ABSTRACT The issue of motivation continues to play a major role in the area of EFL/ESL learning d... more ABSTRACT The issue of motivation continues to play a major role in the area of EFL/ESL learning due to the fact that a student´s motivation and attitudes towards learning a foreign language often result to be the predictors of further success or failure. The current investigation aims at exploring the motivation patterns of EFL engineering students at the Technical University in Madrid towards learning the English language. The topic seems to be especially relevant due to the fact that English course at this university (English for Professional and Academic Purposes) has recently become a compulsory subject for every engineering specialty. The study investigated students’ motivation in terms of three motivational constructs: instrumental motivation, integrative motivation and personal motivation based on Gardner’s (1985) and Cooper and Fishman’s (1977) works. On the other hand, learners´ attitudes towards the use of English in the social and educational contexts, the English language and the culture of the English speaking countries have been identified. The researchers have utilized a motivational questionnaire based on a Likert scale that was administered to 72 university students from second to fifth year, belonging to two different Engineering Schools: the Higher Technical School of Industrial Engineering (ETSII) and the University School of Technical Industrial Engineering (EUIT). The findings show that the motivation patterns dominant among Spanish engineering students are extrinsic in their nature. Instrumental reasons for learning English language, including utilitarian and academic ones, are the most frequently mentioned. Most of the students have indicated the necessity of learning a foreign language to become a well prepared professional, as well as to have more possibilities to get a better job in the future. Personal reasons, such as travelling or communication, are also regarded as important motives by the respondents. Meanwhile, the integrative reasons are considered to be the least important ones. The results provide the evidence that learning English as a part of culture has actually had the slightest impact in the students’ motivation. On the other hand, data for the students’ attitudes reveal the fact that most of students have positive attitudes towards the social value and educational status of English. Besides, the findings show the students’ positive orientation toward the English language. At last, the results indicate that a high number of the students show their interest in a number of aspects of the English speaking culture, such as music, movies and science issues. Finally, some pedagogical implications, based on these findings, are discussed in the paper. Key words: Motivation, engineering, learning English, professional careers.
Libro de Actas del X Congreso Universitario Internacional sobre Contenidos, Investigación, Innovación y Docencia: (CUICIID 2020), 2020, ISBN 978-84-09-22948-2, 2020
Though a relatively new phenomenon in Spain, online university education has already managed to g... more Though a relatively new phenomenon in Spain, online university education has already managed to gain public acknowledgment. The International University of La Rioja (UNIR) is one of the few high educational institutions in this country to provide the opportunity of high quality distance learning. Having a chance to work with students who are doing a Preschool Education Bachelor's Degree at UNIR, we have become particularly interested in those opportunities that online education gives us to examine students' written production skills. In spite of the fact that most of our students have been studying English for a number of years, their level of written production is still low. What's more, they tend to make rather repetitive kind of mistakes, most of them related to the transfer phenomenon in L2 acquisition. The present study is aimed at identifying and analyzing one of type of error made by Spanish-speaking students: the use of adverbs of frequency and their position in the sentence. To do this, we have analyzed the language corpus compiled out of 399 contributions written by 92 students to the virtual forum designed as part of the subject ICT tools applied to the learning of English language
Advances in linguistics and communication studies, 2019
Hollywood film has a mass-market and global appeal. As such it is already well received and known... more Hollywood film has a mass-market and global appeal. As such it is already well received and known by many learners and offers a method to build from this into more sophisticated theoretical concepts. The chapter makes the case for film as a viable and valuable teaching strategy. In an environment where many are visual learners, film offers a multisensory pedagogic tool which can draw students away from the handheld mobile devices which often compete for attention with the lecturer. It also notes the risks in film and answers potential objections. Then it applies these broader pedagogic concerns to the specific case of superhero films, and how it can illuminate complex terminology in social sciences, such as polysemy, inter-textuality, sociopolitics, psychopolitics, cultural and visual criminology. Other concepts discussed include notions of the denotative and the connotative, and the metonym. Questions of identity, gender, nation, and liminality are included.
This paper reports on a corpus-based study that investigated the use of frequency adverbs in stud... more This paper reports on a corpus-based study that investigated the use of frequency adverbs in students' posts in a goal-oriented virtual forum. The participants in the study were undergraduate students enrolled in two distance learning undergraduate degrees at the International University of la Rioja (Spain), and whose English language level was BI. The forum was part of one of the modules taught within a BEd program with a major in English Language Teaching. The study used a mixed-method approach and the results showed that the erroneous usage of the selected set of adverbs represents 7.47 % of the total number of errors. For the classification of the errors, an error taxonomy was designed, including 9 error types. Findings revealed that the most common error types were those related to the position of frequency adverbs in the clause. The paper argues for the unique value of data gathered from virtual forums for the design of prevention-oriented teaching material, based on predi...
