The Literacies in Second Languages Project (LSLP) is a research lab at Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana in our hometown, Medellín (Colombia). LSLP appears as a response to the ongoing expansion of what was first the Student Research Group on Second Languages (SRG-L2). We are interested in becoming active participants in the field of literacies research to share what is happening in this field in our city and our country.
LSLP, as we envision it now, encompasses our research lines and international partnerships. In LSLP, our goal is to inquire and discover how teachers and people in Medellín and surrounding cities are playing with second languages (Mora, 2013) as communicative and semiotic resources to create a multiplicity of languages and meanings. Our concern is to learn more about how people are playing with English (and other languages) both inside and outside of the school settings, the kinds of new messages that emerge as the consequence of such interplay, and how we can use our research to inform teachers' classroom literacy practices.
LSLP, as we envision it now, encompasses our research lines and international partnerships. In LSLP, our goal is to inquire and discover how teachers and people in Medellín and surrounding cities are playing with second languages (Mora, 2013) as communicative and semiotic resources to create a multiplicity of languages and meanings. Our concern is to learn more about how people are playing with English (and other languages) both inside and outside of the school settings, the kinds of new messages that emerge as the consequence of such interplay, and how we can use our research to inform teachers' classroom literacy practices.
LSLP as an Academic Unit
The Literacies in Second Languages Project is housed at the School of Education and Pedagogy at UPB. As an academic project, we are both a student research group and an autonomous research lab that supports other academic programs at the preservice and advanced education levels.
LSLP as an Expansion from the Student Research Group
on Second Languages (SRG-L2)
LSLP would not exist without the momentum that The Student Research Group on Second Languages (SRG-L2) gained, so it is fair recalling a bit of SRG-L2's history.
SRG-L2 was officially chartered in 2012 and is endorsed by the Research, Development, and Innovation Center at UPB [CIDI]. SRG-L2, as first drawn, intended to provide a space for students at the Faculty of Education to pursue their research interests in the field of second languages. Initially, LSLP emerged as one of two research lines from SRG-L2. As LSLP began to expand, it actually outgrew SRG-L2 and thus in 2015, LSLP became an independent student research group, fully devoted to literacies research.
Since its inception, LSLP has been actively involved in research. We have already developed four research projects, with three under development (all of them endorsed and funded by the Research, Development, and Innovation Center at UPB [CIDI]; see our research lines for details). We are at present participating in research projects with colleagues in the United States and Canada and the United Kingdom, and we look forward to more extended collaborations in the near future via our #lslpworlwide expansion.
LSLP's work has also received institutional recognition, which positions LSLP as one of the most active student research groups at our home university, as evidenced by our robust academic production, spanning journal articles, working documents, and national and international conference presentations. At present, almost all Novice and Advanced Researchers feature at least one national and one international conference presentation in their CVs, All of our Novice Researchers and almost all of our Advanced Researchers have at least one presentation at ICQI. 12 researchers (2 no longer active) have co-authored papers for AERA, 12 more have coauthored papers for LRA. Out of this group, 7 have actually presented both at AERA and LRA and two of them actually attended AERA and LRA in 2016. Since 2015, we have begun to make an impact in the Colombian ELT community, with our ongoing presence in the Annual ASOCOPI Congress, the oldest ELT conference in Colombia, featuring as of 2018 a total of 14 presentations from 15 different researchers.
At present, LSLP is associated with the Pedagogies and Didactics of Knowledge (PDS, in Spanish) Research Group at the School of Education and Pedagogy. LSLP helps anchor the research line "Second Language Studies" (one of five declared by the group) through our ongoing research projects. Specifically, our teacher-researchers (recent graduates from the BA in English-Spanish Education and the MA in Learning and Teaching Processes in Second Languages), have become more active in strengthening the school literacies research line with more classroom-based research. In addition, LSLP has connections with two more research groups in Colombia: Teacher Education Research Group at the Institutional Doctorate in Education at Universidad Distrital and Urban Communication Research Group at the School of Social Sciences at UPB. We have also managed to create a solid network of international research partners.
LSLP as a research unit has also begun to influence the curriculum at the BA in English-Spanish Education: In 2015, LSLP helped redesign the course Communicative Competence V, where students are once again developing research on WebQuests. Since 2016, LSLP has helped redesign the course Methods and Approaches in the Teaching of Languages (#MATLUPB), which also includes a meaningful participation of several Advanced Researchers supporting one of the core assignments for this course.
