This paper discusses a collaborative action research project integrating a focus on ideological awareness with genre-based pedagogy in the university literacy classroom. Through explicit instruction on the argumentative genre and reflection on the linguistic correlates of neoliberal ideology, we guided students in developing enhanced awareness of neoliberalism and its influence on environmental policy. In the independent writing stage, students’ argumentation revealed critical stances towards neoliberalism and adequate command of the target genre. The paper closes with general reflections and recommendations for the adoption of an explicitly critical approach in university literacy education.

The effects of the pandemic, natural disasters, wars, and economic distress at the turn of the second decade of the 20th century are a call to strengthen peace education around the world. In this chapter, the authors argue that intentional social practices of critical literacies offer opportunities for peacebuilding, understood as a dynamic process which includes the development of harmony in different life dimensions. After providing an overview of peace research and peace education in the Colombian context, the authors provide a conceptualization of critical literacy and its relation to peacebuilding. Finally, the chapter offers a set of practical strategies to promote peacebuilding through critical literacies based on research experiences across the Americas. The strategies include the use of children's literature to understand social reality and to develop empathy, critical literacies to develop critical intercultural awareness, and connecting with families and communities through literacy practices to make peace.

Desde la perspectiva metafuncional propuesta por la lingüística sistémico-funcional, este estudio caracteriza las necesidades de aprendizaje de estudiantes al inicio de la carrera universitaria en relación con la escritura de textos académicos argumentativos tipo justificación. Se analiza un archivo textual de 19 textos argumentativos producidos como respuesta a un estímulo común en un curso de alfabetización académica ofrecido por una universidad colombiana en los semestres iniciales de sus programas de pregrado. El análisis aplica una matriz integrada por indicadores asociados a las metafunciones ideacional, interpersonal y textual. El estudio categoriza dichas metafunciones, en las que se clasifican las necesidades que emergen en el proceso de revisión y retroalimentación docente. Los resultados detectan dificultades en la apropiación de recursos léxicogramaticales para nominalización (ideacional), limitaciones en la variedad y precisión del léxico evaluativo (interpersonal), y elecciones temáticas poco motivadas por el contexto discursivo (textual).

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This paper deals with the English impersonal appearance construction (it seems/appears) and its relationship with the propositions over which it scopes. Attention focuses on four aspects: the presence/absence of explicit personalization via circumstantial element to me; the use of conjunctive, comparative or elided binder; the modal/temporal deicticity of the framed proposition; and the instantiation of these features across written and spoken modes of communication. These features are considered on account of prior studies assigning semantic correlates to their occurrence on the basis of qualitative analysis. The study applies log-linear analysis, a statistical technique that allows exploration of associations between two or more categorical variables, to test the degree of association between the four aspects mentioned. Three significant effects are included in the final model: a three-way interaction between mode of communication, binder choice and personalization, and two two-way associations between personalization and framed clause deicticity, and between binder choice and framed clause deicticity. The identified associations are discussed in the light of relevant literature and qualitative findings. The paper ends with concluding remarks and critical reflections on the use of log-linear analysis for the study of linguistic variation.