El Curso 0 de la Facultad de Filologia lleva ya mas de diez anos proporcionando a los estudiantes... more El Curso 0 de la Facultad de Filologia lleva ya mas de diez anos proporcionando a los estudiantes de manera presencial, y especialmente para primer curso, las claves para aprender a dominar las destrezas de escritura, de informatica y de manejo de la informacion asociadas con los estudios de las filologias. Se trata de un curso breve, introductorio y orientativo que busca, fundamentalmente, acompanar al alumno en el primer paso, siempre dificil, del aprendizaje de estas destrezas que necesitan una buena cantidad de tiempo, entrenamiento y paciencia hasta poder utilizarlas sin esfuerzo y de forma rutinaria. Gracias al Proyecto INNOVA Gestion-Calidad no 98 durante el curso 2018-2019 hemos transformado materiales y metodologias para construir un Curso 0 totalmente en linea, lo cual nos ha permitido paliar los problemas de: a) restricciones de calendario; b) limites de capacidad de las aulas, de cara al curso proximo. Efectivamente, no es ya necesario ajustarse a marcos temporales en lo...
This study explores the perceptions of English language teachers of the use of literature in the ... more This study explores the perceptions of English language teachers of the use of literature in the context of bilingual secondary education in the region of Madrid (Spain). An approach was adopted under which eighty-one English teacher participants completed a questionnaire so that a quantitative methodological approach of a descriptive – correlational nature could be adopted for this study. Results unveiled teacher perceptions of the benefits and drawbacks of using literary texts as a teaching and learning tool, their selection of literary texts and their actual implementation of these texts in their English classes, as well as the training needs for the effective use of literary texts as a language teaching and learning tool in the bilingual EFL secondary classroom. The pedagogical implications of the study emphasize the need to redesign and consolidate teacher training programmes containing literature and innovative teaching aspects both in initial teacher training programmes and f...
ABSTRACT The issue of motivation continues to play a major role in the area of EFL/ESL learning d... more ABSTRACT The issue of motivation continues to play a major role in the area of EFL/ESL learning due to the fact that a student´s motivation and attitudes towards learning a foreign language often result to be the predictors of further success or failure. The current investigation aims at exploring the motivation patterns of EFL engineering students at the Technical University in Madrid towards learning the English language. The topic seems to be especially relevant due to the fact that English course at this university (English for Professional and Academic Purposes) has recently become a compulsory subject for every engineering specialty. The study investigated students’ motivation in terms of three motivational constructs: instrumental motivation, integrative motivation and personal motivation based on Gardner’s (1985) and Cooper and Fishman’s (1977) works. On the other hand, learners´ attitudes towards the use of English in the social and educational contexts, the English language and the culture of the English speaking countries have been identified. The researchers have utilized a motivational questionnaire based on a Likert scale that was administered to 72 university students from second to fifth year, belonging to two different Engineering Schools: the Higher Technical School of Industrial Engineering (ETSII) and the University School of Technical Industrial Engineering (EUIT). The findings show that the motivation patterns dominant among Spanish engineering students are extrinsic in their nature. Instrumental reasons for learning English language, including utilitarian and academic ones, are the most frequently mentioned. Most of the students have indicated the necessity of learning a foreign language to become a well prepared professional, as well as to have more possibilities to get a better job in the future. Personal reasons, such as travelling or communication, are also regarded as important motives by the respondents. Meanwhile, the integrative reasons are considered to be the least important ones. The results provide the evidence that learning English as a part of culture has actually had the slightest impact in the students’ motivation. On the other hand, data for the students’ attitudes reveal the fact that most of students have positive attitudes towards the social value and educational status of English. Besides, the findings show the students’ positive orientation toward the English language. At last, the results indicate that a high number of the students show their interest in a number of aspects of the English speaking culture, such as music, movies and science issues. Finally, some pedagogical implications, based on these findings, are discussed in the paper. Key words: Motivation, engineering, learning English, professional careers.
