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=Welcome Live English radio programs in a school.=

This is a space for you to learn about another emerging tool that can promote the students' learning process in a foreign language (English in this case). As many of the invited members who will have the chance to take a look on this online application, need sources and resources to teach English in an ongoing way, here you will find a new orientation to be followed; this one has to do with the use of similar to live radio station programs in school.



Project to be carried out by some students at Universidad Surcolombiana
The English language has been spread to many places in the world due to a socio-economical phenomenon called globalization. It has brought great development in different countries of the globe, offering better quality of life in different communities. It is important to talk about this language as a socio-cultural communicative code that has gradually been taking over from different cultures, creating new traditions and new ways of thinking. That is why the Colombian Ministry of Education with a 1"national program of bilingualism" has been worrying about teaching English to compensate many fields of knowledge. The English language must then be a process that starts from school and go to college, trying to fulfill the great goal of a bilingual Colombia in 2019 by displacing the English language from a 2“foreign language” to a 3“second language”, seeking new paths that lead us to the country integral development. Going from general to more specific fields; it is good to know that the English teaching methodologies in Colombia have changed dramatically – in both, public and private institutions -. No denying that some methodologies are still traditionalists, but in most regions of the country have been abolished by the commitment of the bilingual national education community. It was a great advance how we have left behind traditional teaching methods such as "Grammar translation method" and "audio-lingual method", methods that had a strong impact but did not develop the necessary skills to prepare competent individuals in the domain of the English language for communicative purposes. Thus, the new communication approaches have emerged and these ones have been possible with the use of different tools that facilitate their English teaching-learning process. Furthermore, the appearances of information and communication technologies or "ICTs" have been essential when implementing these new ways of teaching, facilitating processes in educational institutions in Colombia. One of the most important technological tools in this project is "radio". **“RADIO AND ITS EVOLUTION”** Nowadays, there is a remarkable tool that has contributed in some aspects with the development of the country's culture: "Radio", as a mass medium of information that has enlightened the Colombian people since 1929. Needless to say, the radio has been developed over the years and has held various roles in humanity. Starting with a trial period, several experiments were used to discover sounds that could be transmitted wirelessly. It cannot only be attributed to one person due to the fact that many theoretical physicists such as: "James Clerk Maxwell, Henry Hertz, Alexander Popov and Guglielmo Marconi Stephanovic" shared their deep knowledge in experimental research to give birth to what we now know as "Short-wave receiver" or "radio". it was not logically a short process and it is stated that the first experiments related to this invention began in 1887 until 1904, but its implementation in society was possible in 1907 with the popularity of the 4"news agencies" taking at this time a purely informative approach, as it is today in national radio broadcasts as "Caracol and RCN radio". In this way, radio gave large way to what today is known as 5"radio station" opening the communication gap through new technological tools. The radio station could never have been possible without the existence of other technological inventions such as: "The first music reproductor and the phone" as they facilitated the ability to broadcast their messages and play music to an audience. It is then that what is now known as radio station is nothing more and less than the use of various technological tools that are used by an expert operator on radio and media transmissions who broadcasts taking into account aspects such as: entertainment, broadcast quality, audience interaction and proper maintenance of the radio station. The radio station is composed of different 6"radio programs" - that basically sums up what is intended to achieve in this project - which provide a typological diversity in its themes, approaches and objectives of broadcasting. A radio program is a broadcast space allowed by the radio station, and what makes a radio station striking is the fact that it presents different radio programs with different themes, speakers and ways of interacting with the public. The radio programs can be: propagandistic, information agencies, music, academics, humor, personal improvement and many others. The important thing is to have a striking theme that catches and captivates the listener.

It must be mentioned that radio stations were changing their goals and emission approaches due to the socio-economical and political models of the country. That means, at the beginning, programs only offered informative broadcasts to society, to keep the public aware of what was happening in a specific community. Today, radio broadcasts are not only state social projects, but most radio stations are private and they do so to generate its own incomes, still emitting different topics of general interest. The thing is that the focus of broadcasting has changed a lot since 1932 to nowadays. However the radio is seen as a means of communication of little or no cost to the listener; that makes it a very appealing tool to be used by Colombians. It is my responsibility as an English teacher to carry out something new to promote the learning of English (Foreign Language in Colombia) in order to facilitate it and get a Macro- objective already raised by the Ministry of National Education in its "national program of bilingualism" in which is stated that there must be a bilingual Colombian in the year: 2019. Everything goes in stages. I still cannot impulse a radio project in big dimensions that fits the whole nation needs – even if expecting this project be a source to take over- but I can start a radio program model that can be carried out in my practicum school which is a public Colombian school, primarily benefiting this school students and teachers and subsequently other schools in my city (Neiva), going from specific contexts to bigger and more complex ones. It is very important to take an excerpt of an article written by Cook Jr., Charles H. Cohen, Leon J. on the teaching of English through the radio: "it is not sought to teach foreign language classes through schematic classes via radio, but through very well designed non-pedagogical programs that cover any kind of audience to make sure everybody which is interested be benefited from the broadcast, then promoting the learning process of a foreign language in a very contextualized way. It is not aimed to teach the English language as it occurs in the majority of institutions; what I aim to do is to provide very contextualized information concerning the school issues, national news, popular music, sport news and extracurricular activities that are going to be addressed to students and teacher from my school through a different “channel of communication” (via school radio).  Article written by JUAN CAMILO TOVAR.
 * “A NEW WAY TO PROMOTE THE ENGLISH LEARNING PROCESS”**

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 * You teachers can make your own written reflection (journal) to show your understanding for the posted article above:
 * has anyone had experience broadcasting any kind of radio program?
 * if so, what are the advantages and disadvantages of it?