'Teacher Mediation of EFL Students' Oral Performance and Teacher Professional Development: Researching the Connection' - JOSE-DAVID HERAZO, Doctoral Student, Instruction and Learning

One purpose of the Colombian National Bilingualism Program (CNBP) launched in 2005 was to train EFL teachers to interact with their students in the classroom, and support students' interpersonal communication skills. However, no research to date has studied the characteristics of the interaction that these teachers engage in with their learners and the implications it might have for EFL learning. This study compares how two teachers, one of them trained through the CNBP, create teacher-supported interactions with students, and explores how this relates to the training provided by the CNBP.

Data for this cross-case study consisted of classroom observations, transcriptions of teacher-student interactions, stimulated recall protocols, teaching materials, and official documents outlining the goals of the CNBP program. Findings show differences in the mediation provided by these two teachers in terms of the time, content, and focus of mediation. They also reveal that the temporal dimension of mediation is as important as the contents of the mediation itself. The study highlights the importance of understanding how language teaching policy is shaped by local contextual factors.

'Learning Language and Culture: An Informal Look at a Government Sponsored Bilingual Education Program in Spain'- JESSICA MASON, Project Associate, IISE & Doctoral Student, School of Education