ABSTRACT
This chapter documents how one English teacher implements the national language education policy. It investigates how English teachers have interpreted and appropriated the National Bilingual Program (NBP) in two secondary public school classrooms in Cali. In Colombia, the NBP is the educational policy that favors the teaching of English in the official curricula across all levels of schooling, calling for developing students’ higher communicative competence levels that compare to the international standards. Similar to other countries where English language teacher (ELT) policies have been developed, it was evident that Colombia’s educational system was not ready to achieve the policy goals. The Colombian education system implements focalizacion, or targeting, to rationalize social spending. ELT in public schools in Colombia faces constant interruptions that reduce the already limited instructional time. School meetings, extra-curricular activities, teachers’ strikes, or simply disruptions by people coming in during classes, all affect teaching time considerably.