Libro de Actas del X Congreso Universitario Internacional sobre Contenidos, Investigación, Innovación y Docencia: (CUICIID 2020), 2020, ISBN 978-84-09-22948-2, 2020
Though a relatively new phenomenon in Spain, online university education has already managed to g... more Though a relatively new phenomenon in Spain, online university education has already managed to gain public acknowledgment. The International University of La Rioja (UNIR) is one of the few high educational institutions in this country to provide the opportunity of high quality distance learning. Having a chance to work with students who are doing a Preschool Education Bachelor's Degree at UNIR, we have become particularly interested in those opportunities that online education gives us to examine students' written production skills. In spite of the fact that most of our students have been studying English for a number of years, their level of written production is still low. What's more, they tend to make rather repetitive kind of mistakes, most of them related to the transfer phenomenon in L2 acquisition. The present study is aimed at identifying and analyzing one of type of error made by Spanish-speaking students: the use of adverbs of frequency and their position in the sentence. To do this, we have analyzed the language corpus compiled out of 399 contributions written by 92 students to the virtual forum designed as part of the subject ICT tools applied to the learning of English language
Advances in linguistics and communication studies, 2019
Hollywood film has a mass-market and global appeal. As such it is already well received and known... more Hollywood film has a mass-market and global appeal. As such it is already well received and known by many learners and offers a method to build from this into more sophisticated theoretical concepts. The chapter makes the case for film as a viable and valuable teaching strategy. In an environment where many are visual learners, film offers a multisensory pedagogic tool which can draw students away from the handheld mobile devices which often compete for attention with the lecturer. It also notes the risks in film and answers potential objections. Then it applies these broader pedagogic concerns to the specific case of superhero films, and how it can illuminate complex terminology in social sciences, such as polysemy, inter-textuality, sociopolitics, psychopolitics, cultural and visual criminology. Other concepts discussed include notions of the denotative and the connotative, and the metonym. Questions of identity, gender, nation, and liminality are included.
This paper reports on a corpus-based study that investigated the use of frequency adverbs in stud... more This paper reports on a corpus-based study that investigated the use of frequency adverbs in students' posts in a goal-oriented virtual forum. The participants in the study were undergraduate students enrolled in two distance learning undergraduate degrees at the International University of la Rioja (Spain), and whose English language level was BI. The forum was part of one of the modules taught within a BEd program with a major in English Language Teaching. The study used a mixed-method approach and the results showed that the erroneous usage of the selected set of adverbs represents 7.47 % of the total number of errors. For the classification of the errors, an error taxonomy was designed, including 9 error types. Findings revealed that the most common error types were those related to the position of frequency adverbs in the clause. The paper argues for the unique value of data gathered from virtual forums for the design of prevention-oriented teaching material, based on predi...
El Curso 0 de la Facultad de Filologia lleva ya mas de diez anos proporcionando a los estudiantes... more El Curso 0 de la Facultad de Filologia lleva ya mas de diez anos proporcionando a los estudiantes de manera presencial, y especialmente para primer curso, las claves para aprender a dominar las destrezas de escritura, de informatica y de manejo de la informacion asociadas con los estudios de las filologias. Se trata de un curso breve, introductorio y orientativo que busca, fundamentalmente, acompanar al alumno en el primer paso, siempre dificil, del aprendizaje de estas destrezas que necesitan una buena cantidad de tiempo, entrenamiento y paciencia hasta poder utilizarlas sin esfuerzo y de forma rutinaria. Gracias al Proyecto INNOVA Gestion-Calidad no 98 durante el curso 2018-2019 hemos transformado materiales y metodologias para construir un Curso 0 totalmente en linea, lo cual nos ha permitido paliar los problemas de: a) restricciones de calendario; b) limites de capacidad de las aulas, de cara al curso proximo. Efectivamente, no es ya necesario ajustarse a marcos temporales en lo...
This study explores the perceptions of English language teachers of the use of literature in the ... more This study explores the perceptions of English language teachers of the use of literature in the context of bilingual secondary education in the region of Madrid (Spain). An approach was adopted under which eighty-one English teacher participants completed a questionnaire so that a quantitative methodological approach of a descriptive – correlational nature could be adopted for this study. Results unveiled teacher perceptions of the benefits and drawbacks of using literary texts as a teaching and learning tool, their selection of literary texts and their actual implementation of these texts in their English classes, as well as the training needs for the effective use of literary texts as a language teaching and learning tool in the bilingual EFL secondary classroom. The pedagogical implications of the study emphasize the need to redesign and consolidate teacher training programmes containing literature and innovative teaching aspects both in initial teacher training programmes and f...
