ELT Connections, Volume 1, Issue 2

Open Letter to IATEFL UK (Tom Connelly) Teaching English to Deaf Students: A Huge Challenge for Teachers in Chile (Ángela Hinojosa) EFL Teacher’s Perceptions about the Inclusion of Gender Issues in Chilean High School Classrooms (Gabriela Aliaga, Aracelly Quinteros, and Sofía Urbina)

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CONNECTIONS NOVEMBER 2022

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 2 ISSN 2735-7147

INDEX

Articles and authors in this issue: Letter to the Editor (Alejandra Jara).

6-8

Letter to the Editor (Esteban Veliz).

10-12

An interview with… (Johanna Velasquez).

14-15

An interview with… (Cristobal González).

16-17

An interview with… (Patricia Almarza).

18-19

Open Letter to IATEFL UK (Tom Connelly).

20-21

Implementing an online English practice website and self-perception of learning achieved by university students: the experience of Universidad Bernardo O’Higgins (Lorena Maluenda).

22-26

Teaching English to deaf students: a huge challenge for teachers in Chile (Ángela Hinojosa).

28-30

EFL teachers’ perceptions about the inclusion of gender issues in Chilean high school classrooms, (Aracelly Quinteros, Gabriela Aliaga, and Sofía Urbina).

32-39

MESSAGE OF THE DIRECTOR OF THE EDITORIAL BOARD Dear ELT community, Welcome back to the second issue of our E-zine. As a biannual publication, we are committed to showing our readers current and up-to-date perspectives on the teaching and learning process of English as a foreign language, both from a national and international angle. We desire to act as a bridge that narrows the gap between theory and practice. This bridge facilitates the learning process for everyone presently involved in learning or teaching English.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, pedagogical practices were somewhat forced to change their paradigm; lessons were no longer a space for face-to-face interaction, and relying on screens and technology was the only feasible option for our classes to keep on going. Now that we have returned to the socalled “new normal” life, we must make a real contribution to the ELT community.

EDITORIAL BOARD Director: Dr Manuel E. Cortés, Dean of the Faculty of Education, Universidad Bernardo O´Higgins.

Editor in Chief: Prof. Claudia Rodríguez PhD (c). Academic, Foreign Languages Department, Universidad Bernardo O´Higgins.

Managing Editor: Prof. Lorena Maluenda Head of the Foreign Languages Department, Universidad Bernardo O´Higgins.

As COVID-19 is slowly leaving us, we are facing a Fourth Industrial Revolution, which was catalysed for this pandemic to evolve into a Fifth Industrial Revolution. This one shall imply a more significant involvement of technologies and artificial intelligence in all life aspects, including educational processes.

Consequently, in this issue, we explore current trends in technology and the ELT-inclusive classroom, comprising the agents’ experiences behind the screens and present in the classroom again: the teachers and the learners who remain our compass.

We do hope you enjoy this second issue.

Kind regards, Prof. Manuel E. Cortés, Dean of the Faculty of Education.

Associate Editors: Prof. Claudia Pizarro, Academic, Foreign Languages Department Universidad Bernardo O´Higgins.

Prof. Pía Tabali, PhD. Academic, Teaching Training Programme, Universidad Bernardo O´Higgins.

Collaborators:

Prof. Ulises Sánchez, Head of the Teaching Training Programme, Universidad Bernardo O´Higgins.

Francisca Morales, President TESOL Chile.

RICELT Chile (Red de Investigación Chilena en ELT).

Facultad de Educación Vicerrectoría Académica

Departamento de Idiomas

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LETTER TO THE EDITOR Generation Z - Gen Z- refers to a skilled generation born with an innate knowledge of technology and, since birth, connected to devices and social media with Internet access 24/7. During the global pandemic and with online lessons, we could witness how knowledgeable this generation was in terms of the use of technology. Whether we (teachers) had a weak Wi-fi signal or a problem with the modem or router, there was always a bright student willing to help us. Even if we had forgotten how to share a file through Meet or Zoom, we were always lucky enough to have many technologically highly-educated learners who came to our rescue. Moreover, stating that having Generation Z students was a bright light at the end of the “technological” tunnel would be an understatement. However, placing our students on the other side of the screen was when a new challenge began. Teachers who had the chance to count on having students with computers and Internet access to participate in online lessons may have uncovered many questions once learners started communicating with us from home. “How do we upload a file to Gmail or the educational platform?” or “How do I save a file?” were some of them. More importantly, we ran into thousands of students who did not know how to send an email or would send one without a proper greeting, as well as no subject or body, as they would not know about proper etiquette or conventions when writing one.

Suppose teaching writing skills in the EFL classroom involves developing linguistic and communicative competence. Why have we failed in communicating with our students when they belong to a digital population?

JJ Alejandra

Alejandra Jara

Holds a BA in Education from UMCE and a postgraduate certificate in Teaching English in the primary level (Universidad Chileno-Británica de Cultura). She is also a member of the English Teaching Network “Pioneers”.

Email: alejandrajarahor@gmail.com

For many years, the writing process was seen as something teachers expected learners to achieve in class without any scaffolding or monitoring. The latter made the learner make mistakes as feedback and supervision were constantly absent. Similarly, writing was viewed as a tool for practicing and reinforcing specific grammatical and lexical patterns where accuracy was the primary aim. In contrast, content and self-expression were given little to no priority, only focusing on the correctness of the piece of writing. When looking into past practices in teaching writing skills, teachers would pay much attention to the product, focusing on how a specific text type should look.

In terms of writing, Brown (2000) presents the importance of the process of writing over the product. The product writing approach

would lead students to meet specific standards of prescribed rhetorical style, reflect accurate grammar, and be organized by what the audience would consider conventional. Hence, a great deal of attention would be placed on model compositions, forcing students to imitate model texts thoroughly. On the contrary, the process approach would focus on the steps involved in creating that specific piece of writing. While the primary goal of product writing is an error-free coherent text, the process approach embraces the possibility that there is no “perfect text.” Hence, the writer would get closer to excellence by producing, reflecting on, discussing, and reworking consecutive drafts of a text.

While teaching writing skills, different genres shall be included in the core of our class. Essays, letters, and papers are essential for future professional activities learners may pursue. Conversely, even informal genres in writing are also necessary to be taught since they are part of everyday life.

Even though writing emails is much less formal than writing a letter or an essay, as they are usually concise and straightforward, including them as personal writing in our classroom is crucial.

In doing so, we must focus on vocabulary acquisition as they move from words into paragraphs. Secondly, we have to teach the rhetorical forms and conventions of written discourse so that they can communicate functions appropriately. More importantly, and from the role of the teacher, we are called to act out as facilitators who motivate learners to generate topics through brainstorming and collaborative work. The previous statement would undoubtedly take up much of our lesson time and is where new questions arise.

Would focusing on the writing process be sufficient in helping our tech-savvy learners become good writers? What do we need to do to have them write even when facing challenges with the command of the language? Moving from product-oriented lessons into process-oriented ones would be a teacher’s decision or based on a school syllabus modification?

After two long years of online lessons, and with many new questions to be answered, one of the most imperative affirmations that motivates the present reflection is that including informal writing is essential to developing communicative competence.

