English as a Neutral Language in the Colombian National Standards: A Constituent of Dominance in English Language Education

This article attempts to problematize the way the English language is used in official documents. We will focus on the "Estándares Básicos de Competencias en Lenguas Extranjeras: Inglés" (Basic Standards of Competences in Foreign Languages: English), a handbook issued by the Colombian Mini...

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Main Authors: Carmen Helena Guerrero Nieto, Álvaro Hernán Quintero Polo
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Universidad Nacional de Colombia 2009-10-01
Series:Profile: Issues in Teachers' Professional Development
Subjects:
Online Access:https://revistas.unal.edu.co/index.php/profile/article/view/11447
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author Carmen Helena Guerrero Nieto
Álvaro Hernán Quintero Polo
author_facet Carmen Helena Guerrero Nieto
Álvaro Hernán Quintero Polo
author_sort Carmen Helena Guerrero Nieto
collection DOAJ
description This article attempts to problematize the way the English language is used in official documents. We will focus on the "Estándares Básicos de Competencias en Lenguas Extranjeras: Inglés" (Basic Standards of Competences in Foreign Languages: English), a handbook issued by the Colombian Ministry of Education. We deem it as a vehicle used to spread a hegemonic and ideological influence and to alienate teachers' beliefs and practices within English language education. To be concise, here we discuss only neutrality as one broad category that emerges in our close examination of how the English language is constructed within the handbook. In this paper, we construct our main points around three forms of neutrality: prescription, denotation, and uniformity.
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publishDate 2009-10-01
publisher Universidad Nacional de Colombia
record_format Article
series Profile: Issues in Teachers' Professional Development
spelling doaj-art-96f6ae08fd874a5fb07c8e11e86d9d2b2025-08-20T01:58:20ZengUniversidad Nacional de ColombiaProfile: Issues in Teachers' Professional Development1657-07902009-10-01112135150English as a Neutral Language in the Colombian National Standards: A Constituent of Dominance in English Language EducationCarmen Helena Guerrero Nieto0Álvaro Hernán Quintero Polo1Universidad Distrital Francisco José de CaldasUniversidad Distrital Francisco José de CaldasThis article attempts to problematize the way the English language is used in official documents. We will focus on the "Estándares Básicos de Competencias en Lenguas Extranjeras: Inglés" (Basic Standards of Competences in Foreign Languages: English), a handbook issued by the Colombian Ministry of Education. We deem it as a vehicle used to spread a hegemonic and ideological influence and to alienate teachers' beliefs and practices within English language education. To be concise, here we discuss only neutrality as one broad category that emerges in our close examination of how the English language is constructed within the handbook. In this paper, we construct our main points around three forms of neutrality: prescription, denotation, and uniformity.https://revistas.unal.edu.co/index.php/profile/article/view/11447English as a neutral languageEnglish language educationforeign language standardscritical discourse analysissymbolic powerlanguage policies
spellingShingle Carmen Helena Guerrero Nieto
Álvaro Hernán Quintero Polo
English as a Neutral Language in the Colombian National Standards: A Constituent of Dominance in English Language Education
Profile: Issues in Teachers' Professional Development
English as a neutral language
English language education
foreign language standards
critical discourse analysis
symbolic power
language policies
title English as a Neutral Language in the Colombian National Standards: A Constituent of Dominance in English Language Education
title_full English as a Neutral Language in the Colombian National Standards: A Constituent of Dominance in English Language Education
title_fullStr English as a Neutral Language in the Colombian National Standards: A Constituent of Dominance in English Language Education
title_full_unstemmed English as a Neutral Language in the Colombian National Standards: A Constituent of Dominance in English Language Education
title_short English as a Neutral Language in the Colombian National Standards: A Constituent of Dominance in English Language Education
title_sort english as a neutral language in the colombian national standards a constituent of dominance in english language education
topic English as a neutral language
English language education
foreign language standards
critical discourse analysis
symbolic power
language policies
url https://revistas.unal.edu.co/index.php/profile/article/view/11447
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AT alvarohernanquinteropolo englishasaneutrallanguageinthecolombiannationalstandardsaconstituentofdominanceinenglishlanguageeducation