1
Íkala, Revista de Lenguaje y Cultura
Medellín, C oloMbia, V ol. 29 issue 1 (January-april, 2024), pp. 1-3, issn 0123-3432
www.udea.edu.co/ikala
Luanda Sito
Director-Editor, Íkala, Revista de
Lenguaje y Cultura
luanda.soares@udea.edu.co
https://orcid.
org/0000-0001-7579-4229
Editor: Luanda Sito, Universidad de Antioquia, Medellín, Colombia.
Copyright, Universidad de Antioquia, 2024. This is an open access article, distributed in compliance with the terms of the
Creative Commons license by-nc-sa 4.0 International.
Presentation
Era nossa avó, mas também mãe de pegação. Esse era o título que dizia
qual era o seu lugar em nossas vidas: avó e mãe. Quando deixamos o ventre
de Salustiana Nicolau – os vivos, os que morreram tempos depois e os
natimortos – encontramos primeiro as mãos pequenas de Donana. Foi o
primeiro espaço no mundo fora do corpo de Salu que ocupamos.
Torto arado, by Itamar Vieira Júnior, 2019
It is an honor for me to become the director of Íkala, Journal of
Language and Culture after becoming an assistant professor at the
School of Languages of Universidad de Antioquia. Taking on the
direction of a journal that has reached quartile 1 in sjr and has
consolidated its excellence is a great challenge: keeping up to the
task and broadening the networks of dialog for the construction of
knowledge in our field.
I would also like to congratulate and thank Professor Doris Correa
for her leadership during her impressive four years in charge of Íkala,
throughout which she was "a witness and a leader" (in her own
words) of the journal’s current position, as it was thanks to her that
Íkala became one of the most important journals of our region in
the field, which is a great achievement in the Latin American edito-
rial context.
I know I can rely on a great team and on the institutional backing
of our Universtiy to keep moving forward. This is my motivation to
take on the privileged work of supporting those who wish to deliv-
ering their academic production to us. I truly find it to be similar to
the work of midwives like Donana, as they aid the process of being
born and are the first place in the word to open room for new voices.
The current Director’s office of the School of Languages emphasizes
the value of cultural and linguistic diversity and is highly commit-
ted to the dialogues between different regions of the Global South.
These topics are already part of our journal’s reflections, and I
expect to keep strengthening them through my interaction with our
authors, reviewers, and readers.
This issue contains twelve articles. This regular issue, the first
of 2024, maintains the diversity of our production, as it includes
the work of authors from Africa — Ghana (1) and Nigeria (1) —,
Íkala, Revista de Lenguaje y Cultura
Medellín, C oloMbia, V ol. 29 issue 1 (January-april, 2024), pp. 1-3, issn 0123-3432
www.udea.edu.co/ikala
Luanda Sito
Director-Editor, Íkala, Revista de
Lenguaje y Cultura
luanda.soares@udea.edu.co
https://orcid.
org/0000-0001-7579-4229
Editor: Luanda Sito, Universidad de Antioquia, Medellín, Colombia.
Copyright, Universidad de Antioquia, 2024. This is an open access article, distributed in compliance with the terms of the
Creative Commons license by-nc-sa 4.0 International.
Presentation
Era nossa avó, mas também mãe de pegação. Esse era o título que dizia
qual era o seu lugar em nossas vidas: avó e mãe. Quando deixamos o ventre
de Salustiana Nicolau – os vivos, os que morreram tempos depois e os
natimortos – encontramos primeiro as mãos pequenas de Donana. Foi o
primeiro espaço no mundo fora do corpo de Salu que ocupamos.
Torto arado, by Itamar Vieira Júnior, 2019
It is an honor for me to become the director of Íkala, Journal of
Language and Culture after becoming an assistant professor at the
School of Languages of Universidad de Antioquia. Taking on the
direction of a journal that has reached quartile 1 in sjr and has
consolidated its excellence is a great challenge: keeping up to the
task and broadening the networks of dialog for the construction of
knowledge in our field.
