In the beginning, it was the verb to be… an ethnographic approach to the beginning of English learning

Abstract

This paper is part of a research on social representations and beliefs about English learning and its use. It focuses on educational ethnography and discourse analysis involving three groups of students of the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana of Mexico City. Descriptions by the young students are used to emulate some relevant moments, situations, conflicts, and encounters with other people that have influenced their way of perceiving, feeling and learning English. At the end, there is a discussion about the major issues and positive aspects that students have experienced throughout their English learning route, all of which help us to understand them.