton,UKSpeakers: Norma Chavarro C. andAlberto Abouchar.Name of the presentation: The Teaching ofEnglish in the Plurilingual Context of SanAndrés and Providencia, Colombia.

2) 37th International Annual IATEFLConference, 22-26 April 2003, Brighton,UKSpeaker: Melba Libia CárdenasName of the presentation: “Classroomresearch by inservice teachers: Whichcharacteristics? Which concerns?”

3) Third Internacional Conference onLanguage Teacher Education29-31 May 2003, Minneapolis, Minnesota(USA). Speaker: Melba Libia CárdenasName of the presentation: “TeacherResearch in an Inservice Program: Features

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UPCOMING EVENTSCONTESTS FOR ALL

TASTES

THE FOREIGN LANGUAGEDEPARTMENT LOGOCONTEST

Objective: to create and originaland simple logo for the web pageof the Foreign LanguageDepartment.Prize: Public credit on the webpage and printed materials.

PHOTOGRAPHIC CONTEST

Objective: to get the best shots from thedepartment (places, people,surroundings) to be published on theweb page.Prizes: public credit on the web pageand printed materials.

THE UNPLUGED FESTIVALLanguage DayApril 23, 2003Objective: to show the talent of students.Prizes: Books

The cheapest original book will never be overcome by the most expensive photocopy

These are some of the events that will come up soon.

·- National Teacher's Day

May 15, 2003 will be National Teacher's Day, a time for honouring teachers and recognizingthe lasting contributions they make to our lives. It's a time to strengthen support andrespect for teachers and the teaching profession.

- Sixth National ELT Conference: Beyond Evaluation

Building on the successful outcome of the National Conference on ProfessionalDevelopment held in 2002, Universidad Nacional de Colombia in co-operation with BritishCouncil is organizing the Sixth National ELT Conference: Beyond Evaluation. TheConference will be held in Bogotá, from 18 to 20 September 2003 at the UniversidadNacional de Colombia, Edificio de Posgrados, Facultad de Ciencias Humanas. This year'sconference will be focused around the topic 'Beyond Evaluation' in order to have a criticaland constructive assessment of current research and practice in this area.

- 14th English Language Teaching Conference: Managing Complexity and Diversityin Language Teaching

Based on the necessity of more divergent uses of teaching resources and a more integratedand inter-disciplinary curriculum where students can learn about themselves and about theworld, next August 28, 29 & 30 the 14th English Language Teaching Conference ManagingComplexity and Diversity in Language Teaching is programmed. Organized by CentroColombo Americano, Medellín. The conferences will be focused on the perspective andimplications of a curricular change, in the context of foreign language learning.

THE DEPARTMENT PUBLICATIONS

Anonyma, the Foreign LanguagesDepartment magazine, holds as its mainpurpose to promote complex thinkingthrough writing. Thus, Anonyma is a placewhere students have the chance to publishtheir works and explore common topicsof the languages program: linguistics,literature, civilization and education.Besides, the magazine intends to jointogether students of Spanish, German,English and French.

Profile, is an annualpublication of the ForeignLanguages Departmentthat has the purpose ofsharing the results ofclassroom researchprojects undertaken byprimary, and secondaryschools teachers as well asarticles written byuniversity professors.

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