I would also like to congratulate and thank Professor Doris Correa
for her leadership during her impressive four years in charge of Íkala,
throughout which she was "a witness and a leader" (in her own
words) of the journal’s current position, as it was thanks to her that
Íkala became one of the most important journals of our region in
the field, which is a great achievement in the Latin American edito-
rial context.
I know I can rely on a great team and on the institutional backing
of our Universtiy to keep moving forward. This is my motivation to
take on the privileged work of supporting those who wish to deliv-
ering their academic production to us. I truly find it to be similar to
the work of midwives like Donana, as they aid the process of being
born and are the first place in the word to open room for new voices.
The current Director’s office of the School of Languages emphasizes
the value of cultural and linguistic diversity and is highly commit-
ted to the dialogues between different regions of the Global South.
These topics are already part of our journal’s reflections, and I
expect to keep strengthening them through my interaction with our
authors, reviewers, and readers.
This issue contains twelve articles. This regular issue, the first
of 2024, maintains the diversity of our production, as it includes
the work of authors from Africa — Ghana (1) and Nigeria (1) —,
2Íkala Luanda Sito
Medellín, C oloMbia, V ol. 29 issue 1 (January-april, 2024), pp. 1-3, issn 0123-3432
www.udea.edu.co/ikala
America —Argentina (1), Colombia (1), and Chile (1) —, and Europe
—Spain (7) —. Six of these articles were written in Spanish, and six in
English. Overall, this issue contains three sections grouping two empiri-
cal studies, eight case studies, and two book reviews.
The empirical studies section brings two articles. It starts with the work
of Guadalupe Alvarez, Ayelén Cavallini, and Hilda Difabio, focused on
the writing of academic texts. In this article, the authors delve into the dis-
cussion of dialogic feedback in the context of graduate thesis writing. By
using qualitative methods, they present results that show the relevance of
two categories for online dialogic feedback: the analysis and editing of
one’s own writing, and the emotional aspects that favor textual produc-
tion. These results can be used to substantiate decision-making regarding
teaching proposals for graduate thesis writing. The second article, by
Wilson Salas, Francy Galván, Julio Moreno, and Libardo Corzo, presents
a study of 138 Colombian sign language interpreters, with the objective
of identifying the characteristic of their work environment. By identify-
ing risk factors threatening the access and permanence of this population,
these results could contribute to the improvement of interpreters’ work-
ing conditions and quality of life.
The second section, case studies, includes eight topics dealing with uni-
versity education, language teaching, and discourse analysis in different
fields (literature, audiovisual series, anime, and politics). Emmanuel
Bonsu and Samuel Nkansah’s article allows us to go deep into African
literature through Ayi Kwei Armah’s work. By using a discourse analysis
approach, this corpus study allows for a better understanding of the novel
Fragments, thus showing its pertinence for discourse analysis. This work
shows the viability of computer tools like Wmatrix to sift through literary
texts, contributing to future studies.
We have three articles related to university education in this issue. The
first one, written by Benjamin Carcamo and Carmen Carmona, presents
a groundbreaking study, based on mixed methods, about a semester-long
intervention on the motivation, intended effort, and willingness to com-
municate of students enrolled in a translation and interpretation program.
According to their results, the analysis of the semi-structured interview
data showed that the intervention was important for the students and
that it helped them to establish a future L2 professional vision and to
determine the steps needed to reach this vision. Based on this data, the
authors suggest including visionary teaching in translation and interpre-
tation programs to improve students' motivation and commitment. The
second text, by Zuriñe Sanz-Villar, analyzes data from translations from
German into Basque, identifying strengths and weaknesses that appear on
the products of the translating process. After identifying these variables,
the possibility of them having a direct impact on translation courses, by
Medellín, C oloMbia, V ol. 29 issue 1 (January-april, 2024), pp. 1-3, issn 0123-3432
www.udea.edu.co/ikala
America —Argentina (1), Colombia (1), and Chile (1) —, and Europe
—Spain (7) —. Six of these articles were written in Spanish, and six in
English. Overall, this issue contains three sections grouping two empiri-
cal studies, eight case studies, and two book reviews.