And finding the most suitable strategies to comply with the above requires a thorough revision and attention as EFL teachers.

How to cite this article: Jara, Alejandra (2022). Letter to the Editor. ELT Connections, 1 (2), 6-8.

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REFERENCES

Vicerrectoría Académica

Departamento de Idiomas

Facultad de Educación

Escuela de Idiomas

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Facultad de Educación

Brown, Douglas. (2000). Teaching by Principles. An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy.

White Plains, NY: Longman.

Vicerrectoría Académica

Departamento de Idiomas

Facultad de Educación

Escuela de Idiomas Facultad de Educación

Are you interested in publishing with us?

SUBMIT YOR

WORK

If our e-zine is of your interest, or if you have any doubts, please don’t hesitate to get in touch! eltconnections@ubo.cl

We are regularly receiving works in the form of: Letters to the Editor Research Articles Inside the Classroom (teaching tips)

También puedes visitar nuestro sitio web para más información http://www.ubo.cl/idiomas/eltconnectionsmagazine

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J J Esteban

Esteban Véliz

is an EFL teacher with more than 11 years of experience. He has worked in different schools in Santiago and as a practicum supervisor at Universidad Metropolitana de Ciencias de la Educación. He has also contributed to two English Teachers Networks in Puente Alto and La Reina. He holds an MA in TEFL and is currently part of the teaching staff at Colegio Teresiano Enrique de Ossó. He specializes in English language teaching and methodology.

Email: esteban.veliz.docente@gmail.com

LETTER TO THE EDITOR Teaching and learning during the COVID-19 crisis have evidently impacted our society. It is always a good exercise to reflect on what we have learnt after all this time. One year after the pandemic began, UNICEF (2021) reported that 168 million students missed almost all classroom instruction due to school closures. Additionally, factors such as poverty, rurality, and restricted access to remote education increased these problems. In Chile, the effects of the sanitary crisis showed similar results and exposed differences in remote learning between public and private schools again: onethird of the students who attended public schools had daily free classes; on the other hand, 8 out of 10 learners who attended private schools had daily classes (Ponce, Bellei & Vielma, 2020).

These factors also affected the teaching profession, and teachers have had to adapt their practices in different scenarios, such as remote learning and hybrid classrooms. Teachers were forced to restructure the strategies they used in the classroom which could be successfully applied in the virtual world. Many of them were teachers who did not have a special connection with ELT CONNECTIONS

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technology, teachers who spent several years of their life focused on a face-to-face classroom.

Nonetheless, they implemented their lessons in an undetermined context that we all experienced.

Being a teacher during this time also meant being a father, a mother, a psychologist, a cook, and all the professions you can imagine. Being a teacher meant rethinking your career to keep students motivated; learners who sometimes were only black screens with a name. On some occasions, being a teacher meant speaking in the solitude of those black screens without knowing if there was someone at the other end.

Teachers learnt how to use different digital platforms such as Zoom, Meet, Teams, and sometimes WhatsApp to beat the distance barrier.

Teachers understood that they could not only teach their lessons but also realized students needed to be heard and understood. Adaptability and understanding are some of the things we value from this crisis because no matter how many obstacles we faced, we were able to continue reinventing our practices.

Meeting again this year has been a positive experience. We had the opportunity to have classes looking at our students in their eyes. We had lessons with learners we had not seen for two long years, and we had to readjust once more. In my

experience as an EFL teacher, the importance of interaction inside the EFL classroom is significant when promoting English communication. The limited time and accessibility during the remote classes complicated the interaction and provided few real opportunities for students to speak English. We have met again in the classroom, so we have a new opportunity to value the importance of being together and learn from past experiences.

This letter is for teachers who have struggled against adversity to demonstrate once more the decisive role of adaptability we play in our society.

How to cite this article: Véliz, Esteban (2022). Letter to the Editor. ELT Connections, 1 (2), 10-12.

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REFERENCES

Vicerrectoría Académica

Departamento de Idiomas

Facultad de Educación

Escuela de Idiomas

Facultad de Educación

Facultad de Educación

Vicerrectoría Académica

Departamento de Idiomas

Facultad de Educación

Escuela de Idiomas Facultad de Educación

Ponce, T., Bellei, C., & Vielma, C. (2020). Experiencias educativas en casa de niñas y niños durante la pandemia COVID-19.

UNESCO (2020). Adverse consequences of school closures. Retrieved from https://bit.ly/2Txsp65 UNICEF. (2021). COVID-19 and School Closure: One Year of Education Disruption. UNICEF Office of Research (Vol. 1, pp. 1–18). Retrieved from https://en.unesco.org/sites/default/files/en_methogological_note_-_ unesco_map_on_covid-19_caused_school_closures_reopening_final.pdf UNICEF. (2021). COVID-19 and School Closure: One Year of Education Disruption. UNICEF Office of Research (Vol. 1, pp. 1–18). Retrieved from https://en.unesco.org/sites/default/files/en_methogological_note_-_ unesco_map_on_covid-19_caused_school_closures_reopening_final.pdf

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1. Was it challenging to return to school after online sessions for so long? Did you feel prepared?

It was a challenge to come back to school. I don’t know if I felt prepared at the time. Still, I knew it would be challenging not only because of the pandemic and all the restrictions but also because students were exposed for 2 years to different resources, and at school, everything is different.

2. When the social crisis started in 2019, how did you deal with pending content?

JJJ

Johanna Is a teacher of English with experience teaching young learners and adults.

She is currently part of the EFL staff at Saint John’s Villa Academy school.

Email: johannavelasquez@sjva.cl

Johanna Velasquez

AN INTERVIEW WITH JOHANNA VELASQUEZ ELT CONNECTIONS

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We didn’t have many. Back then, I was working in a school in Las Condes. The impact was not as strong there as it was in other places in Santiago.

3. In 2020, students had only two weeks of classes before the mandatory quarantine started.

What was your first concern as a teacher?

The first thing I thought was: “What are we going to do now, and how are we going to do it”. We were not prepared (as school and as teachers) to have classes on distance learning.

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4. Did you receive teaching training to face online classes in 2020?

Not really. The school had a lot to deal with. Online planning, a digital book of contents and activities, the school schedule, parents and their concerns about having online classes. So, we were on our own.

5. In your experience, what were the most challenging aspects of online teaching?

The different rhythms and needs of learning. It’s hard to know if they certainly learn when they have other stimuli at home, and you cannot be as motivating as you can be in the classroom.

6. If you received teaching training during quarantine, was it enough to manage an online classroom?

No, it was not. We are still struggling with effective classes and evaluations in a face-toface context. It is challenging to think that we can just move to an online course and teach the way you have never taught before.

7. Can you remember an anecdote while you were teaching online?

Well, the typical things. Noises, parents having meetings, my cats being part of the classes.

Nothing in particular. Just the regular stuff that we all experienced, I guess.

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8. What happened with the curriculum and the main objectives of the English subject?

We had to cut some things off. Trying to prioritise the main contents and abilities.

We didn’t have time to cover everything.

