On December 5th and 6th, the first English Pre-service Teachers’ EFL Research Conference in Southern Chile took place. This inaugural conference was organized by the English Language Teaching Program at Universidad de Los Lagos, with the participation of Universidad San Sebastián of Puerto Montt and Universidad Austral of Valdivia.

The event began with a keynote address by Dr. Max Pacheco Leal from Universidad de Los Lagos, titled «Implicit knowledge of L2 grammar: influence of the type of instruction and the type of sentence structure.» This was followed by presentations from undergraduate students of all three universities.
The event also featured presentations by a panel of accomplished English teachers from diverse educational settings, including many alumni of Universidad de Los Lagos. These educators shared their insights on the challenges currently faced by English teachers in southern Chile.

The conference concluded today, Friday, after a demanding yet rewarding experience where we had the opportunity to explore nearly thirty research projects conducted by future teachers from Southern Chile. It is the hope of all attendees that this event will continue in the future, strengthening ties and creating networks among faculty and students from the three universities.