The empirical studies section brings two articles. It starts with the work
of Guadalupe Alvarez, Ayelén Cavallini, and Hilda Difabio, focused on
the writing of academic texts. In this article, the authors delve into the dis-
cussion of dialogic feedback in the context of graduate thesis writing. By
using qualitative methods, they present results that show the relevance of
two categories for online dialogic feedback: the analysis and editing of
one’s own writing, and the emotional aspects that favor textual produc-
tion. These results can be used to substantiate decision-making regarding
teaching proposals for graduate thesis writing. The second article, by
Wilson Salas, Francy Galván, Julio Moreno, and Libardo Corzo, presents
a study of 138 Colombian sign language interpreters, with the objective
of identifying the characteristic of their work environment. By identify-
ing risk factors threatening the access and permanence of this population,
these results could contribute to the improvement of interpreters’ work-
ing conditions and quality of life.
The second section, case studies, includes eight topics dealing with uni-
versity education, language teaching, and discourse analysis in different
fields (literature, audiovisual series, anime, and politics). Emmanuel
Bonsu and Samuel Nkansah’s article allows us to go deep into African
literature through Ayi Kwei Armah’s work. By using a discourse analysis
approach, this corpus study allows for a better understanding of the novel
Fragments, thus showing its pertinence for discourse analysis. This work
shows the viability of computer tools like Wmatrix to sift through literary
texts, contributing to future studies.
We have three articles related to university education in this issue. The
first one, written by Benjamin Carcamo and Carmen Carmona, presents
a groundbreaking study, based on mixed methods, about a semester-long
intervention on the motivation, intended effort, and willingness to com-
municate of students enrolled in a translation and interpretation program.
According to their results, the analysis of the semi-structured interview
data showed that the intervention was important for the students and
that it helped them to establish a future L2 professional vision and to
determine the steps needed to reach this vision. Based on this data, the
authors suggest including visionary teaching in translation and interpre-
tation programs to improve students' motivation and commitment. The
second text, by Zuriñe Sanz-Villar, analyzes data from translations from
German into Basque, identifying strengths and weaknesses that appear on
the products of the translating process. After identifying these variables,
the possibility of them having a direct impact on translation courses, by
3Íkala P resentation
Medellín, ColoMbia, Vol. 29 issue 1 (January -april, 2024), pp. 1-3, issn 0123-3432
www.udea.edu.co/ikala
contributing to activity design, stands out. Finally, the third article, writ-
ten by Carmen Pérez-Sabater, Enrique Cerezo, and Inmaculada Barbasán,
analyzes the role of technological resources in language teaching at the
university level. By observing the role of TikTok and Flipgrid in English
and Italian courses, the researchers show how using short videos for
speaking practice can motivate and enrich language learning, including
feedback for each program.
Three other articles in this section focus on the field of cultural production.
Alba Quintairos-Soliño and Francisco Ojeda-García present a qualitative
and quantitative study of the Japanese anime Detective Conan following the
ecology of knowledges approach. Mariona Visa, Lorenzo Torres, and María
Isabel Menéndez focus on the study of the representation of motherhood
in Spanish narratives of the early 21st century, analyzing six Spanish dram-
edies distributed through video-on-demand platforms. Finally, the article
by Francisco Martínez and Cristina Cañamares identifies, quantifies, and
interprets, through a semiotic-multimodal analysis, the resources and inter-
active relationships referred to focalization, social distance, and attitude that
the use of certain semiotic resources provokes in the illustrations of Mercer
Mayer’s traditional series of album books Frog Stories.
