This qualitative interpretive study carried out with four EFL teachers in an EAP course at a private university in Bogotá, Colombia addresses the disconnection that exists between curricular content and the life of students in education. From our understanding of literacy as a sociocultural practice we proposed a pedagogy that immersed teachers and students in community explorations to study local issues informed by different disciplines. Therefore, this study describes the ways teachers designed and implemented curriculum using community assets (Kretzmann & McKnight, 2003) to develop student agency. The issues addressed by students in their inquiries included improving civic practices in the cycling route; fostering river preservation; environmental issues with garbage in Bogotá; and possibilities to access higher education for young populations in Colombia.  Using a grounded theory approach, we collected and analyzed data from class discussions, curricular units, semi-structured interviews and class observation. Findings reveal that community explorations fostered students’ agency towards studying social issues and promoted the construction of context-embedded opportunities for learning using students’ realities and topics of local relevance (Canagarajah 2005). The target language was used to reflect, pose problems, produce texts and participate in social reflections within an academic environment.   

中文翻译：

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将地方素养置于高等教育 ELT 课程的核心

这项定性的解释性研究与哥伦比亚波哥大一所私立大学的 EAP 课程中的四位 EFL 教师一起进行，解决了课程内容与学生教育生活之间存在的脱节问题。根据我们对识字作为一种社会文化实践的理解，我们提出了一种教学法，让教师和学生沉浸在社区探索中，以研究不同学科所了解的当地问题。因此，本研究描述了教师使用社区资产（Kretzmann & McKnight, 2003）设计和实施课程以发展学生能动性的方式。学生在询问中解决的问题包括改善自行车路线的公民实践；促进河流保护；波哥大的垃圾环境问题；以及为哥伦比亚的年轻人口接受高等教育的可能性。我们使用扎根理论的方法，从课堂讨论、课程单元、半结构化访谈和课堂观察中收集和分析数据。调查结果表明，社区探索培养了学生研究社会问题的能动性，并促进了利用学生的现实和当地相关主题构建情境嵌入的学习机会（Canagarajah 2005）。目标语言用于在学术环境中反映、提出问题、产生文本和参与社会反思。研究结果表明，社区探索培养了学生研究社会问题的能动性，并促进了利用学生的现实和当地相关主题构建情境嵌入的学习机会（Canagarajah 2005）。目标语言用于在学术环境中反映、提出问题、产生文本和参与社会反思。研究结果表明，社区探索培养了学生研究社会问题的能动性，并促进了利用学生的现实和当地相关主题构建情境嵌入的学习机会（Canagarajah 2005）。目标语言用于在学术环境中反映、提出问题、产生文本和参与社会反思。