How students acquire their proficiency level in the international relations programme.

Tesis (Magíster en Educación con Énfasis en la Enseñanza del Inglés) -- Universidad del Norte. Programa de Maestría en Educación, 2008.International Relations students need to deal with different languages to have the opportunity to face the new political-economical phenomena imposed by globalization. That is why they need to master a variety of genres and registers, formal and informal, spontaneous and prepared. They will face diverse contexts such as politics, economics, environment, technology, culture and so forth and language has to be learned effectively for meaningful communication. Thus it is important to understand the process through which students acquire a higher proficiency level in second language (L2). It will be explored how the content-based instruction curriculum used in IRP and factors such as attitudes and motivation influence the success of the second language acquisition. It will be also explored the way teachers are not teaching grammar per ce rather than using the language as a real means of communication. On the other hand, students in fifth semester are accountable for both language and content learning. Students are able to accomplish some skills. They will be able to be more knowledgeable citizens of the world, to be able to talk about rainforests and not talk about simple relative clauses any day of the week! And besides that they will be able to enhance language abilities, critical thinking skills, and collaboration skills, they will have the ability to apply knowledge to real world problems and when they might finish their education enhancing self-confidence and motivation. Putting all these pieces together, the IRP is essentially preparing students to be life-long learners.