This section ends with Mathias Chukwu and David Olorunsogo’s study
on the dynamics of inaugural speeches and ideologies in the political field.
By going back to Van Dijk’s approach, the authors analyze first-term inau-
gural speeches given in Nigeria between 2014 and 2017, and identify four
recurring rhetorical strategies.
Finally, in the book review section, we have the presentation of two
books from the field of translation studies. In Traducción literaria y
género: estrategias y prácticas de visibilización, by Patricia Álvarez Sánchez
(Comares, 2022). The reviewer underlines the diversity of approaches and
methodologies used in the book, as well as the linguistic diversity studied
in the chapters. He also highlights the ability of the author to maintain
her political commitment and academic rigor on the same level. In the
second review, Olaya Martínez presents the book Traducción y paratra-
ducción del odio: historia, historiografía y representación de los fascismos y
del Holocausto, by Karl Schurster and Óscar Ferreiro Vázquez (Comares,
2023). As the author highlights in her review, reading this book takes us
on a critical journey that allows us to reflect on the repercussions of the
decisions made by the people who narrate historic events on the way in
which the events are presented.
We invite you, then, to read and enjoy the richness of this issue, and we
look forward, joyfully, to our next conversation in May’s issue.
I look forward to our next exchange!
Medellín, ColoMbia, Vol. 29 issue 1 (January -april, 2024), pp. 1-3, issn 0123-3432
www.udea.edu.co/ikala
contributing to activity design, stands out. Finally, the third article, writ-
ten by Carmen Pérez-Sabater, Enrique Cerezo, and Inmaculada Barbasán,
analyzes the role of technological resources in language teaching at the
university level. By observing the role of TikTok and Flipgrid in English
and Italian courses, the researchers show how using short videos for
speaking practice can motivate and enrich language learning, including
feedback for each program.
Three other articles in this section focus on the field of cultural production.
Alba Quintairos-Soliño and Francisco Ojeda-García present a qualitative
and quantitative study of the Japanese anime Detective Conan following the
ecology of knowledges approach. Mariona Visa, Lorenzo Torres, and María
Isabel Menéndez focus on the study of the representation of motherhood
in Spanish narratives of the early 21st century, analyzing six Spanish dram-
edies distributed through video-on-demand platforms. Finally, the article
by Francisco Martínez and Cristina Cañamares identifies, quantifies, and
interprets, through a semiotic-multimodal analysis, the resources and inter-
active relationships referred to focalization, social distance, and attitude that
the use of certain semiotic resources provokes in the illustrations of Mercer
Mayer’s traditional series of album books Frog Stories.
This section ends with Mathias Chukwu and David Olorunsogo’s study
on the dynamics of inaugural speeches and ideologies in the political field.
By going back to Van Dijk’s approach, the authors analyze first-term inau-
gural speeches given in Nigeria between 2014 and 2017, and identify four
recurring rhetorical strategies.
Finally, in the book review section, we have the presentation of two
books from the field of translation studies. In Traducción literaria y
género: estrategias y prácticas de visibilización, by Patricia Álvarez Sánchez
(Comares, 2022). The reviewer underlines the diversity of approaches and
methodologies used in the book, as well as the linguistic diversity studied
in the chapters. He also highlights the ability of the author to maintain
her political commitment and academic rigor on the same level. In the
second review, Olaya Martínez presents the book Traducción y paratra-
ducción del odio: historia, historiografía y representación de los fascismos y
del Holocausto, by Karl Schurster and Óscar Ferreiro Vázquez (Comares,
2023). As the author highlights in her review, reading this book takes us
on a critical journey that allows us to reflect on the repercussions of the
decisions made by the people who narrate historic events on the way in
which the events are presented.
We invite you, then, to read and enjoy the richness of this issue, and we
look forward, joyfully, to our next conversation in May’s issue.
I look forward to our next exchange!