9. Do you think you can apply the training you received for online teaching to face-to-face classes?

Some of the things I did online can be applied to face-to-face classes. And I think we must understand that we live in a digital era and use various resources. You can find online games, videos, apps, and other things to activate previous knowledge or as class activities.

10. Schools closure during the pandemic significantly reduced learning outcomes for some students. What do you think could be a solution or plan to narrow the existing gap?

It is tough for me to think of a solution or a plan for something like that because our country is very unequal.

Different schools have different needs, with a very diverse universe of students.

It is very hard. The first two things that come to my mind are prioritizing abilities over contents and long-term investment in education.

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AN INTERVIEW WITH CRISTOBAL GONZALEZ JJJ

Cristóbal González

1. Was it challenging to return to school after having online sessions for so long?

It wasn’t a challenge because I had all this energy stored that I had just to press play by the time that I returned to in-class action.

However, I thought I was fully prepared but I wasn’t, because two years without entering a real classroom was complicated.

To start, facing real situations is one of the aspects I felt less prepared about.

2. When the social crisis started in 2019, how did you deal with pending content?

I did in due time. I started to concentrate on basic skills and content and then moved on to the next level. Unfortunately, some students couldn’t get help because we expected they would be more active and they weren’t.

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Cristóbal is an English teacher and holds a master’s degree in EFL Teaching and Learning (UMCE).

He has worked with young learners and adults and is currently part of the EFL teaching staff at Colegio Alto del Maipo. Email: cristobal.gonzalez@altodelmaipo.cl

3. In 2020, students had only two weeks of classes before the mandatory quarantine started.

What was your first concern as a teacher?

My main concern was the state of mind and emotional situation about the pandemic that students would be facing.

They were alone and the only way to connect with them was through Zoom. Families had to take care of the entire situation.

4. Did you receive teaching training to face online classes in 2020?

No, I didn’t receive teaching training. I didn’t even receive help technologically speaking (internet, computers, etc.).

I was told to continue with online classes and that was all.

5. In your experience, what were the most challenging aspects of online teaching?

It was definitely students’ control (monitoring). The fact that I couldn’t see them was strange because we work with response, expressions and emotions, and not being able to cover that aspect was a real challenge.

6. If you received teaching training during quarantine, was it enough to manage an online classroom?

I didn’t receive any online teaching training. I was constantly discovering flaws and positive points while I was working with my students.

7. Can you remember an anecdote while you were teaching online?

People going to the bathroom

during classes.

Internet connection issues. People yelling in the background while on online classes. Once, one of my high school students fell asleep during a class and he started to snore, everyone laughed, and I couldn’t wake him up, so I had to mute him and remove the user from the Zoom meeting. Then he logged in again explaining he felt very ashamed.

8. What happened with the curriculum and the main objectives of the English subject?

English lesson plans were reorganized to emphasize levels 1 and 2 of Objetivos de Aprendizaje. The curriculum was organized considering diagnosis tests results by the beginning of 2021. Writing and listening skills were more

dominant than speaking and reading ones. It was very difficult to re-integrate the oral skill because I felt that every experience we had had within that aspect was thrown away, so I had to work not only speaking skills but confidence.

9.Do you think you can apply the training you received for online teaching to face-to-face classes?

I think it’s not possible, because online classes are way different to face-to-face classes. There are specific kinds of activities and methodologies you need to implement face-to-face in order to carry on with the lesson. Online classes worked as a tool to face real classes nowadays, but kind of impossible to apply an online training to a face-to-face reality.

10.

School closure during the pandemic significantly reduced learning outcomes for some students. What do you think could be a solution or plan to narrow the existing gap?

First of all, talking to the school community, knowing their drawbacks is essential when we have to face content or academic situations. Then, diagnosis tests will be suitable to scan real content students could have not learnt in due time. Also, workshops to work on lack of content. Finally, I strongly believe that having meetings with your students and their families will work to fill some emotional and academic gaps.

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1. Was it challenging to return to school after having online sessions for so long? Did you feel prepared? I was so excited to see

my students again at the school. In this kind of context, my students felt happy and excited too. It wasn’t a challenge at all. I definitely prefer to work with them face to face. At the very beginning, it was strange! I must admit that it was more comfortable to work from my desk at home than being in the teacher’s room again, but I got used to it very soon. However, one thing is clear: the pandemic is not over yet, and we need to accept the idea that we will have to face and care for ourselves responsibly, and staying at home won’t solve the problem.

The first thing I did was to order what I needed to review with the students and then prioritize. It was difficult at first, but through more dynamic techniques, we reviewed the pending content (Prioritized according to what Mineduc suggested). There are always variables to consider, like students without an internet connection or the lack of tech devices, and with these students, we had to work differently. The support of the families was fundamental because they had to go to the school and take some printed material for their children and then bring them back to us but with the answers. As a school, we had to make the families aware of the importance of joint work with us, so that if they did it well, their children would finish the year successfully. In general, it turned out pretty well.

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Patricia Almarza

Patricia EFL teacher, holds a Diploma in School Social Environment and a master’s degree in Educational Leadership and Management.

She is currently working as a teacher/coordinator of the English Teacher’s network in Calera de Tango. Her interests are school life and ways to motivate students to learn English at public schools.

Email: missalmarza@hotmail.com

access them for a very long time. At first, we didn’t know how long the quarantine would last. Then I thought about their families, the number of deaths that appeared on television every day, and that perhaps more than one of my students could be suffering from the loss of a loved one, which could also affect their motivation and that their schooling process would take a “back seat”. In such a situation, motivation was key to keeping enthusiasm and not losing the bond and commitment of the students. Finally, I thought about the contents. The critical delay would be reflected by not receiving the knowledge as fluid and natural as it occurs in a classroom. Once again, I reflected on how to use technological tools and adequately have some devices with an educational purpose at home that could make students learn most equitably.

4. Did you receive teaching training to face online classes in 2020?

Some colleagues shared their experiences using apps and programs, but our employer offered nothing.

5. In your experience, what were teacher? the most challenging aspects of 3. In 2020 students had only I first thought about those more online teaching? two weeks of classes before the disadvantaged students who do not In the beginning, the lack of technological mandatory quarantine started. have enough resources to support their devices and their correct uses was a learning from home. Those resources What was your first concern as a are usually at school, and they could not disadvantage. Most of our students had a cellphone or their parents’, but when the

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AN INTERVIEW WITH PATRICIA ALMARZA

J

2.How did you deal with pending content when the social crisis started in 2019?

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9. Do you think you can apply the training you received for online teaching to face-to-face classes?

pandemic started, they didn’t use them for educational purposes.

6. If you received teaching training during quarantine, was it enough to manage an online classroom?

I believe it is never enough to learn; there are always new alternatives, and something new emerges every day. Selfinstruction was crucial, and so was peer support. But if you ask me if I could manage my online class with what I already knew, well, yes.

7. Can you remember an anecdote while you were teaching online?

Yes. While I was giving a lesson, I remember that a student’s mother forgot to turn off the microphone and told the student off and told the student to be

more careful and pay attention to the explanation I was giving. The tone she used was so funny that the class burst into laughter. I solved the problem immediately. I told them they must be careful while using their microphones and that I was recording the lesson. After that class, that parent called me and said she was sorry. But it was a funny situation.

