English Language Policy Relevance in a Colombian Rural Area: A Case Study in Antioquia

Abstract

Given that language policies are issued by the national government with the intention of regulating the teaching and learning of a foreign language, this article aims to report the results of an investigation on how some representative citizens of the community in general, from a municipality located northern of the department of Antioquia perceive those policies and their relevance in the specific rural communities. The community representatives who participated in the study were two participants from the administrative sector (the town mayor and the SENA coordinator – ‘Regional Norte’); two participants from the commercial sector (a manager from a recognized bank and a local savings cooperative manager) and 3 participants from the education sector (a public school’ principal, a private school teacher and an eleven grade student from a public institution). The research study followed the parameters of the qualitative research and the case study method and it had as main data collection techniques the document analysis and interviews done to the seven (7) representatives from the municipality chosen to participate in the study. The main finding was that according to the perception of the citizens who participated in this study, the language policy being implemented by the National Government on bilingualism has become an ethereal speech to the inhabitants of rural areas, while policies are perceived as homogenizing proposals that do not meet the needs of rural communities, and ultimately are not being implemented effectively.

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