Transition in EFL from secondary to preparatory in Mexican state schools: participant perspectives

The teaching and learning of English as a foreign language has a long tradition within the Mexican Education System. However, it has been widely recognised that this endeavour has been unsuccessful for the most part. This inquiry looks at three interrelated fields in education and in TESOL — academic transfers, language-in-education policy and planning, and students’ and teachers’ perceptions — in order to answer the following question: How can transfer between secondary and preparatory school be made more effective? A qualitative instrumental ethnographic case study, descriptive in nature, was undertaken with a focus on developing a detailed picture of how the main stakeholders in EFL teaching and learning in Mexican state schools perceive the transfer process of students moving from secondary to preparatory education. Two phases of fieldwork were carried out in secondary and preparatory schools in Xalapa, Veracruz. Semi-structured interviews, official documents, transcripts, and field notes were the main sources of data. 7 EFL teachers, a secondary school co-ordinator, a head of a secondary school, and 14 core students making the transfer from secondary to preparatory education participated in this investigation. The findings of this study suggest that a first important step forward to improve the EFL transfer experience within the state school sector is to move away from the top down approach to language-in-education policy making that has prevailed for such a long time. This investigation has also identified that there is a disjunction between policy-makers’ rhetoric and what in actuality is feasible to implement in real classrooms given the contextual constraints that teachers and students have to face. It has also illustrated some of the most salient issues hindering the EFL teaching and learning in state schools. The outcomes of this study suggest some obstacles that could be addressed by people who are most directly concerned with EFL policy and its implementation in the public sector. It also provides a greater understanding of the issues to be addressed in further research