The aim of this work is to offer an electronic European Language Portfolio (eELP), a project prom... more The aim of this work is to offer an electronic European Language Portfolio (eELP), a project promoted by the Council of Europe and supported by the Ministry of the Education and Science of Spain, which would function as a digital support for teaching and learning languages in the Primary school. It would also help to develop constructive learning where the students work under their own control, supervised by teachers and parents.We need to invent Digital Native methodologies for all subjects, at all levels, using our students to guide us". Mark Prensky
One way to understand the culture and ideology of the nation is trough its language. The linguist... more One way to understand the culture and ideology of the nation is trough its language. The linguistic studies, in particular historical lexicology, could help us to provide some valuable data for this uneasy task. The analysis of the vocabulary of drinks, based on the lexical corpus of the novels of Melnikov-Pechersky "In the Forests" and "In the Highlands", gives us a unique chance to get closer to the origins of some modern traditions, as well as to understand better the dynamics of the language development and the influence of other languages and cultures on it.
La mejora de la expresión oral en el proceso de aprendizaje del inglés como lengua extranjera est... more La mejora de la expresión oral en el proceso de aprendizaje del inglés como lengua extranjera está siendo en los últimos años un tema de especial atención en el ámbito de las carreras de ingeniería industrial A pesar del gran interés por parte de los alumnos, muchos de ellos se encuentran limitados a practicar el idioma únicamente en las aulas y, además, con un material carente de contacto con la realidad. Por tanto, nuestro interés se centra en la búsqueda de programas de enseñanza lingüística que permiten un acercamiento a la realidad. Una forma de realizarlo sería a través de un enfoque basado en material auténtico, desarrollado en los años 90 por educadores y teóricos australianos. Al trabajar con estudiantes de ingeniería a través de textos hemos descubierto que este modelo nos ha brindado una gran variedad de diferentes actividades para el aprendizaje del inglés. Hemos conseguido dar una perspectiva orientada hacia el lenguaje auténtico, ofreciendo a los estudiantes la posibilidad de construir sus propias herramientas comunicativas del lenguaje, inspiradas en ejemplos de textos genuinos. Palabras clave: expresión oral, material auténtico, ingeniería industrial
Few English teachers nowadays would reject the necessity of teaching vocabulary, wherever it pos... more Few English teachers nowadays would reject the necessity of teaching vocabulary, wherever it possible, in context. By context we understand not only the immediate semantic environment of any given lexical item, but the whole text surrounding (co-text) as well as the situation in which the discourse is produced (context). By bringing a discourse dimension into vocabulary teaching, we do not pretend to substitute neither traditional nor more recent, communicative approaches. On the contrary, our challenge is to combine already existing approaches in teaching lexis with a discourse-oriented one. Our research is based mainly on the latest developments of Text Linguistics and Discourse Analysis in the field of lexical cohesion: studying vocabulary above sentence level. We propose that lexical cohesion as a significant feature of textuality could be successfully exploited by language teachers. By introducing vocabulary work on a discourse level, we pretend to provide the language students with meaningful, controlled practice of vocabulary, as well as to give them a chance to improve their text-creating and decoding abilities in a wide variety of contexts. A variety of original materials designed on a base of a discourse-oriented teaching are included.
Literature has been an essential part of the language curriculum for a long time, but until recen... more Literature has been an essential part of the language curriculum for a long time, but until recently it has not been given much emphasis in the EFL/ESL classroom. Even though, many teachers nowadays still feel reluctant to include literary blocks into the language curriculum. This assumption could be partially based on the reductive interpretation of the language process learning. The fact, however, is that literature elements could be highly beneficial for the foreign language development. Literature is an authentic material; hence, most of its works are not created for the specific purpose of teaching a foreign language. Therefore, learners are exposed to genuine and undistorted language. When working with literary texts, students have also to cope with language intended for native speakers, gaining additional familiarity with many different linguistic uses, forms and conventions. In addition, literature provides exposure to the culture of its speakers by examining universal human experience within the context of a particular setting and the consciousness of a particular society. Linguistically, literature has the potential of serving as the central focus of the unit of study in the classroom. A number of different activities, based on the main language skills, may be developed around the reading of a literary work. While reading a text, students get involved into the story, eager to find out what happens next. They feel close to certain characters and share their emotional responses. The approach suggested in this research looks for engaging language students in genre studies around reading and writing workshops. Our proposal is focused on Lewis Carol’s Alice in Wonderland as one of the best examples of the literary nonsense genre. The proposal includes different exercises designed both to help students to develop linguistic skills and different language areas, and also to offer them a direct contact with the target language culture. All these things promote better understanding of students´ own identity and the complexity of the world around them.
