Abstract

This study aims to explore the social representations held by the learners and teachers of the undergraduate English language teaching programme at the Universidad de Santiago de Chile, specifically the grammar structures taught during the first semester of the first year. For this research, a survey to collect the data from students and teachers was carried out. It is thought that complexity is associated to the verb phrase. Later, it was confirmed that these structures do have an innate charge of complexity for learners. This study concludes with some guidelines for the design of materials and future possible research.