Teacher-developed materials for the integration of content and language : an action research project in Argentina

This action research project explores the principles that teachers follow when developing their own materials for lessons aimed at integrating content and language in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) lessons in state secondary education

Promoting metalanguage awareness among CLIL content teachers

Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) is an approach particularly implemented and investigated in Europe. CLIL usually refers to the teaching of a subject or curricular content together with another language (Dale & Tanner, 2012). Conceived as an umbrella term, the multiplicity of models found in practice (Coyle, Hood, & Marsh, 2010) may be placed along a continuum which moves from content-driven models such as bilingual education to language-driven models such as project work. The Roles of Language in CLIL is positioned at the content end with a two-fold aim: examining discourse and genres in the CLIL classroom and promoting language awareness among CLIL content teachers

Review of the book CLIL activities : a resource for subject and language teachers (with CD-ROM)

CLIL Activities may be taken as a handbook focused on practice as more than half of its pages do offer wide-ranging activities. The authors state that the book is targeted at subject and language teachers probably with the intention of showing that both content and language are equally important and interrelated

Teacher, what page today? A look at materials development

Learning materials are core components of our practices. Sometimes they become useful tools and some other times they dictate the courses we teach. In this talk I will explore learning materials in different formats and modes but I will particularly focus on coursebooks at primary and secondary school levels. Some of the questions I will raise are: What do coursebooks usually feature? Have they evolved? What do digital materials offer? Are materials challenging enough? Do they offer cognitive-rich opportunities? Are they culturally-responsive? Are there any people against marketed materials? What do more recent materials offer? What’s the role of materials today? And more importantly, what’s our role in this hard-to- resist marketed world

Bipolar flaking as a component of a supraregional lithic resource base: A comparative study of cores from the Pampean and Northcentral Patagonian Atlantic coasts (Argentina)

Several authors argue that bipolar technology is an expeditious and versatile strategy, efficient for the reduction of small nodules. However, few studies analyze the use of bipolar reduction in relation to the lithic environmental supply. At the Pampean and Patagonian maritime coast, the technique has been widely recorded and seems to be conspicuous in indigenous populations that occupied coastal areas. With the aim of assessing and comparing the application of bipolar reduction, 196 nuclei recovered from sites of diverse chronologies in the Pampean and northcentral Patagonic coasts were analyzed. The use of the bipolar technique was observed in relation to the lithic environmental structure, the size of nodules and their raw material. The results revealed high frequencies of bipolar nuclei at the Pampean coast (87%) and moderate frequencies at the northcentral Patagonic coast (39%). It was determined that the variables that influenced the application of bipolar techniques the most were the small size of the nodules and their rounded shape, generally thick, and without flat surfaces. As for raw material quality, the technique was applied on good to medium quality rocks at the Pampean coast, while in the northcentral coast it was exclusively applied on pebbles and cobbles of superior qualities (very good to excellent). The differences observed are most likely linked with technological choices made by different coastal populations to make the best use of widely available local rocks.Fil: Banegas, Anahi. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Bonomo, Mariano. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Gomez Otero, Julieta. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin

Motivating factors in online language teacher education in southern Argentina

Online teacher education is of growing interest and so is the study of motivation as a key factor in technology-mediated learning environments. This study is based on a pre-service language teacher education programme in Patagonia, a southern Argentinian region with no face-to-face training offers, limited Internet access and a large number of unqualified teachers. Our goal is to broaden the understanding of online teacher education programmes at undergraduate level in contexts where most trainees are practicing teachers and where online education is the only possibility for holding a teaching qualification. We focused on the motivating factors that led 71 trainees to enrol and to remain in this online teacher training course. Through a mixed methods approach, the trainees completed an online survey (n = 71) and participated in a follow-up interview (n = 24). Results showed that obtaining a teaching degree, autonomy, and individual activities were key factors in initial and sustaining motivation. Participants' experiences challenged collaborative learning in an online environment

France’s Intervention Policy in Africa Seen from Below: Some Thoughts on the Case of Côte d’Ivoire

In contradiction with the promise to break with its post-colonial past and some attempts to change its foreign policy, France has reengaged itself massively in African crises. The military interventions launched in Côte d’Ivoire, Mali and Central African Republic seem to define a new French interventionist policy South of the Sahara. Based upon extensive surveys conducted in Côte d’Ivoire among young pro-Gbagbo militants, this article tries to interpret this new stance from below. It contends that the nationalist and anti-colonial mobilisations that took place in the country were not only instrumental in local power bargaining. They were (and are still) a powerful leverage for generational emancipation and reflect some conflicts of subjectification which will be key in the evolution of Franco-African relations in the future

France’s Intervention Policy in Africa Seen from Below: Some Thoughts on the Case of Côte d’Ivoire

In contradiction with the promise to break with its post-colonial past and some attempts to change its foreign policy, France has reengaged itself massively in African crises. The military interventions launched in Côte d’Ivoire, Mali and Central African Republic seem to define a new French interventionist policy South of the Sahara. Based upon extensive surveys conducted in Côte d’Ivoire among young pro-Gbagbo militants, this article tries to interpret this new stance from below. It contends that the nationalist and anti-colonial mobilisations that took place in the country were not only instrumental in local power bargaining. They were (and are still) a powerful leverage for generational emancipation and reflect some conflicts of subjectification which will be key in the evolution of Franco-African relations in the future

Ouganda: un pays en mutation au coeur d'une zone de fractures

Entre les images de mort des années Amin et Obote, de la guerre civile et du sida et le souvenir nostalgique de la “ perle de l’Afrique ” (Churchill), l’Ouganda reste prisonnier de clichés hérités d’un passé chaotique qui ne reflètent pourtant plus guère la réalité. L’Ouganda actuel est en effet un pays en complète mutation, en pleine reconstruction économique et politique, qui devient un pôle essentiel de stabilité régionale au coeur d’une zone de fractures minée par la violence, marquée par des conflits “ tectoniques ” et la déliquescence des structures économiques ou étatiques. Après des années de guerre civile, au gré d’un processus de pacification et de démocratisation assez lent, un nouvel ordre politique est en train d’émerger. Au plan économique, en contraste avec ses voisins immédiats, l’Ouganda offre l’image d’un pays en croissance qui offre aux investisseurs des opportunités d’autant plus intéressantes que se réactive un processus d’intégration régionale (au sein de la Communauté est-africaine) qui, à l’horizon 2000, devrait constituer un des plus vastes marchés d’Afrique avec près de 100 millions d’habitants. A travers cette étude, nous voudrions d’abord évaluer l’ampleur de ces mutations opérées par l’Ouganda depuis quelques années et les enjeux économiques, politiques et diplomatiques qu’elles comportent pour l’ensemble de la zone. Doit-on voir dans ce pays aux marches de l’Afrique centrale, des Grands Lacs et de l’Afrique de l’Est, aux confins de l’Afrique anglophone et francophone, un nouveau pôle de croissance et de stabilisation de la région ? Peut-il consolider sa position et poursuivre ses mutations ? (...)

Josep Lluís Blasco Estellés (1940-2003)

Josep Lluís Blasco Estellés (Sagunt 1940 – Valencia 2003) was one of the prominent introducers of analytic philosophy into the Catalan Countries in the 20th century. Initially an adherent of ordinary language philosophy within analytic philosophy, he later became an acute commentator of Quine, Wittgenstein, Kant and logical positivism