Our history as a research lab has spanned over a decade, constantly seeking ways to innovate our research and expand our community. We will share our journey since the first iteration of our lab in 2012 until today.
Our Beginning: SRG-L2 (2012-2013)
We trace back the beginnings of LSLP to August, 2011. Raúl, at the time a recently-hired assistant professor at UPB, was in charge of developing a student research lab (or semillero de investigación in Spanish) to provide a space for students at the Faculty of Education to pursue their research interests in the field of second languages. At the planning stage, there were two proposed lines for this unit: One on literacy (based on Raúl's dissertation) and one on teacher education (led by another professor).
Once the proposal was presented in 2012, SRG-L2 was officially chartered and endorsed by the Research, Development, and Innovation Center at UPB [Now a unit ascribed to the Office of the Provost for Research Affairs]. SRG-L2 welcomed its first students between 2012 and 2013 and we drafted our first research study to start in 2013.
Once the proposal was presented in 2012, SRG-L2 was officially chartered and endorsed by the Research, Development, and Innovation Center at UPB [Now a unit ascribed to the Office of the Provost for Research Affairs]. SRG-L2 welcomed its first students between 2012 and 2013 and we drafted our first research study to start in 2013.
LSLP Emerges as the Core of SRG-L2 (2013-2014)
By the end of 2013, the literacies research line at SRG-L2 had gained a great deal traction. We had authored our first major international conference presentation (for our urban literacies study) at the International Association for World Englishes (IAWE). At that time, we were also drafting our first gaming literacies project.
In 2014, we officially named the literacy research line from SRG-L2 as Literacies in Second Languages Project (LSLP).
In 2014, our international presence continued to grow, as we presented papers at the International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry in the United States and at iSLE-3 in Switzerland. That year, we also launched our web-based publication, the LSLP Micro-Papers, we sent our first-ever proposal for the AERA Annual Meeting, and we introduced our very first motto, "How big do we want to dream today?" To cap our successes in 2014, we received two awards at the student research lab meeting: One for best paper in social sciences and one for the best stand.
In 2014, we officially named the literacy research line from SRG-L2 as Literacies in Second Languages Project (LSLP).
In 2014, our international presence continued to grow, as we presented papers at the International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry in the United States and at iSLE-3 in Switzerland. That year, we also launched our web-based publication, the LSLP Micro-Papers, we sent our first-ever proposal for the AERA Annual Meeting, and we introduced our very first motto, "How big do we want to dream today?" To cap our successes in 2014, we received two awards at the student research lab meeting: One for best paper in social sciences and one for the best stand.
LSLP at the 2014 student research lab meeting at UPB.
LSLP Becomes a Student Research Lab... and the #LSLPLegion is Born
By 2015, LSLP as the literacies line at SRG-L2 was already firing at all cylinders: Our paper for AERA was accepted and we were preparing our first major participation at a conference (the ASOCOPI Annual Conference in Medellín). At that moment, SRG-L2 was at a crossroads: There were supposed to be two research lines, but only the literacies research line was operational. As a consequence, we made a formal request to split SRG-L2 so that we could establish LSLP as a stand-alone research lab. We received institutional approval in July 2015 and we launched our first website, literaciesinl2project.org.
literaciesinl2project.org main page (screenshot from https://wayback-api.archive.org/)
We capped the year with our second AERA paper and our first major publication about LSLP in Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy.
The #LSLPLegion is Born
As we said before, LSLP was preparing for the ASOCOPI Annual Conference in Medellín. We knew this was the moment for us to state our arrival in the research scene in Colombia and our young researchers at the time rose to the occasion, as we submitted six presentations (in hindsight, we call this moment "The First Conference Invasion"), setting the tone for our conference participation moving forward. To celebrate this watershed moment, Raúl decided to create some commemorative buttons: A white one with our main logo and a black one with the phrase "we are legion." In all fairness, Raúl recalls making the black one, concerned the students might not like it... only to be proven wrong when all of them started asking for the black legion button. That button became the catalyst for our researchers to rally around a common identity. Since that day, we embraced calling ourselves "The Legion" and later that became our social media identity, as all our channels now use the handle @lslplegion!
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But... Where Does the Idea of Legion Come From?
This is a question that many, including our students, have asked over the years. Raúl once explained on an Instagram Q&A that he drew inspiration for the Legion from three distinct sources:
- Anonymous - The hacktivist movement has long used the phrase "We are legion" as part of their extended motto. Raúl thought it was worth drawing some of the inspiration here.
- Rome - Roman legions are historically famous for their sense of organization and unity in combat... organization and unity have later become part of our ethos and our values.
- The Bible - There is that reference to Mark 5:9,: "Then Jesus asked him, 'What is your name?' “My name is Legion,” he replied, “for we are many.”
LSLP Today
Since its inception, LSLP has been actively involved in research. We have already developed four research projects, with three under development (all of them endorsed and funded by the Research, Development, and Innovation Center at UPB [CIDI]; see our research lines for details). We are at present participating in research projects with colleagues in the United States and Canada and the United Kingdom, and we look forward to more extended collaborations in the near future via our #lslpworlwide expansion.
LSLP's work has also received institutional recognition, which positions LSLP as one of the most active student research groups at our home university, as evidenced by our robust academic production, spanning journal articles, working documents, and national and international conference presentations. At present, almost all Novice and Advanced Researchers feature at least one national and one international conference presentation in their CVs, All of our Novice Researchers and almost all of our Advanced Researchers have at least one presentation at ICQI. 12 researchers (2 no longer active) have co-authored papers for AERA, 12 more have coauthored papers for LRA. Out of this group, 7 have actually presented both at AERA and LRA and two of them actually attended AERA and LRA in 2016. Since 2015, we have begun to make an impact in the Colombian ELT community. In 2020, we reached a milestone by sending 13 papers (18 presenters) to the 3rd International Symposium on Research in Foreign Language Teaching (virtual conference). And of course, we must highlight our ongoing presence in the Annual ASOCOPI Congress, the oldest ELT conference in Colombia, featuring as of 2021 a total of 35 presentations, including our staggering participation in 2021 with 17 papers and one of the plenary addresses.
