This document summarizes three research projects related to teaching English as a foreign language using technology: 1) A study of in-service language teachers integrating ICT into their classrooms through participation in a virtual forum. The study found this promoted collaborative learning. 2) A study developing English question formation through computer-assisted language learning (CALL) software, finding CALL can help overcome problems in learning. 3) A study of Colombian teachers' perceptions in using English Discoveries CALL software, finding teachers adapted it in their curricula but its implications on teaching practices need further analysis.

1. RESEARCH PROJECTS
Magister in Applied Linguistics to TEFL
Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas.
Facultad de Ciencias y Educación.
Espitia Cruz, Martha Isabel. Virtual forums: a potential pedagogical tool for
collaboration and learning in teacher education. (2010).
This study reports on the pedagogical experience of a group of in-service language
teachers integrating Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) into their
classrooms. The data was gathered in two moments, the first one was when the
participants took the seminar on ICTs that the Masters on Applied Linguistics of
Universidad Francisco Jose de Caldas offered in 2008. By this time this group of teachers
planned, discussed, and implemented a pedagogical project to approximate the ways
young learners communicate and learn with others. They participated in the virtual
platform www.ourdigitalculture.org and engaged in the design and implementation of the
pedagogical project with the students in their respective institutions. Teachers’
participation in the virtual forum promoted collaborative learning through the use of ICTs.
The second moment took place from the moment I was invited to analyze the data of the
work they shared in the virtual platform. This second moment entailed questionnaires and
interviews where the 10 in-service teachers reflected upon their performance in the
virtual platform. The study demonstrates that teachers’ professional development is
crucial in the process of integrating the use of ICTs in the school curriculum. Findings
suggests that national ICT policies require well prepared teachers to effectively use ICTs in
school learning, thus students can be able to access the tools successfully as well.
Torres Weissleder, Sandra. Developing English question formation through CALL. (1996).
There are many materials that help students in the process of learning a foreign language.
Among all those materials are the programs designed on computers that assist this
learning process, better known as call (Computer Assistant Language Learning) Little

2. research has been conducted on how to use the computer’s coding options to improve
learning, therefore, one of the main reasons that motivated the idea to work on Call was
to find how software designed to solve specific EFL problems could be implemented and
seen as an option to overcome those problems.
Acevedo D., Saide Paola. The implementation of the English discoveries software by
public school teachers in Boyacá. (2006).
This research project analyzes the different perceptions that public school teachers in
Boyaca, Colombia had in the use of the English Discoveries software. The main focus of
this work is the teachers’ pedagogical proposals, written as a requirement of the
pedagogical, technological and methodological training given by The Ministry of Education
in the use of this software in their schools. The teachers’ proposals had the purpose of
implementing the English Discoveries software in their schools’ curricula and adapting it to
their English programs. One year after the implementation and adaptation, it was
necessary to continue this process and analyze the different implications it had for the
teachers’ proposals, their teaching practices, and to determine how this information can
be applied by teachers who have been trained by or have used Computer Assisted
Language Learning (CALL) programs before. The research case study started from the
teachers’ pedagogical proposals and applied different research instruments to gather
data. The results from this study are expected to contribute to the area of Teaching
English as a Foreign Language (TEFL), and to raise critical questions about the
implementation and adaptation of CALL programs in the curricula, and demonstrate how
those programs can be adapted as a tool to facilitate teaching and learning more
effectively. Key Words: CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning), computer in
language learning and teaching, teachers’ pedagogical proposals, English Discoveries
software, TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language), teachers’ perceptions.

3. Guerrero Rodriguez Mario Rodrigo. Beliefs and pedagogical applications of technology:
Insights from a teacher’s classroom practice. (2011).
This study was carried out in Beth Shalom High School, which is an institution
located in north part of Bogota, Cundinamarca, Colombia. The participant was one male
English teacher, who teaches content-based areas, mainly sciences and mathematics.
This qualitative research study took around six months to be developed. Data was
collected by using interviews, researcher’s logs, lesson plans, class observations and
the contents of the blog. There was also a pedagogical intervention that helped to
underpin and undertake the main activities in the research study.
The study shows that technology is useful to many people and it can also be a
useful tool in the classroom. However, the use of technology in the classroom does not
mean teachers have to abandon their current teaching practices and beliefs about
technology use. It is true that without technology, strong and good lessons and learning
can still be achieved. The results were similar to those that had occurred in other
countries around the world that showed that the use of technology depends on different
situations and technology might influence decisions teachers make when implementing
or incorporating technology in the classroom.