Introduction

With the incorporation of educational policies such as Programa Nacional de Bilingüismo

and Colombia Very Well into Colombian education, some criticism has emerged with
regard to the implementation of a plan whose foundations are rooted in the
misconception that English is the only language that can open the door to economic
success and can give more job opportunities to the people, leaving behind indigenous
languages1 and other foreign languages2. As researchers and foreign language teachers,
we should ask ourselves how much this misconception has permeated in our profession
and in what we think of it: What is the origin of these notions around English as a foreign
language that are naturalized in the linguistic policies of our country?

In this article, I would like to discuss how and when Colombian educational institutions
started to think of a foreign language as a door to economic progress and which were the
historical circumstances that naturalized this notion in our society. In order to discover
how the discourse of progress was adopted regarding English as a foreign language I will
focus on the period from 1916 until 1920, since it was in these times that English, for the
first time, challenged French as the international language (at least in diplomatic affairs) 3.

It was also in this period of time that Cromos, a weekly illustrated magazine, started to
“register the literary, scientific, artistic, social and political movement of the Colombian
Nation and where the most notable and interesting news from around the world are also
recorded”4. The publishing of this magazine is also important since the notion of progress
that the bourgeois elite of Bogota advocated was expressed in countless articles and,
moreover, the connection between progress and English language learning was also
stated.

1
Bonilla, C. et al. “Unanswered Questions in Colombia’s Foreign Language Education Policy”, en PROFILE,
Vol.18, No. 1, January-June 2016 pp.189 y 190
2
González, L. “Hacia una revolución francesa en la investigación sobre la didáctica del francés en Colombia”,
en Signo y Pensamiento 57, Vol. XXIX, julio- diciembre 2010, p. 497 y 498
3
Wright, S. Language policy and language planning, Palgrave Macmillan, Nueva York, 2004, p.143
4
Cromos, enero 15 de 1916, Vol. 1, No. 1 [Translation by Juan Camilo Parrado]
This article is a summary of my undergraduate thesis “A language that moves forward: The
discourse of progress and foreighn languages in Cromos Magazine (1916-1920)” that I
presented in 2016.

Language and Progress

Alberto Coradine, who was a Colombian teacher, gives an interesting definition of

language: “Language is no more than the glass that contains a people’s psychology […] In
it, everything that sums up the life of a race -its industry, its commerce, its inventiveness,
its wealth, its power- is poured and merged.” This definition was included in an article
published in Cromos on April 17th of 1920. It was titled “A language that goes forward”,
and it explained the perks of English as an international language. He also defined
language as a “vehicle”, an accessory, by which ideas and traditions of a nation flow:
“language, which is an accessory of humans’ activity, follows essentially the economic
movement, and it penetrates the most remote places with industry and science” 5.

5
Coradine, Alberto, “Un idioma que avanza”, en Cromos, Vol.9 No 205, abril 17 de 1920