In EFL composition courses, teaching and learning normally orbit around norms of unity, coherence, support, and sentence skills that L2 learners are expected to comply with, at the expense of opportunities to develop voice. Against this backdrop, we resolved to examine the extent to which students’ exposure to and practice with lexical bundles, boosters/hedges and stance-taking strategies allows them to build a stronger discoursal and authorial voice as future academic writers. Evaluation of the students’ works revealed their level of success in this endeavor and analysis of student surveys unveiled the tensions and struggles they faced along the way. At the end of this paper, we advocate for academic writing courses to be transformed into spaces where students not only come to terms with the basic norms they have to conform to, but also build a discoursal and authorial voice as L2 writers.

El objetivo principal de este artículo es identificar y analizar el uso de las TIC y la mediación pedagógica que los académicos del Área de Inglés de la Escuela de Literatura y Ciencias del Lenguaje (ELCL) utilizan para enriquecer las clases de inglés.  A la luz del cumplimiento de los estándares de calidad de una carrera acreditada por el SINAES, los docentes del Área de Inglés reconocen la importancia de mantenerse actualizados en las estrategias innovadoras con el apoyo de las TIC.  Se ha evidenciado que estas promueven el aprendizaje mediante una gama de herramientas virtuales que potencian los estilos de aprendizaje, las inteligencias múltiples, y las necesidades especiales de la diversidad de aprendientes con el fin de mejorar su rendimiento académico.  Este estudio se llevó a cabo en febrero del 2015 con una muestra de 27 docentes quienes han mostrado un esfuerzo e interés en ser conocedores de diferentes recursos tecnológicos que ellos utilizan en sus lecciones.  Igualmente, los resultados del estudio indican que la ELCL se esmera por mejorar este ámbito ofreciendo capacitación docente más permanente.

This research paper discusses the benefits and implications of bringing authentic assessment into listening comprehension classes. The study was run in 2016 based on a QUAL-Quan model to research and included 38 college students enrolled in a listening comprehension class at an English Teaching Major (ETM) from the University of Costa Rica (UCR). Data collection instruments included plans of improvement, portfolios, self-assessment forms, teacher-student conferences, verbal calls, and impromptu reflections. Data were validated through several procedures and analyzed in the form of emerging themes from the information collected. Findings are that authentic assessment can and should be used more in listening comprehension classes to bring assessment and instruction together, as well as to provide opportunities for skills integration. The study yields implications for theory and practice, and it constitutes a proposal to move from traditional to process evaluation, and from norm-referenced testing towards more criterion-referenced assessment. Nonetheless, the aim should not necessarily be a radical ‘no’ to paper-and-pencil tests, but a more balanced use in combination with other strategies so that assessment becomes more reliable, valid, fair, and authentic for all EFL actors involved. Keywords: authentic assessment, testing, listening comprehension, portfolio, weekly plans

This study analyzes the opinions of a group of three English as a Foreign Language programs, on the washback effects of board-based oral tests on the students’ language proficiency and foreign language anxiety levels, and on the professors’ instructional choices and decision making. With purposive sampling strategies and triangulation techniques, strong washback effects on learners’ foreign language anxiety levels and professors’ instructional choices, with lesser effects on learners’ proficiency levels and instructors’ decision making, were identied.