Abstract

In Latin America, Western educational models have generated cultural homogeneity, making Indigenous ethnic groups invisible. Ethno-education faces a challenge because Spanish is the language that allows Indigenous students to remain in the educational system and achieve a better quality of life. Having little contact with urban centers, Indigenous students have communication deficiencies. Therefore, a learning environment was designed to improve oral expression in basic education at an ethno-educational institution in La Guajira, Colombia. Through the Learning Experience Design, a route was implemented that used the performing arts and Wayúu cultural knowledge for mediation, for the learning of a second language adapted to interculturality, to the needs of the students, and framed in positive relationships with the teachers. A descriptive, quasi-experimental, pretest–posttest design and comparisons with a control group showed a positive and uniform evolution in the performance levels of each of the micro-skills associated with oral expression of the study participants, because of the learning environment.