Second Language Literacies in the City: New Practices in Urban Spaces of Medellín, Colombia

This paper shows the results of a study that described how people in Medellín, Colombia are using English as a communicative resource. Relying on an ethnographic approach, the research team discovered that English appears as an element that helps enrich the complexity of the messages that one finds in urban spaces in the city. These findings expand previous research regarding this new complexity of meanings and defy conventional wisdom that portrays the city as "monolingual". Instead, the data showed more creative uses of English in advertisements, malls, and restaurants, as well as a growing interest in English literature in bookshops and libraries. Implications for research on second language education in Latin America bookend the discussion.