Drawing on 10 pedagogical standards issued by the Chilean Ministry of Education, three dealing with multimodality, we, in this research, examined English language pre-service teachers' and educators' approaches to the use of multimodal texts. Data were gathered through two online surveys that explored the use of multimodal texts by teacher educators and pre-service teachers. Results indicate that educators were familiar with the standards and multimodality when teaching reading and writing, but lack of resources, preparation, and time prevents them from working with multimodal texts. Candidates read printed and digital newspapers, novels, and magazines outside university, but rarely use them academically. They extensively use social media, even for academic purposes. There is a mismatch between the use of multimodal texts by teacher candidates and teacher educators.

More equitable pathways to university have been recently implemented in Chile. An alternative entrance pathway program was launched in 2009 at a Santiago-based university. This study aimed to describe the personal and academic journeys of the first three cohorts of students under this scheme, with a focus on the qualitative features that underpinned unexpected positive retention and program completion rates. Informed by a mixed methods methodology, using descriptive statistics and 26 interviews, 20 with graduates and six with their lecturers, the study suggests that such successful academic performance, remarkable retention and graduation rates relate to the participants' early inner drive to pursue university studies, wherein university epitomised a journey to professionalism and a way out of financial scarcity. The participants placed emphasis on the need to be assisted through a scholarship scheme and placed much value on their family support, the learning environment, and on their lecturers in particular. From the lecturers' data, it emerged that central to graduates' performance and overall academic achievement was their tenacity and determination to sustain their motivation to successfully accomplish their academic goals.

This report describes a project, supported by the Office for Learning and Teaching (OLT), that addresses the question 'what kind of language awareness do teachers need to meet the stated goals of the new national curriculum, and how can this be integrated into teacher education?' Language-related components of Australian teacher education courses were reviewed, and interviews were conducted with pre-service teachers and teacher educators in Victoria and Queensland about their views and experiences of language issues in education.

The current environment for pre-service teacher training in Australia is framed by a new national curriculum in which knowledge of language (KAL) has been emphasised. In recognition of Australia's increasing cultural and linguistic diversity, the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) (2011) made it explicit that all teachers will be required to provide pedagogy that responds to the language learning needs of students whose first language is not English, regardless of whether these teachers have had formal language teacher training or not. For teachers to be able to do this, they need knowledge of the structure of English, of how both first and second languages are learned, and some awareness of pedagogy that scaffolds second language learning. Awareness of these, it is argued, would enhance self-confidence for dealing with language in areas also beneficial for mainstream students for whom English is a first language.

The new curriculum for subject English outlines in reasonable detail the features of English language that should be the focus of each year level in primary and secondary education. The curriculum has been informed by language specialists, who have suggested that an effective approach would be to include elements of both traditional and functional grammar in teacher training, but there is much debate about how this could be achieved (Adoniou & Macken-Horarik, 2007). The ACARA document does not, however, specify in detail how teachers of other content areas could be enabled as language-aware teachers, nor does it explicitly state what kinds of knowledge about language would enhance their capability to respond to English as an additional language (EAL) students. In some UK and Australian studies, lack of knowledge about language is shown to be related to lack of confidence in dealing with it in classroom situations (see Cajkler & Hislam, 2010; Petraki & Hill, 2010).

Research over the past two decades into the acquisition of additional languages has also revealed much about the social and cultural nature of language (e.g. Ortega, 2009), and the connections between language and culture are emphasised in the findings reported here. This project then aims to identify what kind of language awareness training should be included in pre-service programs for Australian teachers of all content areas.

This project and its report are intended primarily for university academics and particularly those involved in the planning and delivery of teacher education courses. The factors influencing enhancement of teacher education are complex, particularly in Australia with its urban and rural contexts, and diverse groups of speakers of other languages, groups which include Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as well as migrants. Added to this complexity is the surfeit of accreditation requirements imposed on teacher education programs and the running commentary by state and federal governments and media on teacher education students. When all factors are considered, it is not possible to offer a one-size-fits-all approach, but the report does offer directions toward best practice through a review of current course content, the initiation of dialogue about language among educators of different disciplines, and through feedback from pre-service teachers.

The report is presented over five chapters. Chapter 1 introduces the project and presents its scope with a brief review of relevant literature. Chapter 2 reports on what language-related components are currently included in the Australian teacher education curriculum through a review of a sample of courses. This is followed by a brief discussion of relevant teacher education practices in a small sample of countries held to be successful in promoting highly literate and language-aware teaching workforces. Chapter 3 reports on the views of pre-service teachers who were interviewed about their experiences with language in their own schooling and in teaching practicums. Chapter 4 reports on the views of teacher educators, from a range of discipline areas, who were interviewed about their views of language in their content area, and how the teacher education curriculum should cater for this. Finally, Chapter 5 summarises the findings, discusses the implications of the study, and details the dissemination activities to date.