8. What happened with the curriculum and the main objectives of the English subject?

According to the MINEDUC directions, we had to focus on fewer learning objectives to cover the curriculum’s most essential parts. You can find the curricular prioritization on the “curriculum en línea” webpage and see the guidelines.

I think it was better to work with fewer learning objectives and deepen them.

Yes. There are some games and apps that can be used in face-to-face classes. This pandemic came to show us that our lessons can be seen beyond the pencil, paper and dictionary.

We can make games and teach our students to use applications like Duolingo, Kahoot, and Grammarly, among others. Many of the school textbooks that MINEDUC gives our students also have multimedia content almost “unused”. We had to adapt to the changes, and in my opinion, the students learned a lot from home.

10. Schools closure during the pandemic significantly reduced learning outcomes for some students. What do you think could be a solution or plan to narrow the existing gap?

Some ideas could be helpful after school: creating workshops for students to reinforce content. It could be subsidized by the SEP law, according to the management and interests of each school.

Extracurricular workshops offered by PIAP are other alternatives. However, they have more limited vacancies but still allow closer contact with the language through tutors/teachers with certification above B2 level.

Intercommunal spelling bees, debates, etc.

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International Feature with Tom Connelly, Ex-President IATEFL Chile Tom Connelly Open Letter to IATEFL UK Dear Executive Committee,

J Tom

Connelly

J Tom is a highly experienced and dedicated teacher trainer, university professor, researcher, and project coordinator, working as an ELT Specialist for the British Council (2010-2015), coordinating projects such as Champion Teachers (Exploratory Action Research) with the Chilean Ministry of Education. He has a master’s degree in Applied Linguistics and ELT (Surrey University, UK) and the International Diploma in Language Teaching Management (Cambridge University, UK).

Email: tom@eltecchile.cl ELT CONNECTIONS

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I was very surprised to hear that a new motion was approved by the IATEFL Executive Committee, which obliges Associate Member organizations to remove the acronym “IATEFL” from their names.

The bond between our association IATEFL Chile and IATEFL UK could be described as the glue that enabled us to flourish through this connection. For our member teachers, the concept and meaning that the name IATEFL carries locally ensured that our national and international conferences (attracting teachers from Peru, Argentina, and Colombia, among others) were always well attended. As a further sign of our commitment to the reciprocal nature of our bond with IATEFL UK, we organized and funded scholarships for Chilean teachers to attend the UK conference over a ten-year period, an unforgettable experience for them. As President of IATEFL Chile from 2012-2019, I attended the UK conference representing IATEFL Chile at Associates PCE and shared experiences with other associations whose names proudly contained “IATEFL” as well.

Asking IATEFL Chile to legally change its name is tantamount to a completely unjustified slap in the face and, at the same time, shows, in my humble opinion, a clear disregard for all the effort and

dedication given voluntarily here in Chile to build the name of IATEFL globally, which is what it is supposed to do unless I’m very much mistaken!

I sincerely hope that the Committee comes to its senses and revokes this frankly insulting and offensive policy. Until that day comes, I will continue to not renew my membership, boycott the next conference, and vociferously encourage local teachers to do likewise.

Sincerely, Tom Connelly Ex-President IATEFL Chile

How to cite this article: Connelly, Tom (2022). Open Letter to IATEFL UK. ELT Connections, 1 (2), 20- 21.

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Implementing an online English practice website and self-perception of learning achieved by university students: the experience of 1 Universidad Bernardo O’Higgins

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Lorena has been a teacher of English since 2000. She holds a Diploma in English for Specific Purposes and a master’s degree in Linguistics . She is a Speaking Examiner for Cambridge English Assessment and is currently Head of Department of Foreign Languages at Universidad Bernardo O’Higgins, Santiago, Chile. Her interests are related to language learning through technology, teaching English as a foreign language, and international certifications in English.

Email: lorena.maluenda@ubo.cl

and the positive impact that online tools have on the development of language skills in learners (Díaz, Jansson & Neira, 2011), we started our search for a tool.

After examining the various options available, we found Classtime.com as the answer not only to cater for our students’ needs by using technology as an ally (González Valencia, 2015) but also as a means to practise English effectively and consolidate their learning process outside the classroom.

Classtime.com is a website for teachers of any subject that supplements classroom teaching with immediate information on the students’ level of understanding

JJJ

Teaching English in tertiary education has progressed thanks to the developments in the digital world. Therefore, it is essential to reflect on improving pedagogical practices that enable students to develop the different communicative competences in English effectively. One of these strategies is promoting the continuous practice of English outside the classroom. In this article, we discuss the implementation of a website (Classtime) as a supplementary tool to allow students to continue practising English outside the classroom at Universidad Bernardo O’Higgins.

Technology contributes to learning, and given the pandemic context, online learning resources have taken on an increasingly active role in the teaching-learning process of foreign or second languages. The pandemic also contributed to the extensive use of online practice websites that promote a meaningful learning environment to deliver opportunities for effective English communication (García, Ferreira & Morales, 2012). While such tools are being used more and more within the classroom to foster understanding and effective language use, extending the learning process outside the classroom remains an issue in countries where English is not an official language of communication among inhabitants. In the light of the importance of autonomous work as an essential extension of classroom work for effective English language learning

Lorena Maluenda

so that they can practise language content in an efficient, varied, and autonomous way (“Classtime: The clear path to student success”, n.d.) The website enables teachers to create questions using various audio-visual options to respond to students’ educational needs. In this sense, this multiplicity of options allows, among other things, to consider students’ learning styles and autonomous worktime and to encourage reflection on their learning process around the content and skill being practised.

Classtime offers many functions such as showing and hiding questions, shuffling, session timing, collaborative challenges, individual chat, automatic scoring, data

export, and invitations through URL links, among others, with the possibility of customising these options to the content to be studied. In addition, this website allows the teacher to monitor the students’ answers live and, thus, check their performance and organise, duplicate, and merge questions in different sets.

This way, Classtime has been a real contribution to the tertiary English language context in which we are immersed. It has

enabled the practice and development of receptive skills (Listening and Reading) and the development of writing skills, sound discrimination, vocabulary acquisition, and grammar work. After-the-lesson practice has thus been adjusted to students’ possible requirements, enabling them to work at their own pace and reinforce the content in a space other than the classroom, thus providing practice, flexibility, and autonomy.

W

1 This is a translated version of an oral presentation in Spanish given by Lorena Maluenda Parraguez and Diego Monasterio López (Foreign Languages Department, Universidad Bernardo O’Higgins) in the Seminar “Entropía Educativa: 2do Seminario de Prácticas Innovadoras en Educación”, May 2022.

