Abstract

This work is part of a series of investigations that have been conducted in Programa de Investigación en Fundamentos de la Educación a Distancia de la Universidad Estatal a Distancia de Costa Rica (Research Program in Foundations of Distance Education at UNED) on the subject of language and literacy. Specifically, this study aimed to learn about the concepts of language that some first and second cycle teachers of basic general education have, who work in some schools in Costa Rica for public education. Knowing what teachers think about language is critical because these assumptions give the research an idea on what premises, theories and fundamentals education has as a base in their daily practice, and also an idea on how this affects literacy teaching and learning processes themselves, so that the analysis of their practice can be done as well as an improvement of the educational process. This was an exploratory study; so a mixed method was used. Among the results, it finds intuitive practice of teachers to address the issue of language and the need of a stronger language proposal that allows teachers enhance language skills beyond communication.

Keywords language; language functions; teaching of literacy; education; teaching