The project found that policy change in regards to language in education over recent decades has led to confusion and inconsistency in dealing with language in both primary and secondary schooling. It is suggested that language-specific modules, containing cultural elements, be included as core units in the education of teachers of all disciplines, linked to a stronger practicum component ('unit' being typically a one-semester subject of between 20–35 hours). Language studies units are offered widely in teacher education, but are rarely compulsory outside English or modern languages major or minor methods. This seed project presents exploratory findings. An investigation involving more content areas and more contexts, and especially including the views of in-service teachers and English as an additional language (EAL) students themselves, would increase the understanding of how the design of language-related units relates to positive outcomes in the inclusive classroom.

The present study examined the role of awareness of metaphor in learners' lexical learning. A total of 35 intermediate English as second language (ESL) students participated in this study. Participants were randomly divided into two small groups. One (N = 17) served as the control group and the other (N = 18) as the experimental group. Both groups were taught several metaphorically-used expressions over a period of six weeks. The groups differed in that the experimental group received systematic and explicit explanations of the source and target relationships that underlie metaphor, while the control group did not receive such instruction. Pre-tests and Post-tests were administered in order to measure lexical understanding of metaphorical items. Two journal entries were given out to students at two different intervals throughout the teaching period in order to tap into their views of how their lexical understanding of metaphor was changing, or not changing, over time. Results revealed that those students who received systematic and explicit explanations on the concrete experiential basis of metaphor showed greater understanding of metaphorical meanings, and seemed more inclined to unpacking their metaphoricity by looking at what lies behind them.

El impacto de la multimodalidad y la globalización de las comunicaciones es más notorio en la formación inicial en el área de lenguas dado sus efectos en los usos del lenguaje. En este marco de crecientes cambios en el paisaje socio-semiótico de las comunidades discursivas, informamos de una investigación exploratoria que describe su incidencia en la formación de la identidad docente por medio de un análisis de la dimensión metafórica en representaciones textuales y visuales. A partir de un paradigma cualitativo, se examina cómo la identidad docente se construye, representa y conceptualiza metafóricamente en textos e imágenes de un grupo de estudiantes en formación inicial docente de pedagogía en inglés. A pesar de las diferencias individuales encontradas en estas representaciones, a la luz de modelos metafóricos educacionales se destaca el rol de la multimodalidad y globalización en la constitución de la identidad docente.

Assessment has long been regarded as an integral part of the learning process. In the field of assessment, washback effect is understood as the impact of tests (or any assessment procedure) on the learner, the learning process, teachers, or such like. Thus, the purpose of the present study was to determine the washback effect of two different types of assessment procedures, namely, a traditional test and an alternative assessment procedure (a project) in an intact sample of 32 seventh-grade students, from a subsidised school in Chile. Through a mix-methods approach, quantitative data were gathered through a self-reported-washback survey, administered after a traditional test was given to the participants and after an English language project was carried out; qualitative data regarding the perceived effects caused by the test and the language project were gathered through a focus group interview. A series of t-tests was performed for quantitative data gathered through the washback surveys, while content analysis was used for the qualitative data emerging from the focus group interview. The results suggest that both procedures are positively valued, with the alternative assessment procedure being held in higher regard as far as motivation, anxiety and strategy use are concerned, as became evident in the focus group interview.

The present study aims to critically interrogate the role of Critical Thinking (CT) in English language education in Chile through the analysis of teacher educators' and postgraduate students' perceptions and understandings of CT in relation to their academic trajectories through university. Five postgraduate students and five teacher educators from three different Masters of Teaching English as a Foreign Language (MTEFL) programs agreed to take part in the research. Informed by a qualitative paradigm, semi-structured interviews were conducted aimed mainly at (1) unpacking teacher educators' and postgraduate students' understandings of CT; (2) investigating postgraduates' views of the place of critical thinking in their English teacher education training; (3) examining the ways in which teacher educators deal with CT in their pedagogies; and (4) identifying students' preparedness to approach reading and writing critically, as viewed by both groups of participants. Analysis of responses revealed, on the one hand, students' recognition of CT skills as necessary to succeed in academic life and, on the other, great concerns for the limited importance accorded to teaching these skills in teacher education courses. Teacher educators' responses generally showed an increasing interest in trying to incorporate the teaching of CT skills in their pedagogies, but admitted to an overall lack of consistency in the implementation process. The paper concludes with critical questions about the perceived pedagogical mismatches between teacher educators' and postgraduate students' perceptions of the role of CT in their academic journeys, and about the role of Chilean teacher education programs in addressing these issues.

This paper discusses some implications and applications of the field of Cognitive linguistics (CL) to the teaching of English as a second, foreign or additional language (ESL, EFL or EAL). Some of the areas to which CL has immensely contributed are the teaching and learning of grammar, including modality and prepositions (e.g. Langacker, 1991; Langacker, 2008), the teaching and learning of lexis, especially metaphorically-used words and expressions (e.g. Boers, 2004; Deignan, Gabrys, & Solska, 1997; Kalyuga & Kalyuga, 2008; Kövecses, 1996), and the teaching and development of literacy skills, in particular the skills to better understand texts with metaphors embedded (e.g. Boers, 2000). A discussion of all these areas is certainly beyond the scope of this paper. The area to which some attention is drawn in this article is that of teaching metaphorical lexis, with a particular focus on the teaching of polysemous words. General suggestions and teaching recommendations are made in an attempt to bring this field closer to language practitioners.