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Heras Urgilés, Gerardo Esteban

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Birth Date

1976-04-09

ORCID

0000-0001-7330-3721

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58115933700

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Afiliación

Universidad de Cuenca, Cuenca, Ecuador
Universidad de Cuenca, Facultad de Filosofía, Letras y Ciencias de la Educación, Cuenca, Ecuador

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Ecuador

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Facultad de Filosofía, Letras y Ciencias de la Educación
Esta facultad nació con la Universidad de Cuenca, el 18 de octubre de 1867. En su primera etapa se mantuvo hasta 1897 cuando se dio una nueva estructura para la casa de estudios superiores. Así, reestructurada, pero manteniendo su orientación humanística, retomó actividades en 1952, durante el rectorado de Carlos Cueva Tamariz. Para ese entonces contempló los estudios de: filosofía, historia y literatura. En 1965, junto a su núcleo original se incluye la formación pedagógica para profesionales de Educación Media y pasa a denominarse Facultad de Filosofía, Letras y Ciencias de la Educación. La reforma de 1975, la establece con estructura de un año de materias comunes y cuatro de especialidad. Su aporte ha sido fundamental para el desarrollo cultural y educativo de la región y el país. Desde 1978 organiza encuentros periódicos sobre literatura ecuatoriana, concursos nacionales y universitarios de poesía. Ha llevado a cabo dos encuentros sobre Filosofía y ha abierto licenciaturas en Eduación General Básica, Educación Inicial, Lingüística Andina y Educación Bilingüe; así como una licenciatura en Cine.

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Heras Urgilés

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Gerardo Esteban

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2017 - 201932020 - 20232
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Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
  • Thumbnail Image
    Publication
    Interpretations of Task-Based Language Teaching following an Inset Course: A Case Study
    (I International Congress on the Didactics of the English Language, 2017) Heras Urgilés, Gerardo Esteban; Calle Calle, Ana María; León Vélez, María Verónica; Calle Calle, Ana María
    In 2010, a new curricular reform of English as a foreign language, based on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) and the Communicative Language Teaching Approach, was established in Ecuador. Task-based language teaching, which aligned with previous approaches, can be applied to reach the new curricular objectives. In this regard, between 2011 and 2012, a number of public high school English teachers in Cuenca attended a one-year in-service training program (INSET). This program was based on the use of communicative strategies and the task-based language teaching (TBLT) approach for teaching English as a foreign language. The main objective of this qualitative research study, conducted from 2014 to 2015, was to determine whether the participants applied communicative strategies within TBLT after the training program. Classroom observations and semi-structured interviews were administered to twelve out of the twenty-three participants. Although the results of the study showed an increase in the use of communicative strategies by the participants after the training program, only a small number of teachers used the TBLT approach appropriately. Others employed the presentation-practice-production (PPP) approach. Nevertheless, some teachers who used PPP perceived that they were, actually, using the TBLT approach.
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    Percepciones de los profesores de inglés sobre experiencias de capacitación: un estudio de caso
    (2019) Calle Calle, Ana María; León Vélez, María Verónica; Heras Urgilés, Gerardo Esteban; Calle Calle, María Daniela
    Recent studies on English teachers ́ perceptions regarding training and professional development have allowed researchers to find useful tools that lead to reflection, professional development and a better teaching practice. The main objective of the present case study was to investigate, using a semi-structured interview, the perceptions of 19 English teachers with respect to two types of training; one teacher-centered; and the other was based on the Ministry of Education view. The results show that edu-cators consider that training is significant when the context and reality of teachers are taken into account.
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    Social justice in English learning in Ecuador: beliefs of indigenous higher education teachers and indigenous and mestizo student teachers
    (2023) Calle Calle, Ana María; Pichasaca Guamán, Cristian Roman; León Vélez, María Verónica; Heras Urgilés, Gerardo Esteban
    The aim of this study was to explore indigenous teachers’ and indigenous and mestizo student teachers’ beliefs about social justice and English language learning in the Ecuadorian context. Based on data collected through interviews and one focus group session, it was found that many indigenous believe English might be a convenient tool for personal and professional development as well as intercultural communication. On the other hand, even though some laws have been passed and awareness has been raised in Ecuador regarding the need for social justice pertaining to indigenous people, the participants indicated that this community is still an underprivileged group.
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    Publication
    The facilitative role of the interaction hypothesis: using interactional modification techniques in the english communicative classroom
    (2019) Heras Urgilés, Gerardo Esteban; Ortega Auquilla, Diego Patricio; Hidalgo Camacho, Cynthia Soledad
    English language teachers are expected to implement lessons directed by the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) into today’s classrooms. In this regard, it is pivotal to know about the theoretical framework of this key language teaching approach. The framework is partly made up of one of the most crucial Second Language Acquisition (SLA) hypotheses called the Interaction Hypothesis (IH). The IH claims that second language development is better facilitated when learners participate in negotiated interaction. From a CLT perspective, a second language is acquired more effectively through interaction and communication. When language teachers attempt to design and deliver classroom instruction grounded in CLT, it is imperative to be familiar with the essential notions behind the IH and its facilitative role in SLA. Therefore, this paper provides key information on the hypothesis at hand by analyzing its early version and updated version. In addition, Krashen’s comprehensible input and Hatch’s role of interaction and conversation on L2 learning are highlighted, because the IH evolved from these two scholars’ seminal works. This paper also deals with three key interactional modification techniques - comprehension checks, confirmation checks, and clarification requests – promoted by the IH. With the intent of facilitating language learning, the design and deliver of communicative-oriented lessons should have a central role in the classroom. However, lessons are more likely to be effective when teachers take the theory of the IH into practice by allowing learners to engage in negotiation of meaning through the use of the aforementioned interactional modifications.
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    The influence of haiku composition tasks on the development of academic writing skills: a qualitative analysis
    (2023) Piedra Carrión, Verónica Rosalía; Santillán Iniguez, Juan José; Arévalo Chuquin, Miguel Ángel; Heras Urgilés, Gerardo Esteban; Hidalgo Camacho, Cynthia Soledad; Orellana Mora, Susana Ximena
    The inclusion of literary texts, particularly poetry, is not a common practice in the language classroom. However, the available empirical evidence, albeit relatively scarce, does suggest that poetry, when correctly employed, is likely to be beneficial for second and foreign language learners. This teaching material has been used to teach and develop areas such as vocabulary acquisition, grammar practice, and even motivation as well as the four macro-skills in language, namely listening, speaking, reading, and writing. The use of poetry in language instruction emphasizes the predominant role of learners in authentic literary production. As such, this research paper focuses on the qualitative aspect of a mixed-methods study about the effects of haiku composition tasks on the development of academic writing skills. The participants of the study were 30 English as a foreign language (EFL) pre-service teachers. As part of the data collection process, the participating students were asked to write short argumentative essays at the beginning and at the end of a six-week intervention that promoted the composition of haiku. After the intervention, an open-ended questionnaire was administered to identify and describe the participants’ perceptions regarding how haiku composition influenced their academic writing skills. The results of the study show that the great majority of the participants agreed that haiku composition furthered the development of their academic writing skills and vocabulary acquisition. The findings of the study corroborate the existing experimental findings as to the value of poetry-based tasks for second and foreign language learning. Thus, we conclude that the inclusion of poetry in the language classroom ought to be promoted through activities that, while being personal and meaningful to the students, allow for the development of language proficiency.