History of English Teaching in Colombia: Key Dates

In the year 1810, XIX century, the teaching of English dates back to Independence, when it was established as one of the languages to be taught along with French and Latin, although with less emphasis than the other two.

1826: Introduction of the French and English languages in the Colombian territory.

1872: the first law is passed: Law of December 1.

40's decade:

In the 1940s, both the British and American Embassies founded binational centers in Colombia.

-The British Council was established in Colombia in 1940.

1942: the binational centers founded in the middle of the 20th century were created, among which the following stand out: The Colombo Americano, which was established in Bogota.

1946: like the Colombian-American, the Fullbright Commission was created with the objective of strengthening relations between the United States and Colombia.

1950: French regained some of its relevance, with another modification of the curriculum that determined an education of 2 years in French and 3 in English.

1951: English in the Colombian education: “El ministerio de Educación Colombiana” makes changes in its decrees and establishes the teaching of French only for the last three years of high school; on the other hand, the study of English was extended to four years.

1955: Decree 925 of 1955 provided for a four-year elementary school, in which English was taught five hours a week for the first two years.

XX century

50’s decade

1964: the British Council, in its first year had a total of 400 students, and helped to create British-Colombian schools in the cities of Bogota, Medellin and Cali.

1979: thanks to the global era and the modernization of the new world, learning foreign languages, among them the main one: French, is implemented in some school grades in Colombia.

70's decade

90’s decade

1991: In 1991, the COFE (Colombian framework for English) project was created.

“Colombia pluricultural” Colombia was established as a pluricultural nation, as from of the 1991 constitution.

1994: Ley general de educación: “La ley general de educación” in articles 21, 22 and 23 emphasized the need to learn at least one foreign language starting in elementary school, and included foreign language teaching as another obligatory area in the curriculum.

1996 Plan decenal para la educación: The figure of the ten-year education plans was established by the General Education Law of February 8, 1994, in its Article 72.

1997 "EL MEN": In times of globalization, Colombia needs to develop the ability of its citizens to handle at least one foreign language.

XIX century

2002, CURRICULAR GUIDELINES: The Guidelines for curricular processes in foreign languages are pedagogical orientations for teachers of the area to appropriate the basic conceptual elements.

2004, national bilingualism program: this program was established to respond to national needs with respect to English, and has focused its efforts on training teachers and students in elementary, middle, and higher education.

2006, The Ministry of National Education adopted the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.

2007, Estándares básicos de competencias, This measure was adopted for primary and secondary schools which are based on the Common European Framework, which marked its beginnings at that time.

The 2000s

2010s

2015, The british council publishes the research titled english in colombia,Through surveys, statistical data, and interviews with different groups of Colombians.

2018, National bilingualism program: Between 2014 and 2018, The Ministry of Education created the National Bilingualism Program to optimize the quality and teaching of the English language in the country.

2019, "Colombia Bilingüe" program, Since 1994, the General Education Law has recognized the importance of learning a foreign language. Thus, they became compulsory subjects in elementary and middle school, which included: “Humanidades, lengua castellana e idiomas extranjeros”

HISTORY OF ENGLISH IN COLOMBIA

60’s decade

80’s decade

1982: the policy called The English Syllabus was created.

XXI century