One way to understand the culture and ideology of a nation is through its language. The linguisti... more One way to understand the culture and ideology of a nation is through its language. The linguistic studies, in particular historical lexicology and paremiology, could help us to provide some valuable data for this uneasy task. The elements of language that probably best encapsulate the society´s values and beliefs are its sayings and proverbs. The analysis of clothing proverbs and sayings, based on the lexical corpus from the novels by Melnikov-Pechersky “In the Highlands” and “In the Forests”, gives us a unique chance to get closer to the origins of some modern traditions, as well as to better understand the historic and cultural reality we have inherited. The proverbial corpus of the work is taken out of the study realized upon the daily lexis of the Old Russian Believers, a religious community which has managed to conserve its isolated and solitary way of life in the region of Zavolzhie in Russia, one of the cradles of the Old Believers. On this occasion, we will analyze some proverbs and sayings related to different items of typical Russian footwear and clothing.
The use of computers and Internet in the foreign language classroom is no longer a choice nowaday... more The use of computers and Internet in the foreign language classroom is no longer a choice nowadays, but rather a compulsory element for every language instructor who is willing to accept the changes the education system has been suffering in the last years. Teaching English for Specific Purposes requires new and more effective mechanisms focused on the needs of the students involved in engineering studies. Thus, the aim of our research is to analyze the results of the implementation of Webquests under the constructivist theory of learning and their integration in the university language classroom. This inquiry-oriented work consists of making learners search and interact within the topic they should be familiar with. Keywords: Webquest; internet-based activity; digital classroom; constructivism
En el presente trabajo se investigan y analizan el alcance y la importancia del
discurso literari... more En el presente trabajo se investigan y analizan el alcance y la importancia del discurso literario en la adquisición de una lengua extranjera. El enfoque planteado en esta investigación combina cinco perspectivas esenciales en la enseñanza de la literatura a los estudiantes de inglés como segunda lengua: la herencia cultural, las habilidades del lenguaje, las funcionales, las de crítica literaria y las del crecimiento personal. Integradas en único modelo, no sólo ayudan a los estudiantes a desarrollar las habilidades lingüísticas y las diferentes áreas de una lengua, sino que también les ofrecen un contacto directo con la cultura de esta segunda lengua. Todo esto favorece entre los estudiantes una mejor comprensión de su propia identidad y de la complejidad del mundo que les rodea. Palabras clave: enfoque de género, literatura, cultura, currículo de la lengua.
International Journal of Applied Linguistics and English Literature, 2017
The present study investigates the effectiveness of teaching critical thinking skills through lit... more The present study investigates the effectiveness of teaching critical thinking skills through literary texts in the EFL classroom, based on the combination of reader-centered critical reading and critical literacy pedagogy. Our proposal seeks to address both language teaching and literacy education from a transnational perspective by dealing with critical thinking skills as a set of processes whose main aspects include the interpretation of the world, self-reflection, intercultural awareness, critical awareness, problem-solving, and language use. For the purpose of this study, a series of activities based on Caryl Phillips's novel The Lost Child (2015) have been designed, following the four curricular components of Multiliteracies pedagogy (Kalantzis & Cope, 2000). Conducted in an EFL classroom in Spain, the study aims to validate the model of teaching critical skills built on working with current social issues, such as immigration, discrimination, and bullying. To evaluate the effectiveness of the model, teacher assessment and self-assessment questionnaires have been completed by the teacher and the students, respectively. A close analysis of the results reveals that both students and their teacher perceive the model as highly effective, in particular, in terms of self-reflection. Additionally, intrinsically motivating activities and frequent opportunities to discuss literary texts and relate them to current issues have proved to be highly beneficial for the students, providing them with a broader perspective that helps them interpret real-world problems properly. The assessment grid has proved effective, although for a wider application of the grid, the descriptors might have to be adapted to the students' age.
Drawing on the numerous benefits of integrating literature in the EFL classroom , the present pap... more Drawing on the numerous benefits of integrating literature in the EFL classroom , the present paper argues that the analysis of a fictional work in the process of foreign language acquisition offers a unique opportunity for students to explore, interpret, and understand the world around them. The paper presents strong evidence in favour of reader-centered critical reading as a means of encouraging observation and active evaluation not only of linguistic items, but also of a variety of meanings and viewpoints. The authors propose a model of teaching critical thinking skills focused on the reader's response to a literary work. The practical application of the method, which adopts the critical literacy approach as a tool, is illustrated through a series of activities based on the poem " If " by Rudyard Kipling.