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W The experience In 2019, the Foreign Languages Department at Universidad Bernardo O’Higgins was commissioned to design a project for the English language component through an online platform that would promote autonomous student work after lessons while allowing students to work on the four language skills. In a first attempt, the teaching team created instructionaldesigned material, activities, and videos adopting a communicative approach to guide students in their language learning process aligned to the basic level (A2) of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). These activities were distributed and levelled to align their indicators with the learning outcomes expected in our curriculum for English I, II, III, and IV. Nonetheless, this project was confronted initially by technological difficulties outside the academic field of action and had to be delayed. Thus, the material was saved for future development, with the same challenge around fostering autonomy among students. Consequently, in 2020, intensive scouting and analysis of the different online educational platforms in the market were conducted, including Quizzit, Kahoot, and Socrative. These platforms have proven to

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be effective in practising and analysing the content seen in class, and, together with the options they offer for creating material, they promote dynamic and interactive practices for students. However, purchasing premium licences for each student is a must to access these platforms’ full educational benefits without restrictions. Cost-wise, this was not feasible due to the large number of students enrolled in English courses regularly at our university. As a result, we continued our efforts to search for new options that could meet our requirements until we found Classtime.com. This webpage turned out to be the only one that allows customisation of content without considering the number of students and provides the necessary flexibility to adapt language activities without relying on IT professionals.

Besides these advantages, Classtime design tools provided an excellent chance to recycle some of the content of the original project and allowed revision and improvement through the webpage editing tools. As a result, we proceeded to process the material for subsequent uploading to the website, organising the teaching team by levels of English. This decision fostered a collaborative environment among our academic staff.

Once Classtime was selected, the implementation consisted of a 12-to-

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13-week practice plan for the students, focusing on the skills needed for the four A2 levels of elementary English available at the university. The activities were aligned to each course’s learning outcomes to address the number of learning hours in the syllabi.

In 2021, our students began using Classtime as a supplementary language learning tool both in and outside the classroom.

Using Classtime was thus intended to improve the English language teachinglearning process and allow students to work autonomously, at their own pace, and without any pressure. This implementation proved correct, especially in a context where the pandemic demanded from the educational world the ability to adapt and make learning conditions more flexible. To explore students’ perceptions about the use of Classtime during the first semester of 2021, the Foreign Languages Department gathered the perceptions of more than 2,000 students about the work done on the website through a survey. The results showed that 88.9% (Figure 1) of English I and English III students (courses taught during the first semester) rated the work as good or very good. Also, at the end of 2021, data was collected through a second self-perception survey on the four English subjects’ learning outcomes and achievement indicators to confirm their perceptions. W

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W This survey showed positive results regarding the percentage of students who, in their view, achieved each of the learning outcomes. On a scale of 1 to 7, students evaluated their learning outcomes as

S1:“I could understand a little bit of English before, but now I have improved with Classtime, reinforcing more content weekly”.

As university teachers, we agree that the quality of education should not be stagnant but constantly improve by using the technological tools offered to the different stakeholders in education (Loza & Marroquín, 2011). After applying, reviewing, and reflecting on the implementation and trialling of the Classtime webpage as a tool that supports autonomy

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valuable tool for their language learning process. The following students’ feedback on Classtime use and its impact on the achievement of their learning outcomes is a clear representation.

FIGURE 2: ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION OF LEARNING OUTCOMES AND CLASSTIME WORK.

Conclusions

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shown in the following graph: These results encourage us to constantly reflect on continuous improvement and provide the first example of learners’ positive recognition of Classtime as a

S3:Very dynamic classes. Classtime was helpful.

FIGURE 1: ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION OF THE WORK DONE THROUGH CLASSTIME.

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S2:“I learnt very quickly with this teacher. I also learnt to use the platform (Classtime) effectively”.

S4:I improved thanks to continuous studying and the work done in Classtime.

Excellent support from the teacher.

outside the classroom, encouraging effective English language skills development, we believe that its use has proved effective and beneficial in our university English language courses. We ascertain this because of the opportunities it provides for the pedagogical material design work, the possibilities for teamwork, the ease of sharing activities between teachers and students, and the cost-effectiveness. Finally, as teachers, we

believe that pedagogical practice is a constant reflection, improvement and innovation process. Therefore, the use of technological tools that can support the teaching-learning process becomes a fundamental ally to meet the current needs of our students. Classtime, thus, has proved to be an appropriate website to contribute to the significant learning of English as a Foreign Language at the Universidad Bernardo O’Higgins.

How to cite this article: Maluenda, Lorena (2022). Implementing an online English practice website and self-perception of learning achieved by university students: the experience of Universidad Bernardo O’Higgins. ELT Connections, 1 (2), 22- 26.

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REFERENCES

Vicerrectoría Académica

Facultad de Educación

Escuela de Idiomas Facultad de Educación

Facultad de Educación Vicerrectoría Académica

Departamento de Idiomas

Facultad de Educación

Escuela de Idiomas Facultad de Educación

Classtime. (n.d): Classtime: The clear path to student success. Retrieved 1 April 2022, from https://www.classtime.com/ Díaz, C., Jansson, L. & Neira, A. (2012). Percepciones de profesores y estudiantes chilenos de educación media acerca del papel de la tecnología en la clase de inglés como lengua extranjera. Revista Lasallista de Investigación, 8(2), 3-60. Retrieved from http://revistas.unilasallista.edu.co/index.php/rldi/article/view/27/15 García, J., Ferreira, A., & Morales, S. (2012). Autonomía en el aprendizaje de lenguas extranjeras en contextos de enseñanza mediatizados por la tecnología. Onomázein Revista De Lingüística, Filología y Traducción De La Pontificia Universidad Católica De Chile, 25, 15-50. Retrieved from http://ojs.uc.cl/index.php/onom/article/view/30797/41401 Gonzalez Valencia, H. (2015). La integración de la tecnología como herramienta significativa en la enseñanza del inglés como lengua extranjera. Horizontes Pedagógicos, 17(1), 53–66. Retrieved from https://horizontespedagogicos.ibero.edu.co/article/view/17105 Loza, L., & Marroquín, W. (2011). Competencias del docente universitario para la enseñanza del idioma inglés bajo el enfoque por competencias. Retrieved from http://repositorio.utec.edu.sv:8080/xmlui/handle/11298/131

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TEACHING ENGLISH TO DEAF STUDENTS: A HUGE CHALLENGE FOR TEACHERS IN CHILE JJ

Ángela Hinojosa

As of the enactment of the School Inclusion Law No 20,845 of 2015, schools for the deaf students in Chile began to disappear, and deaf students started as part of regular schools through school inclusion programs.

The arrival of deaf students into traditional schools impacted these educational communities and, of course, the deaf students themselves.

Innumerable challenges were raised academically and in coexistence and daily interaction between the deaf and hearing. Each school implemented different strategies to achieve the inclusion of these students. However, despite the efforts of many educational communities, the barriers that deaf people must overcome during their schooling process are pretty high, and extra effort is often required to achieve actual inclusion (Larrazabal et al., 2021).

One of the significant challenges in Chile and Latin America is teaching English as a foreign language to deaf students during their school years. In Chile, until a few years ago, deaf students were allowed to be ELT CONNECTIONS

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Ángela Holds a BA in English Teaching and a master’s degree in curricular development and educational projects.

She is part of the academic staff at Universidad de La Serena and is also an EFL teacher at Colegio Santo Tomás, La Serena, Chile. Over the last eight years she has worked with deaf communities in Chile, working for diversity and inclusion in Education.

