Meaning-Making Practices in EFL Classes in Private and State Schools: Classroom Interaction and Bilingualism Policy in Colombia

Abstract

This paper focuses on a study of classroom interaction in state and private primary schools in Armenia, capital of the Quindío province in Colombia. It is a qualitative, ethnographic study that analyses the teachers and learners’ interactional and pedagogical practices leading to the construction of meaning in the bilingual classroom, and how these practices conform to the institutional expectations and national policy on bilingualism being implemented in Colombia at the moment. It also highlights the specific aspects of the interaction and the literacy practices taking place, describing the origins, types, topics and genres of the monolingual texts and the mini-texts of the lessons and how bilingual talk unfolds around them. It also discusses the way teaching materials are put to use, and the strategies used by the teachers to teach their students to learn to read words and sentences. The monolingual writing practices in English at the board, or in the students’ notebooks, contrast with the bilingual talk (Spanish-English) that took place around the worksheets and handouts the teachers used. The analysis of the talk around the texts in these events revealed not only the complexity of patterns that could be traced to the wider policy context and the global forces that are having an impact on the everyday classroom routines of schools in Colombia, but also that the pedagogical practices leading to the construction of meaning conform to the institutional expectations and the national bilingualism policy, that is, the Programa Nacional de Bilingüismo, being implemented at the moment.