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This paper reports on a mixed methods study which explored whether English medium instruction (EMI) fosters the development of intercultural competence (IC) in students (n = 91) in eight courses taught by seven professors in two Colombian universities. Voluntary participants, through surveys, focus groups, and interviews, perceived that students developed IC, although somewhat unintentionally. This result cannot be solely associated with the EMI approach, but other classroom-related factors such as the international/intercultural nature of the course, teacher pedagogy, and/or the international/intercultural profile of the professor played a decisive role in this development. This study strengthens the research on the EMI-intercultural competence connection.

This article discusses the dialogic nature of regulating perspectives on a controversial topic during students' argumentative writing in remote teaching. The emerging collaborative writing processes mediated by digital technology are importantly changed as responses to physical distancing in education, as demanded by the measures of biosecurity established by the national government to prevent the transmission of COVID-19. Our analysis is framed in a sociocultural perspective, which contributes to our understanding of the concepts related to dialogism, regulation, positionings on a topic, collaborative writing, and digital technology as a tool for dialogic interaction. Our qualitative, idiographic study analyzes the argumentative utterances produced by a dyad of students enrolled in a Textual Production course at a Colombian public university who write a critical commentary over four (4) weeks using Google Docs application. The findings indicate that the participants discuss and negotiate decisions in the group writing situation and that during this dialogic interaction, the ideas are influenced by the thoughts of the other. When they communicate with each other, their discourses regulate their positionings on the social situation that is the subject of the dialogue. It is also possible to identify both the possibilities of the pedagogical mode and its potential limitations for dialogic interaction, which synchronously and asynchronously facilitate or restrict the performance of the joint writing activity. It can be concluded that within the framework of remote teaching, digital technology has become a flexible mode of pedagogical practice that supports dialogic interaction, enables regulation among peers for discussion, negotiation, and positioning on a topic, and facilitates the construction of collective knowledge that emerges in argumentative collaborative writing.

This research is a report on a quantitative study carried out at the English Departments of three public universities in the Caribbean coast of Colombia. Its main purpose was to analyze the strategies English departments coordinators use to enhance the quality of education their institutions provide in terms of bilingualism. The participants were 39 English teachers and 3 English department coordinators. The results from this research revealed that all three universities struggled with their teachers' assessment process, as well as, placed below the national average in their English language proficiency scores. As a result, a plan was designed for a strategy that would successfully meet the goals.

This case study explores the relationship between the results obtained by a group of Industrial Engineering students on a national standardized English test and the impact these results had on language program improvement. The instruments used were interviews, document analysis, observations, surveys, and test results analysis. Findings indicate that the program has some weaknesses in terms of number of hours of instruction, methodology, and assessment practices that affect the program content and the students' expected performance. Recommendations relate to setting up a plan of action to make the program enhance students' performance in English, bearing in mind that the goal is not the students' preparation for the test but the development of language skills.

This article discusses the development of global competence through the integration of a series of international-intercultural in-class activities in a Latin American international business (IB) course. A pre- and post-survey were applied and analyzed using a non-parametric Wilcoxon test to identify changes in student perceptions of their global competence development. Results showed development of all competences included in the survey. "Intercultural effectiveness" was the factor that showed the most statistically significant improvement, while "willingness to learn from and adapt to other cultures, openness to other cultures," and "awareness of diversity" developed to a lesser extent. In addition, the dimensions of attitude and knowledge showed improvement while skills demonstrated only slight change. Therefore, IB teaching can be improved by including well-planned international-intercultural classroom activities to promote not only discipline-related knowledge but also global competence development without relying on student mobility.

Internationalization of higher education aims to develop foreign language and intercultural and international competences (IIC). To achieve this, universities worldwide have implemented strategies such as teaching content subjects in English, also known as English mediated instruction (EMI). However, there is scant research on the positive and negative aspects related to EMI implementation in Latin America. For this reason, this case study explores the perceptions of a group of computer science professors, students, and the program administrator in a Colombian university about the use of this approach in learning content and language and the development of IICs. Results revealed that implementing this initiative has benefits but also poses some challenges. Therefore, we offer recommendations related to the institution as a whole, the professors, and the students and suggest including some elements of the CLIL approach to support learning. It is hoped that these findings will contribute to the worldwide EMI/CLIL discussion, especially in Latin American where this practice is relatively new.

Children and youth coming from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds are at risk of developing behavioural problems. This study examined the efficacy of a Yoga programme implemented in a low-socioeconomic status school, for the prevention of depression, anxiety, and aggression. After-school workshops were delivered twice a week during 12 weeks to 125 students in 5th, 8th, and 9th grades, enrolled in a school in Bogotá, Colombia. Participants were randomly assigned to an intervention and to a control group. Children's anxiety, depression, aggression, and some socioemotional competencies (specifically empathy, anger management, and prosociality) were quantitatively assessed before and after the intervention, by means of self- and peer-reported questionnaires. Qualitative data were also collected to assess children's perceived benefits from the workshops. Results suggested a potential of the programme to reduce children's anxiety problems, in particular. Results are discussed in terms of recommended improvements to the programme and its future evaluation.

The present study evaluated the efficacy of an Italian school-based intervention programme adapted in three Colombian sites (Medellín, Manizales, and Santa Marta) in promoting prosocial behaviour among adolescents. Using a pre-test-post-test design with a multi-informant approach, the present study assessed 451 students (Mage = 12.77, SD = 1.06) of the intervention group and 428 students (Mage = 12.64, SD = 1.01) by using self-report and peer rating measures of prosocial behaviour. After establishing the measurement invariance across time and informants, a latent difference score model showed the positive effect of the intervention programme in improving prosocial behaviour evaluated by peers (Cohen's d =.379) among Colombian adolescents, across all three sites. Implications of the study will be discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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