The present paper aims at examining students´, teachers´ and parents´ attitudes toward bilinguali... more The present paper aims at examining students´, teachers´ and parents´ attitudes toward bilingualism and foreign language learning in the region of Castilla-La-Mancha, Spain. To do so, three types of questionnaires were designed for students, teachers and parents involved in a specific linguistic programme in two secondary education schools located in the south of Castilla-La-Mancha. In particular, the study seeks to determine the relationship between bilingual education and students´ self-concept as well as their motivation towards language learning. Besides, teachers´ and parents´ attitudes towards linguistic programmes and their effect on students´ motivation are analyzed.
The Degree in Modern Languages recently implemented by the Complutense University of Madrid has b... more The Degree in Modern Languages recently implemented by the Complutense University of Madrid has been designed in the light of the European Higher Education criteria. In the case of English, the curriculum includes a B2 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) course of general English, with the consequent lack of motivation of many of the students in the classroom, who already got that level at high school. In this sense, it is our intention to carry about a pilot study intended to design, implement and test the use of literary texts and articles in the ESL classroom.
Motivation continues to play a major role in the area of EFL/ESL learning due to the fact that st... more Motivation continues to play a major role in the area of EFL/ESL learning due to the fact that students’ attitudes towards learning a foreign language often result to be the predictors of further success or failure. The present research paper aims at comparing the motivation patterns towards learning the English language shown by EFL Engineering students from the Technical University of Madrid, on the one hand, and Modern Languages Humanities students of the Complutense University of Madrid, on the other. Strong interest towards learning foreign languages has always been a characteristic feature of the Humanities students. But over the last years, also, facts reveal that there has been a considerable increase of interest towards foreign languages among the students of technical careers. Not in vain, the English language course (English for Professional and Academic Purposes) has recently become a core subject for every Engineering specialty areas at the Technical University, with students Humanities students’ degree of motivation in terms of the three motivational constructs established in the works by Gardner (1985) and Cooper and Fishman (1977): (i) instrumental motivation, (ii) integrative motivation and (iii) personal motivation. Aspects other like learners’ attitudes towards the use of English in the social and educational contexts or the culture of the English speaking countries have been also considered. In the light of the findings and conclusions to be reached in this work, some pedagogical implications will be also discussed in a final section of the paper. Palabras clave: Motivation, Engineering, Humanities, English Language Learning/Teaching Process.
The new Master program in Secondary School Teacher Training was launched in
the Spanish Universit... more The new Master program in Secondary School Teacher Training was launched in the Spanish University during the academic year 2009/10, thus responding to the new demands of the Organic Education Law 2/2006 (Organic Law 2/2006, of 3 May) requiring prospective teachers to take a course on pedagogical skills. Being criticized since the beginning of its implementation due to lack of precision in planning and teaching organization as much as coordination and information, this Master can be said to have had turbulent beginnings. This year marks the fourth anniversary of its implementation in the Complutense University of Madrid. In this paper, we aim to analyze its trajectory throughout the opinions of the students majoring in Foreign Languages: English. Keywords Teacher Training, Secondary Education, Organic Education Law, CAP
Resumen: la implementación de una webquest en un curso de Inglés para Fines Académicos y Profesio... more Resumen: la implementación de una webquest en un curso de Inglés para Fines Académicos y Profesionales, impartido en la Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) en 2011, demostró ser una actividad altamente motivadora en el ámbito de la ingeniería. Los alumnos valoraron positivamente el planteamiento claro y estructurado de los problemas a resolver, los recursos disponibles online, así como los criterios de evaluación considerados por el profesor a la hora de la corrección. Palabras clave: Webquest. Enseñanza híbrida. Evaluación. Ingeniería.