Email: angela.hinojosa@userena.cl

exempted from the English class, implicitly assuming that learning this foreign language was not part of their abilities.

With the promulgation of decree 83-2015, the possibility of being exempted from the English subject was eliminated, and deaf students began participating in English classes with their hearing classmates.

This new scenario brought new challenges.

Now we can find deaf students in classes of English for which they have no basis, with the support of an interpreter in the Chilean sign language (LSCh), who in most cases does not know English. This creates communicative triangulations that contribute little to the development of the whole class. A classic example of this would be the following case.

The English teacher must repeat in Spanish what she has just said in English so that the interpreter in LSCh can understand it. Then the interpreter translates what the teacher has said into sign language so that the deaf student(s) can understand. This dynamic hinders the learning of the entire class, as it does not guarantee that the deaf students are achieving the subject learning objectives

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since they must focus their attention on the interpreter and are not engaged enough with the development of the class.

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nations, where there are citizens whose native language is Sign Language and who identify as members of a minority culture (Lane, 2005, 291).

In Chile, and according to the Second National Study of Disability, of 2015, there are 2,832,818 people with disabilities, of which 27.3% have some degree of hearing loss (712,005). Of these, it is estimated that 179,268 people would have total deafness.

Unfortunately, these figures are not very specific, and there is no clarity on how many deaf people are in school or what levels of education they are studying. However, as an educational system, we must be prepared to take the challenge of having deaf students learning English in our classrooms and ensure that their learning is as significant as that of their hearing peers.

One of the main barriers to overcome is that English teachers in Chile do not have the academic training to adapt their classes to include their deaf students. On the other hand, SEN (Special Education Needs) program at schools focuses their

It is essential to have basic notions of deafness and deaf culture to understand how to deal with this situation. Therefore, the English teacher with deaf students in their class must handle certain essential information.

Indeed, the student’s type of deafness, their level of proficiency in reading and writing in Spanish, their ability to read lips, their experience participating in English classes -if any- and any other background information that could be relevant must be considered.

Moreover, it must be acknowledged that the performance of deaf students in reading and writing is well below what is expected for their age and school level (Lissi et al., 2003).

The Chilean deaf community, as in the whole world, is a linguistic minority, widely relegated and excluded from society, for which they have developed their own culture called the deaf culture. Numerous authors have mentioned the existence of the Deaf world in the United States, as in other

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work on subjects such as language or mathematics, most of the time excluding the English subject from the support provided by this program. In this scenario, English teachers are adrift, without tools, guidelines, or concrete support to effectively include their deaf students in the learning objectives of their classes. In this respect, little research has been done in Chile on teaching English to deaf students.

The lexical approach was proposed in 2016 after a case study carried out at the United Nations Technical School of Puerto Montt (Hinojosa, A. and Lobos, P.). This investigation yielded one of the main conclusions: using chunks is a strategy that is quite effective in achieving significant learning in deaf students.

As for the tools available to address this challenge, we have the only bilingual English-LSCh language dictionary created

by Universidad San Sebastian, founded by the National Disability Service (Chilean

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Government). This dictionary is an online platform with free access that can be found on the website www.lschingles. uss.cl. However, although this tool can be handy, it is just the minimum needs to teach any language.

In 2021, Universidad de La Serena, through its Department of Arts and Letters, belonging to the Faculty of Humanities, published an introductory guide for English teachers with deaf or hard of hearing students1 in which basic concepts about the deaf community and the characteristics of the deaf person are detailed, along with some strategies and suggestions for classroom activities.

The tools mentioned above can be complemented with the new technical guidelines for schools with deaf students, recently published by the Ministry of Education (MINEDUC)2, in which two fundamental points are suggested. The first is to eliminate the learning objectives contained in the components of listening comprehension and oral expression (speaking), focusing on efforts in the skills of reading comprehension and written expression (writing). Secondly, it suggests as a complementary strategy the learning of a fourth language, such as American Sign Language (ASL) or the International Sign System (SSI), thus enriching the curriculum by incorporating specific learning objectives. It is also suggested to incorporate sign language into Listening Comprehension and Oral Expression, especially considering that “orality” can be worked from the visuospatial modality of sign languages.

When reviewing the research and available tools, it is clear that it is a challenge that requires urgent action to provide Chilean deaf students equal opportunities when learning English as a foreign language.

The first steps have been taken, but it is undeniable that much remains to be done.

1 2

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PYrdAXn2AsEZKhIW0zE487a6T_ygwC9M/view https://especial.mineduc.cl/wp-content/uploads/sites/31/2022/06/OrientacionesEstablecimientosEstudiantesSordos-DIGITALvf.pdf

How to cite this article: Hinojosa, Ángela (2022). Teaching English to deaf students: a huge challenge for teachers in Chile”.

ELT Connections, 1 (2), 28- 30.

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REFERENCES

Vicerrectoría Académica

Facultad de Educación

Escuela de Idiomas Facultad de Educación

Facultad de Educación Vicerrectoría Académica

Departamento de Idiomas

Facultad de Educación

Escuela de Idiomas Facultad de Educación

Hinojosa, A. & Lobos, P. (2016). Case study: Use of the lexical approach in the teaching of English as a third language for two deaf students. San Sebastian University, Chile.

Lane, H. (2005), “Ethnicity, Ethics and the Deaf-World”, Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, num. 10, vol. 3, pp. 291-310.

Larrazaval, S., Palacios, R., Espinoza, V. (2021). Deaf Students’ Inclusion in Chilean Regular Schools: Possibilities and Limitations from an Analysis on Classroom Practices. Revista latinoamericana de educación inclusiva.

Lissi, M. R., Cabrera, I., Raglianti, M., Grau, V. y Salinas, M. (2003). Literacy in deaf students: Assessment and challenges in research and education. Psykhe, vol. 12, n. 2, 37-50.

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is an EFL teacher from Universidad Bernardo O’Higgins. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in Education.

Email: sofiurbina5@gmail.com

J J J J J J Gabriela

Gabriela Aliaga

EFL teachers’ perceptions about the inclusion of gender issues in Chilean high school classrooms

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Sofia

is an EFL teacher from Universidad Bernardo O’Higgins with a bachelor’s degree in education. She currently works in an elementary public school and is currently doing a course in curriculum design, management, and innovation.

Email: ara.kathalina@gmail.com

Aracelly Quinteros

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is a Rapa Nui EFL teacher from Universidad Bernardo O’Higgins with a bachelor’s degree in education. She is currently a master’s student in Gender and Education.

Email: gabriela.aliaga.tori@gmail.com

1. Introduction Approaches in the educational field have significantly changed over the last decades.

Influenced by the constant evolution of society, gender has been a topic slowly and shyly introduced into classrooms (Norton & Pavlenko, 2004a; Ordem & Ulum, 2020). Gender is considered to be a social construct that helps to build the identity of a person. The constant reproduction of gender stereotypes helps enlarging the gap between opportunities and rights for all different genders. In the Chilean context, little research can be found about gender in classrooms, where this issue has received scant attention (Ministerio de Educación, 2020).

