Reflective article · Vol. 33 No. 1 (2026) · Published 13 April 2026
Contra-hegemonic language teaching in Colombia: Embracing translanguaging and the ecology of languages reflections
Johanna Patricia Lopez Úrbina · Martha Isabel Bonilla Mora
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Abstract
This reflective article discusses the tensions between hegemonic models of English language teaching in Colombia and the linguistic realities of its classrooms. Drawing on the ecology of languages and on translanguaging as both a practice and a stance, the authors argue that monolingual approaches to ELT reproduce inequities that a plurilingual perspective can help to undo.
The discussion is grounded in documented classroom practice in public higher education and closes with implications for teacher education programmes, for curriculum design, and for language policy at the institutional level.
Keywords
About the authors
Who wrote this article
Johanna Patricia Lopez Úrbina
Universidad Nacional Abierta y a Distancia — UNAD, Colombia
Professor of foreign languages at UNAD, where she coordinates the research line on plurilingual education. Her work focuses on translanguaging pedagogies in public higher education and on the design of curricula that recognise students' full linguistic repertoires.
Martha Isabel Bonilla Mora
Universidad Santo Tomás, Colombia
Teacher educator and researcher in applied linguistics. She has worked for two decades on language policy in Colombian universities and on the professional development of in-service English teachers.
Contributor roles follow CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy). Institutions are identified with ROR, and every author with their ORCID iD, so the work can be attributed correctly wherever it is indexed. Authors who have not registered an ORCID iD simply do not show the chip.
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