Guanajuato, Gto., January 15, 2018.- With the purpose to take actions and open a forum of discussion that leads to the design of a linguistic policy and pedagogic strategies to improve teaching and learning processes of the English language in the University of Guanajuato (UG), professors of the Department of Languages of Campus Guanajuato will give four workshops in coordination with the University of Reading, from United Kingdom.

The responsible and organizers of the workshops are Dr. Edgar Emmanuell García Ponce and Dr. Irasema Mora Pablo, professors-researchers of the Master degree in Linguistics Applied to Teaching English of the Languages Department of the Division of Social Sciences and Humanities (DCSH) of Campus Guanajuato.

From UG, Dr. Martha Lengeling and Dr. Troy Crawford will participate in the workshops; and from the University of Reading, Dr. Parvaneh Tavakoli and Dr. Rodney Jones will participate.

In an interview, Dr. García Ponce and Dr. Mora Pablo informed that when the summon came from the British Council seeking collaborations with professors of any British university, they got in touch with the Department of English Language and Applied Linguistic of the University of Reading. This summon was aimed to address social problems such as employability and global competitiveness, research, and development and innovation and inclusion.

The department accepted the collaboration with UG for these works, and, financed by the British Council, they designated two British professors who will be in Guanajuato developing the workshops and contributing in the proposal that will result.

The first of four workshops will be on January 31st, with possible employers of UG graduates. The objective of this session is to obtain information about the perspective of future hires about the undergrads and graduates of this university, and particularly their expectations on skills in English for they potential employees. Likewise, this session will be very important to identify areas of opportunity on the linguistic abilities of the undergrads and grads of this institution with the perspective of the employers.

They will invite employers from different companies that have installed in the state and require emp0loyees who speak English or at least with certain linguistic level (B2 or C1) that allows them to incorporate the work field.

In fact, they explained, this workshop will generate ideas and feed the next regarding the limits about the use of English of graduates when they face the workface, the needs of the employers and possible strategies to be incorporated in a proposal of a linguistic proposal for UG.

The second workshop will be with university authorities, meaning, Rectors of Campus, Pro Vost, Academic Secretary, Department Directors and Program Coordinators, on February 1st.

The objective will be to tell the authorities of the university, the perspectives of the employers about their expectation regarding the skills of the English language of graduates for this university. On the other hand, they'll make a series of presentations from professors of the University of Reading and Guanajuato to raise awareness in the importance of fulfilling goals regarding teaching and learning of the English language in our university. This workshop will finalize with a discussion about the possible strategies to achieve a more efficient language learning, considering the perspectives of employers, the contents of the presentations and the suggestions of our university authorities.

The idea, they said, is to series or sequence the workshops, and even open a forum of discussion about what can be done to improve the English language teaching.

The third workshop will be done with English professors from UG, they will be told the results of the two first sessions (with employers and university authorities). Then, they'll open the space to know better the perspective of this professors about the teaching and learning processes of English in our university. Likewise, there will be an open forum of discussion on the challenges that limit the professors of English to teach the language in a more effective way and according with the established objectives by the university.

And finally, the fourth workshop, to be held on February 7th, will be with students, in which they expect the participation of students not only from Languages, but from all the programs and educational levels of the University of Guanajuato.

Like the previous workshop, the work with students will begin with the presentation of the results obtained in the prior sessions. Then, the students will have the opportunity to pronounce their perspectives and challenges about learning English in UG. Also, they will be invited to expresses the limitations in their context to learn the language. This leads to the last part of this workshop; their proposals to make learning practices that lead to develop more efficient linguistic abilities.

The two British professors that will support in the workshops, will also function as advisors to elaborate the final proposal that they expect to have a short and long-term impact, in addition, they will make publications of the research to provide continuity of the workshops' impact, same that will be financed and proven by the British Council.