Although there are guidelines provided by the Chilean Ministry of Education (Ministerio de Educación, 2017) and some public policies (Ley 20.845, 2015) about securing the inclusion of gender diverse students, little attention has been paid to investigating the inclusion of gender issues in the EFL Chilean context.

Therefore, this research study could help to minimize the gap in the literature about including gender issues in EFL Chilean classrooms. Thus, the purpose of the present research is to understand the perception of EFL teachers about the inclusion of gender issues in Chilean high school classrooms.

Sofia Urbina

2. Literature Review 2.1 Gender identity and education Some authors, such as Witt (2011) and Butler (2004), define gender as a social construct shaped by the ideas of society on stereotypical roles based on the biological sex of people. Other scholars highlight the agency of people to resist social constructions on the account of individuals not participating passively in society (Pakuła et al. 2015). Consequently, each of these agent constructs has the power to change their own gender performance. Therefore, even if gender is shaped by social norms, people have the means to alter their own and others’ gender identities. Additionally, Norton and Pavlenko (2004a) focus on the interaction between gender and some other features of social identity, such as ethnicity, social status, and sexuality, among others. For these authors, the aforementioned facets are relevant to consider since they shape and influence the trajectories of people and their views of the world. Regarding these features, it is important to note that they partake in every social aspect of life and therefore affect classroom interactions (Devaki, 2020; Misbah et al., 2017). It is inside the

classrooms’ sociocultural nature where we can draw a connection between learners’ development of their identities and how this process can shape their learning experience and their interactions inside schools. Since gender is an important facet of everyone’s identity, there can be instances in which the topic is addressed by members of the educational community, and the teacher must be prepared and informed to do so. As a result, teachers serve as mediators in the classroom. For this reason, they must be careful not to offend or exclude students who are diverse regarding gender.

When education is addressed, it is understood as a basic human right, where the identities of people and their diversity must be respected. Following this premise, several countries which are part of organizations that promote people’s rights have developed public policies to include and respect gender and gender diversity within school contexts (Ávila, 2018; Biemmi, 2015; Cabral et al., 2017; UNESCO, 2015; UNESCO, 2019). On the other hand, there are countries where gender inclusion regulations exist in schools but are not followed by the authorities (Cornejo, 2019; Nash & Browne, 2019). Although inclusion has grown and encompassed a larger population, the segregation of common spaces at school seems to be W ELT CONNECTIONS Volume 1, issue 2

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W a prominent issue for gender-diverse students. Nevertheless, when students have transgressed these heteronormative and gender-binary spaces, changes have been made upon the realization and acknowledgement of these diversities at school (Kjaran, 2017). Even if genderdiverse students prefer to not intervene and stay unnoticed, their existences are real and have to be recognized as they are part of the school community and deserve to be represented. As Knisely and Paiz (2021) state, in order to avoid discrimination and segregation, spaces must be made at school and in classrooms to make gender-diverse students visible. Therefore, students who are not acquainted with gender diverse peers can be educated on this matter so as to develop their tolerance and respect towards their trans and non-binary classmates.

2.2 Gender in EFL classrooms

Gender issues might be explored in depth from different angles in different contexts.

In language education, specifically in the English as a foreign language (EFL) field, one of the most deeply investigated issues regarding gender in educational contexts is the materials used and the way they are addressed. Researchers have focused on teacher talk and gendered discourses (Ordem & Ulum, 2020; Boutemedjet, 2019; Raman & Çavuşoğlu, 2019), which are often used to describe how teachers express themselves in the classroom.

Specifically, research studies highlight the influence of gendered discourses in students’ and teachers’ construction of their gender identities.

In relation to the beliefs of pre-service teachers regarding gender in EFL contexts, there are some research studies based on teacher training courses (Kumlu & Çomoğlu, 2021; Banegas et al., 2020) in order to know the perceptions of preservice teachers in relation to either the hypothetical or real implementation of gender issues in their teaching environments. According to these studies,

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there is a need to train teachers to be able to make a pro-diversity change in their classrooms since they will have to teach diversities that have been historically left out. Due to the results of both investigations (Banegas et al., 2020; Kumlu & Çomoğlu, 2021), researchers propose that it is of utmost importance to make these types of initiatives visible in order to continue in the search for teacher preparation in gender diversity.

Therefore, teachers will be provided with all the necessary tools to better face the challenges of new generations of students.

The EFL classroom has been historically viewed as a highly social environment where teachers promote the use of language throughout the development of the class. Hence, research has also covered teacher-students and studentstudent interactions (Azizmohammadi & Barjesteh, 2020; Boutemedjet, 2019; Minasyan, 2017; Rustandi & Ani, 2017).

In their research, Minasyan (2017), Rustandi and Ani (2017), Chen and Rao (2011) and Umar (2011) concluded that teachers interact at a higher amount of times with male students rather than with female students. In contrast, findings in a study conducted by Boutemedjet (2019) propose that the teacher interacted more with female students throughout the class. However, the author suggests that this outcome happened because of female students’ visibility in the class rather than teacher bias, due to their greater engagement and demonstrated motivation. Moreover, apart from receiving a larger amount of attention and interaction, results demonstrated that male students tended to interrupt and talk over their female peers to draw attention to themselves and guide the conversation to their favor.

The perception of the students’ own gender may come from inside the school and from how they see themselves represented as characters, names used in examples, or in the materials used from class to class by their teachers, classmates

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and themselves. As a result, all of these daily basis situations and representations at school might affect the way they feel about their own abilities and capacities to contribute to life as members of a society (UNESCO, n.d.). Regarding the representations of gender inside EFL materials, several authors (Beiki & Gharaguzlu, 2017; Evan & Davies as cited in Emilia et al. 2017; Fahriany, et al., 2018) have declared the existence of clear differences concerning the representation of gender inside EFL materials, where there have been prominent dissimilar representations within the adjectives used to describe men and women, setting men as brave, strong, adventurous and curious, and women as sensitive, demonstrative, loving and parenting. As these meaningful distinctions stated in some textbooks could impact the decisions students make in life, for example, female students’ eagerness to enlist in a science-area university due to the misrepresentation of their gender in this matter (Makarova, Aeschullmann & Herzog, 2019), teachers should be able to correct these misconceptions, being able to spot the issue before the students, so they can be rearranged. For this reason, teaching students about gender equality could lower the impact of these wrong ideas about gender that can be found inside textbooks (Xiaoping, 2005, as cited in Emilia et al. 2017). As Jannati (2015) states, if the material being used for a class shows clear gender-based stereotypes, the teacher in charge of the class should be able to identify the issue before the class does, so it will not impact the students significantly.

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instruments used (MINEDUC, 2017a).