SRG-L2 was officially chartered in 2012 and is endorsed by the Research, Development, and Innovation Center at UPB [CIDI]. SRG-L2, as first drawn, intended to provide a space for students at the Faculty of Education to pursue their research interests in the field of second languages. Initially, LSLP emerged as one of two research lines from SRG-L2. As LSLP began to expand, it actually outgrew SRG-L2 and thus in 2015, LSLP became an independent student research group, fully devoted to literacies research.
Since its inception, LSLP has been actively involved in research. We have already developed four research projects, with three under development (all of them endorsed and funded by the Research, Development, and Innovation Center at UPB [CIDI]; see our research lines for details). We are at present participating in research projects with colleagues in the United States and Canada and the United Kingdom, and we look forward to more extended collaborations in the near future via our #lslpworlwide expansion.
LSLP's work has also received institutional recognition, which positions LSLP as one of the most active student research groups at our home university, as evidenced by our robust academic production, spanning journal articles, working documents, and national and international conference presentations. At present, almost all Novice and Advanced Researchers feature at least one national and one international conference presentation in their CVs, All of our Novice Researchers and almost all of our Advanced Researchers have at least one presentation at ICQI. 12 researchers (2 no longer active) have co-authored papers for AERA, 12 more have coauthored papers for LRA. Out of this group, 7 have actually presented both at AERA and LRA and two of them actually attended AERA and LRA in 2016. Since 2015, we have begun to make an impact in the Colombian ELT community, with our ongoing presence in the Annual ASOCOPI Congress, the oldest ELT conference in Colombia, featuring as of 2018 a total of 14 presentations from 15 different researchers.
At present, LSLP is associated with the Pedagogies and Didactics of Knowledge (PDS, in Spanish) Research Group at the School of Education and Pedagogy. LSLP helps anchor the research line "Second Language Studies" (one of five declared by the group) through our ongoing research projects. Specifically, our teacher-researchers (recent graduates from the BA in English-Spanish Education and the MA in Learning and Teaching Processes in Second Languages), have become more active in strengthening the school literacies research line with more classroom-based research. In addition, LSLP has connections with two more research groups in Colombia: Teacher Education Research Group at the Institutional Doctorate in Education at Universidad Distrital and Urban Communication Research Group at the School of Social Sciences at UPB. We have also managed to create a solid network of international research partners.
LSLP as a research unit has also begun to influence the curriculum at the BA in English-Spanish Education: In 2015, LSLP helped redesign the course Communicative Competence V, where students are once again developing research on WebQuests. Since 2016, LSLP has helped redesign the course Methods and Approaches in the Teaching of Languages (#MATLUPB), which also includes a meaningful participation of several Advanced Researchers supporting one of the core assignments for this course.
MA in Learning and Teaching Processes in Second
Languages (ML2) and its Relationship with LSLP
The MA in Learning and Teaching Processes in Second Languages became the third master's program at the School of Education and Pedagogy in 2013. This program was the result of a joint effort among researchers at the Faculty of Education and the Language Center. ML2 welcomed its first cohort in July, 2013. At present, ML2 features students in its two research lines in English and Spanish as second languages.
ML2 has embraced literacies research from the outset, making this research line one of its trademarks. The seminar on "Literacies in Second Languages" is unique in its scope and topics in Colombia. Its design received feedback from world-class literacy researchers such as Brian Street, Arlette Willis, and Colin Lankshear. Through ML2, our students have enjoyed world-class video conferences with renowned literacy researchers such as Brian Street, Bill Cope, and Walkyria Monte Mór, as well as emerging leading scholars such as Lina Trigos-Carrillo and Chris Bacon.
As of August 2014, LSLP has actively helped design and execute this graduate seminar and helped organize some sessions of the ML2 Open Lecture Series, featuring lectures by Professors Brian Street, Piotr Celiński, and Arlette Willis. Since 2016, some of our Advanced Researchers (Claudia Cañas, Gloria Gutiérrez, Ana Karina Rodríguez, and Mónica López-Ladino) have to serve as Teaching Assistants for the Literacies in Second Languages and Research I and II seminars at ML2.
All these experiences are part of a concerted effort for LSLP to actively collaborate with our graduate programs at different levels. In terms of teaching, for example, Claudia took over the Literacies in Second Languages seminar in the second semester of 2018. In 2019, Gloria and Mónica took over one of the Research Seminar II courses in the MA program. Esteban Vásquez, one of our Advanced Researchers pursuing his doctoral degree, is actively involved in teaching the Assessment courses for the Specialization and ML2. Finally, some of our LSLP Advanced Researchers (Claudia Cañas, Gloria Gutiérrez-Arismendy, Mónica López-Ladino, and Esteban Vásquez) are now mentoring graduate students as MA thesis directors.