This article provides a review of ideas and research regarding the role of literature in the EFL ... more This article provides a review of ideas and research regarding the role of literature in the EFL university classroom. After a brief historical overview of the question of using literature in the language classroom, the article discusses the reasons for the demise and resurrection of literature as an input for language classes. Right after that, the article deals with advantages and drawbacks of using literary texts as language tools by means of drawing on recent ideas on language teaching practice and theories. Finally, in a practical move, this paper depicts the past and current approaches to teaching literature in language teaching classes. Keywords: Literature; Curriculum; EFL; Higher Education
Con los guías didácticas que se ofrecen a continuación pretendemos ilustrar la experiencia que se... more Con los guías didácticas que se ofrecen a continuación pretendemos ilustrar la experiencia que se ha vivido a la hora de poner en práctica en la Escuela Primaria el nuevo modelo de enseñanza bilingüe basado en el método de Proyectos y el modelo pedagógico CAIT.
El propósito de este experimento es ofrecer un Portfolio Europeo de las lenguas en su formato ele... more El propósito de este experimento es ofrecer un Portfolio Europeo de las lenguas en su formato electrónico (eELP), un proyecto promovido por el Consejo de Europa y apoyado por el Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia de España, que funcione como un soporte digital para la enseñanza y aprendizaje de las lenguas en el ámbito de la enseñanza primaria, y que facilite el desarrollo del aprendizaje constructivo donde el alumno trabaja bajo su propio control, pero ayudado por los profesores y los padres.
The paradigm shift that occurred in the digital era (Bearne, 2003) towards the predominance of mu... more The paradigm shift that occurred in the digital era (Bearne, 2003) towards the predominance of multimodal texts (Cope & Kalantzis, 2000; Kress, 2003; Kress & van Leeuwen, 1996) has affected the role of the reader (Kress, 2010; Serafini, 2012), who is currently expected to approach texts from a multimodal/tripartite framework (Serafini, 2014). With a focus on the teaching of visual literacy through memes in the language classroom, this paper seeks to share the workshop pedagogical proposal that we launched in one of our Master’s courses for EFL/ESL secondary school teachers at the Complutense University of Madrid (Spain) during the first term of the academic year 2016-2017. Our aim was twofold: (i) share our meme-based visual proposal; and (ii) give value to the teaching plans developed by our Master’s students while assessing the implementation results of both the workshop and the lesson plans at secondary and tertiary education levels.
Case on Audio-Visual Media in Language Education. , 2017
This paper reports on work resulting from a UCM (Complutense University of Madrid, Spain) Researc... more This paper reports on work resulting from a UCM (Complutense University of Madrid, Spain) Research Project on Innovative Teaching in Higher Education carried out during the academic year 2015-2016. The aim of the project was twofold: (1) to develop a multimodal framework for the development of multimodal listening activities with a focus on movie trailers and (2) to assess the resulting multimodal listening activities designed within this framework by means of a quality assessment tool, the COdA rubric. The results obtained from the evaluation process reveal the qualities and limitations of the multimodal listening material evaluated as much as the qualities and limitations of the multimodal framework that we designed prior to the development of this material. This evaluation process is aimed at as a first step in the development of other multimodal listening materials—within our multimodal framework—that may fill some existing gaps.
El proyecto pedagógico diseñado para la etapa de Primaria (PEP), dentro de los programas de la Or... more El proyecto pedagógico diseñado para la etapa de Primaria (PEP), dentro de los programas de la Organización Baccalaureate Internacional (OBI), es una de las apuestas más innovadoras y determinantes en la enseñanza del inglés en los últimos años. Esta propuesta pretende alcanzar una mejora en la educación a través del trabajo en colaboración, haciendo participar activamente tanto a alumnos como docentes, en un enfoque donde el aprendizaje supone un proceso continuado y constante de construir, probar, revisar y confirmar una hipótesis o su planteamiento. Destacamos, con dos casos prácticos de unidades de indagación, un método de investigación desde la perspectiva bilingüe en un contexto educativo, donde el lenguaje no es una disciplina separada sino parte integrada en un desarrollo cognitivo y social. La adquisición se observa como un proceso de construcción del significado basado en la relación entre lenguaje y aprendizaje en tres puntos: aprendizaje del, a través y sobre el lenguaje. Esto supone un equilibrio en el uso de las herramientas comunicativas y metalingüísticas y la construcción de una base para el posterior crecimiento cognitivo. PALABRAS CLAVE: Educación, Primaria, investigación, enfoque interdisciplinar
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Papers by Jelena Bobkina
A pesar del gran interés por parte de los alumnos, muchos de ellos se encuentran limitados a practicar el idioma únicamente en las aulas y, además, con un material carente de contacto con la realidad. Por tanto, nuestro interés se centra en la búsqueda de programas de enseñanza lingüística que permiten un acercamiento a la realidad.