LSLP's work has also received institutional recognition, which positions LSLP as one of the most active student research groups at our home university, as evidenced by our robust academic production, spanning journal articles, working documents, and national and international conference presentations. At present, almost all Novice and Advanced Researchers feature at least one national and one international conference presentation in their CVs, All of our Novice Researchers and almost all of our Advanced Researchers have at least one presentation at ICQI. 12 researchers (2 no longer active) have co-authored papers for AERA, 12 more have coauthored papers for LRA. Out of this group, 7 have actually presented both at AERA and LRA and two of them actually attended AERA and LRA in 2016. Since 2015, we have begun to make an impact in the Colombian ELT community. In 2020, we reached a milestone by sending 13 papers (18 presenters) to the 3rd International Symposium on Research in Foreign Language Teaching (virtual conference). And of course, we must highlight our ongoing presence in the Annual ASOCOPI Congress, the oldest ELT conference in Colombia, featuring as of 2021 a total of 35 presentations, including our staggering participation in 2021 with 17 papers and one of the plenary addresses.
LSLP and our Relationship with UPB
At present, LSLP is associated with the Pedagogies and Didactics of Knowledge (PDS, in Spanish) Research Group at the School of Education and Pedagogy. LSLP helps anchor the research line "Second Language Studies" (one of five declared by the group) through our ongoing research projects. Specifically, our teacher-researchers (recent graduates from the BA in English-Spanish Education and the MA in Learning and Teaching Processes in Second Languages), have become more active in strengthening the school literacies research line with more classroom-based research. In addition, LSLP has connections with two more research groups in Colombia: Teacher Education Research Group at the Institutional Doctorate in Education at Universidad Distrital and Urban Communication Research Group at the School of Social Sciences at UPB. We have also managed to create a solid network of international research partners.
LSLP as a research unit has also begun to influence the curriculum at the BA in English-Spanish Education: In 2015, LSLP helped redesign the course Communicative Competence V, where students are once again developing research on WebQuests. Since 2016, LSLP has helped redesign the course Methods and Approaches in the Teaching of English (#MATEUPB). The current version of this course features an entire unit devoted to literacies in the language classroom and meaningful participation of several Advanced Researchers supporting one of the core assignments for this course.
LSLP as a research unit has also begun to influence the curriculum at the BA in English-Spanish Education: In 2015, LSLP helped redesign the course Communicative Competence V, where students are once again developing research on WebQuests. Since 2016, LSLP has helped redesign the course Methods and Approaches in the Teaching of English (#MATEUPB). The current version of this course features an entire unit devoted to literacies in the language classroom and meaningful participation of several Advanced Researchers supporting one of the core assignments for this course.
MA in Learning and Teaching Processes in Second Languages (ML2) and its Relationship with LSLP
The MA in Learning and Teaching Processes in Second Languages became the third master's program at the School of Education and Pedagogy in 2013. This program was the result of a joint effort among researchers at the Faculty of Education and the Language Center. ML2 welcomed its first cohort in July, 2013. Since 2019, the master's program offers on-campus and virtual programs, featuring a robust presence by LSLP researchers through graduate teaching and supervision.
LSLP and Teaching
Since the beginning of ML2, LSLP has been actively involved in the program. We proposed the "Literacies in Second Languages" seminar as a way to articulate the research we are doing with the curricular efforts in our graduate programs. The course itself and the research stemming from it has turned literacy into one of the key themes of the master's program.
In addition to the literacies seminar, LSLP has also supported instruction in the research seminars at ML2. LSLP was actively involved in the redesign of the course, both for the on-campus and virtual programs and we expect to continue contributing to these two courses in the near future.
At present, we have four LSLP researchers involved with teaching duties at ML2: Claudia Cañas, Mónica López-Ladino, Gloria Gutiérrez-Arismendy, and Raúl Alberto Mora.
LSLP and Supervision
Our involvement with teaching has also brought a great deal of success in supervision and mentoring. Since the first cohort, LSLP has benefited from a regular stream of graduate students contributing ideas, research, and academic production to our project. It is thanks to our graduate students that we were able to establish our school literacies research line. In recent years, as some of our researchers who finished their master's degrees have started mentoring their own graduate students, they are also now inviting their mentees to our research lab.
LSLP and Teaching
Since the beginning of ML2, LSLP has been actively involved in the program. We proposed the "Literacies in Second Languages" seminar as a way to articulate the research we are doing with the curricular efforts in our graduate programs. The course itself and the research stemming from it has turned literacy into one of the key themes of the master's program.
In addition to the literacies seminar, LSLP has also supported instruction in the research seminars at ML2. LSLP was actively involved in the redesign of the course, both for the on-campus and virtual programs and we expect to continue contributing to these two courses in the near future.
At present, we have four LSLP researchers involved with teaching duties at ML2: Claudia Cañas, Mónica López-Ladino, Gloria Gutiérrez-Arismendy, and Raúl Alberto Mora.
LSLP and Supervision
Our involvement with teaching has also brought a great deal of success in supervision and mentoring. Since the first cohort, LSLP has benefited from a regular stream of graduate students contributing ideas, research, and academic production to our project. It is thanks to our graduate students that we were able to establish our school literacies research line. In recent years, as some of our researchers who finished their master's degrees have started mentoring their own graduate students, they are also now inviting their mentees to our research lab.