Inclusion in Chile goes beyond women and men, because transgender and other LGBTQ+ students are also part of school communities, where professionals at educational institutions are responsible to create a better environment for all students (MINEDUC, 2017b). It is important to highlight that these documents provided

by MINEDUC are not mandatory to apply in public schools. However, MINEDUC is not the only one responsible for promoting gender inclusion. As an example, the Chilean government has included laws which force schools to generate secure, respectful, and inclusive spaces for all students avoiding discrimination and violence in schools (Ley N° 20.536, 2011; Ley N° 20.609, 2012; Ley N° 20.845, 2015). The laws aforementioned, allow educational institutions to support legal punishments of students who discriminate or assault trans and gender diverse students. On the other hand, even though there are public policies, frameworks, and orientations regarding gender inclusion, it is possible to say that they have not been totally effective. In this vein, Valdéz (2013) states that it is possible to detect that in Chile there has not been a satisfactory inclusion in the educational system, because of the lack of preparation of school teachers. These issues have affected the few and slow implementations of laws and orientations in educational institutions to avoid discrimination regarding gender

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inclusion (Cornejo, 2017; Castillo, 2011; Rojas, 2018).

There is a Chilean study (Rojas et al., 2019) centered on LGBTI inclusion at schools, which is relevant to gender issues since it includes transgender students. This study mentions how these institutions are worried about inclusion, but the problem appears when comparing binary people in their academic performance since it does not consider non-binary students. In this research study, several differences between female and male students are identified, such as performance, grades, activities in many subjects like Mathematics, Science, or Spanish, and also the participation in the decision making in each class group.

Furthermore, it is mentioned that English and art classrooms are open-minded regarding LGBTI aspects, including the topic on the textbooks where LGBTI issues are mentioned, and later debated creating an atmosphere of real inclusion and involvement. This is due to the fact that both subjects are considered to be less important, thus less supervised by the Chilean Ministry of Education. As a result, these subjects do not need to split the class into halves because of students’ sex as it is the case with physical education.

Difficulties arise, however, when trying to find other sources. Apart from the aforementioned study, there is no further written research about addressing gender in EFL Chilean classrooms. In addition, teachers’ beliefs about gender issues

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have not been formally addressed in any studies related to EFL in Chilean settings to date. This gap in the literature proposes a difficulty when researching gender issues due to the lack of ground data related to this topic.

3. Methodology

This research used a qualitative method.

This approach offers an effective way for the participants to elaborate on their ideas and beliefs; similarly, it allows researchers to reflect and look at the results through a theoretical lens (Creswell, 2007). The present study aims to understand and analyze teachers’ perceptions; therefore, this method shows to be the most effective to comprehend the data collected since a quantitative method would not allow a deep analysis of the data due to the subjectivity present in teachers’ perceptions.

Since the objective of the study is to understand teachers’ perspectives about a particular situation, the phenomenological model was selected to structure the research design. This model was considered the most suitable for analyzing teachers’ perceptions which is the essence of the present study and the foundation on which the conclusions will be based. In specific, this model addresses participants’ experiences and beliefs to then be analyzed, thus the model allows us to understand the meaning of their experiences about events that they have in common (Creswell, 2007).

2.3 The Chilean context

In Chile, the Chilean Ministry of Education (called MINEDUC onwards) has been working on orientations through documents, with which education professionals could manage the inclusion of gender issues in classrooms (MINEDUC, 2016); having inclusion focused teaching practices (MINEDUC, 2012) and also inclusion management focused on the

1. What are high school EFL teachers’ perceptions about the inclusion of gender issues in their classrooms?

2. How do high school EFL teachers include gender issues in their classrooms?

3. What advantages and disadvantages do high school EFL teachers perceive regarding the inclusion of gender issues in their classrooms?

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The participants were selected by a non-probability sample, which allows researchers to select the sample according to the study’s needs, using specifically the purposive sampling which proves

Departamento de Idiomas

Facultad de Educación

to be the most effective when selecting the specific sources of data that meet the selection criteria for the purpose of the study (Given, 2008). The aforementioned criteria consist of EFL high school

Escuela de Idiomas

teachers who have included gender issues in their classes. In general, the sample looked for three participants who are interested in addressing gender issues in EFL classroom context.

Demographic Table:

The chosen instrument consisted of a semi-structured interview with open questions whose main goal was to obtain their perceptions about different situations regarding the inclusion of gender issues in the EFL classroom.

Thus, an interview guide was designed as a draft for the formulation of the interview to be used as the instrument to collect data from the participants.

The instrument selected provides a focus on the data that includes an indepth description of the experiences, to finally provide an understanding of the common phenomena shared by participants (Creswell, 2007). Once data were collected, a thematic analysis method was used for it provides the flexibility a qualitative research entails, specifically according to the research’s purposes, since the perceptions and beliefs of teachers are highly subjective.

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4.Findings and Conclusions

This investigation aimed to comprehend EFL teachers’ perceptions about including gender issues in their classes. The results obtained from the interviews and the analysis that followed showed participants create an environment of inclusion in their classrooms. There, according to teachers, students could feel comfortable in their identities, as well as represented in the materials and classroom talk. The methods in which they constructed these safe spaces were mainly through the promotion of respect, tolerance and the recognition of diversities. These teachers showed a preference for using audiovisual materials and resources as they are more familiar to their students, and from these they indirectly learnt about gender issues. Through these resources, students welcomed gender issues to be discussed among their classmates and English

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Vicerrectoría Académica

knowledge about diversities in our society was another positive aspect mentioned by teachers. This implies a cultural change of respect and inclusion in the classroom, raising awareness among students and teachers about gender diversity. On the other hand, negative aspects were found about gender inclusion, specifically in key aspects like teachers’ skills and knowledge about how to include these diversities. A drawback was that teachers do not know in depth public policies and strategies to create an environment of inclusion, both in the classroom and in the school itself. It can

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be concluded that teachers’ perceptions about the inclusion of gender issues in the EFL classroom are mostly positive.

However, despite there being suggested guides and orientations to include gender issues in classrooms, teachers do not have a regulatory framework from the MINEDUC, which leaves the inclusion of these issues as an option and not a necessity. It can be discussed that there is a need for a regulation or public policy to support teachers in the inclusion of these topics at school, especially when the common factor is fear as a reason to

Escuela de Idiomas Facultad de Educación

not include gender issues because of the consequences. The relevance of this study can be summarized in the importance of gender issues as a transversal topic that should be included in the English curriculum as a mandatory topic, since it can help students to feel included and supported at school, where a safe space can be created from these issues being discussed. Finally, despite its limitations, mainly about the number of participants, this investigation is a contribution to the little information found about gender issues in EFL classrooms in Chile

teachers. Regarding the inclusion of gender issues in the teaching learning process, some teachers showed willingness to use inclusive language when teaching. Besides, they mentioned they worked with texts that were incorporated in their classes being used from a gender perspective. Therefore, they make students feel they are important as individuals treated with respect, being part of an inclusive environment.

Furthermore, it is important to highlight the positive aspects found in this investigation.

One of them was the impact the inclusion of gender issues has on students. In this matter, one teacher mentioned tolerance as an important characteristic their students had developed. They expressed that a tolerant atmosphere was perceived after some gender-related discussions carried out in classes, which was seen as an advantage that would help students to live in community. Additionally, the

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How to cite this article: Aliaga, G.; Quinteros, A. & Urbina, S. (2022). “EFL teachers’ perceptions about the inclusion of gender issues in Chilean high school classrooms”. ELT Connections, 1 (2), 32- 39.

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