Competence in English is regarded as a key skill for academic and professional development. Students enter university with a very low competence level in English (lower than A-1 level). Universities want to have more competent professionals, internationalize their academic programs, promote students’ mobility and work with standards for credit transfer. The government plans to increase in 50% the number of Faculty with PHDs by 2015(Only 150 doctorate faculty per year), favouring equal opportunity applications to English speaking countries. ESP courses commonly taught at Chilean Universities have proved to be insufficient to meet current needs. Universities have recently started to offer communicative English courses to their undergraduate students.

3 To communicate in English efficiently

5

Learners practice their speaking skills and pronunciation Interacting with video characters through home-created recorders.

11

Opportunities for beneficial interactional activity

Learners submit their recordings, writing tasks, collaborative and webquest products to their online portfolio to get feedback from their EFL teacher-tutors.

Skype, SharedTalk, MSN, Online Videoconferencing …

Communicative, problem-solving, collaborative tasks; public speaking and debating.

Students learn about customs and traditions trough diverse activities: talks, celebrations, simulations; watch movies related to unit contents and participate in post-movie discussions.

EFL teachers and Native Speakers work collaboratively In Materials Design and Development

CFRD cfrd.cl and EDUC teams developed the materials and implemented them in the online platform.

They have contributed with a variety of English accents for linguistic input.

Fullbright Scholars and experts have contributed advising, developing, and or teaching in the program.

¡Gracias por su atención! Emerita Bañados