A great deal has changed in four decades in terms of English language
teaching (ELT) in Colombia, which puts this book, in many ways, at the
interface of where ELT in Colombia was, where it is now, and where it
could be headed in the immediate future. One of the current educational
challenges facing Colombia is the fact that the 2013 report of the
Program for International Student Assessment, known as PISA, showed that
Colombia placed number 62 out of the 65 countries in which students took
the PISA tests. Another challenge, as the authors explain that the
university within which their language teaching organization operates
is: "a private, non-profit institution that receives no governmental
funding. Its resources derive from student tuition, research, and
consulting projects, and all of its profits are reinvested into the
infrastructure of the university and scholarships for students." This is
an important point, as one of the goals of this English In Context
series is to showcase some language teaching organizations that are
nonprofit and that do not have the geographic, economic, and political
advantages of being in the capital of the country.