Una forma de realizarlo sería a través de un enfoque basado en material auténtico, desarrollado en los años 90 por educadores y teóricos australianos.
Al trabajar con estudiantes de ingeniería a través de textos hemos descubierto que este modelo nos ha brindado una gran variedad de diferentes actividades para el aprendizaje del inglés. Hemos conseguido dar una perspectiva orientada hacia el lenguaje auténtico, ofreciendo a los estudiantes la posibilidad de construir sus propias herramientas comunicativas del lenguaje, inspiradas en ejemplos de textos genuinos.
Palabras clave: expresión oral, material auténtico, ingeniería industrial
particular historical lexicology and paremiology, could help us to provide some valuable data for this uneasy
task. The elements of language that probably best encapsulate the society´s values and beliefs are its sayings and
proverbs. The analysis of clothing proverbs and sayings, based on the lexical corpus from the novels by
Melnikov-Pechersky “In the Highlands” and “In the Forests”, gives us a unique chance to get closer to the
origins of some modern traditions, as well as to better understand the historic and cultural reality we have
inherited. The proverbial corpus of the work is taken out of the study realized upon the daily lexis of the Old
Russian Believers, a religious community which has managed to conserve its isolated and solitary way of life in
the region of Zavolzhie in Russia, one of the cradles of the Old Believers. On this occasion, we will analyze
some proverbs and sayings related to different items of typical Russian footwear and clothing.
Keywords: Webquest; internet-based activity; digital classroom; constructivism
discurso literario en la adquisición de una lengua extranjera. El enfoque planteado
en esta investigación combina cinco perspectivas esenciales en la enseñanza
de la literatura a los estudiantes de inglés como segunda lengua: la herencia
cultural, las habilidades del lenguaje, las funcionales, las de crítica literaria y las
del crecimiento personal. Integradas en único modelo, no sólo ayudan a los
estudiantes a desarrollar las habilidades lingüísticas y las diferentes áreas de
una lengua, sino que también les ofrecen un contacto directo con la cultura de
esta segunda lengua. Todo esto favorece entre los estudiantes una mejor comprensión
de su propia identidad y de la complejidad del mundo que les rodea.
Palabras clave: enfoque de género, literatura, cultura, currículo de la lengua.
Strong interest towards learning foreign languages has always been a characteristic feature of the Humanities students. But over the last years, also, facts reveal that there has been a considerable increase of interest towards foreign languages among the students of technical careers. Not in vain, the English language course (English for Professional and Academic Purposes) has recently become a core subject for every Engineering specialty areas at the Technical University, with students Humanities students’ degree of motivation in terms of the three motivational constructs established in the works by Gardner (1985) and Cooper and Fishman (1977): (i) instrumental motivation, (ii) integrative motivation and (iii) personal motivation. Aspects other like learners’ attitudes towards the use of English in the social and educational contexts or the culture of the English speaking countries have been also considered.
In the light of the findings and conclusions to be reached in this work, some pedagogical implications will be also discussed in a final section of the paper.
Palabras clave: Motivation, Engineering, Humanities, English Language Learning/Teaching Process.
the Spanish University during the academic year 2009/10, thus responding to the
new demands of the Organic Education Law 2/2006 (Organic Law 2/2006, of 3
May) requiring prospective teachers to take a course on pedagogical skills. Being
criticized since the beginning of its implementation due to lack of precision in
planning and teaching organization as much as coordination and information, this
Master can be said to have had turbulent beginnings. This year marks the fourth
anniversary of its implementation in the Complutense University of Madrid. In this
paper, we aim to analyze its trajectory throughout the opinions of the students
majoring in Foreign Languages: English.
Keywords
Teacher Training, Secondary Education, Organic Education Law, CAP
Palabras clave: Webquest. Enseñanza híbrida. Evaluación. Ingeniería.
Keywords: Literature; Curriculum; EFL; Higher Education
Destacamos, con dos casos prácticos de unidades de indagación, un método de investigación desde la perspectiva bilingüe en un contexto educativo, donde el lenguaje no es una disciplina separada sino parte integrada en un desarrollo cognitivo y social. La adquisición se observa como un proceso de construcción del significado basado en la relación entre lenguaje y aprendizaje en tres puntos: aprendizaje del, a través y sobre el lenguaje. Esto supone un equilibrio en el uso de las herramientas comunicativas y metalingüísticas y la construcción de una base para el posterior crecimiento cognitivo.
PALABRAS CLAVE: Educación, Primaria, investigación, enfoque interdisciplinar