AELFE2017: Papers with Abstracts

Abstract. Since the 1999-2000 academic year, the teaching network known as the Trans-Atlantic & Pacific Project (TAPP) has internationally connected teachers and students in writing classes with students in translation studies and/or usability classes at nearly 30 universities in 15 countries on 4 continents. The network began forming as globalization knit nations closer together and as communication technologies, beginning with e-mail, began to become commonly available (Maylath, Vandepitte, & Mousten, 2008). Now, however, the world seems to be entering an era that runs counter to globalization, as nationalists in many countries attempt to retract from international collaborations and connections. Despite that, students in language professions must learn how to collaborate internationally and across languages, cultures, and international borders. Despite a backlash to globalism that might threaten other international collaboration efforts and arrangements, the TAPP persists and grows because it is loose, lithe, and limber. It operates with nearly complete teacher autonomy, not relying on institutional agreements or funding—not even grants (Maylath et al., 2013; Lisaité et al. 2016). This plenary address describes how the TAPP is able to function in this way and to continue to add partners in ever more countries. It also depicts how TAPP collaborations raise audience awareness, intercultural aptitude, language sensitivity, and writing effectiveness for both undergraduate and graduate students. Moreover, it demonstrates how international collaboration boosts recruitment, bolsters retention and engagement, and leads to job- placements at all levels, including the doctoral.

Abstract. This paper draws on two policy documents, the “International Campus of Excellence Initiative” and the “University Strategy 2010-2015” to assess the level of internationalisation of the Spanish university system as portrayed by the international campuses of excellence (ICEs). It sets out to identify the role and use of English as a lingua franca with academic purposes across Spanish ICEs and the initiatives developed based on the use of English as a communication tool in this academic context. The investigation draws on textual data gathered from the websites of two Spanish-based ICEs, such as Ceimar (ICE on Marine Science) and Iberus (ICE of the Ebro Valley). The website analysis shows that these two ICEs rely on English to implement issues of internationality in their academic offer and articulate a diversity of actions and programmes in which English is used as the lingua franca for international communication and academic teaching as well as for the dissemination of research activities.

Abstract. This paper focuses on English-medium instruction (EMI) at a Spanish public university. It reports on a mix-methods study into the attitudes and linguistic and pedagogical needs of EMI lecturers. First and foremost, the study has a practical focus and assesses lecturers’ needs and attitudes as the basis for developing an EMI training course. The study takes a “bottom-up” approach to needs assessment in order to guarantee a course that is fit for purpose. It collects data from university lecturers using multiple sources to provide empirical evidence with which to inform course design decisions. Data sources include a questionnaire, field notes from observations of EMI teaching practice, collaborative planning tutorials, lesson plans and lecturers’ reflections on EMI. The analysis of lecturers’ language use and pedagogical strategies suggests a number of areas for improvement that could enhance EMI teaching and learning. On the whole, the findings show a positive attitude towards EMI and training, but also highlight key tensions regarding attitudes towards more collaborative, learner-centred lecturing practices. It thus argues for careful consideration to be given to lecturers’ attitudes in the design of EMI teacher development courses.

Abstract. Since their eruption in the European Educational Systems panorama, the use of CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) approaches has widely spread all throughout Europe, resulting in a revolution in foreign language teaching approaches (Coyle, Hood, Marsh, 2010; Mehisto, Marsh & Frigols, 2008; Pérez Cañado, 2012; Ruiz de Zarobe & Jiménez Catalán, 2009). This situation has set off a plethora of studies with two different foci: on the one hand, researchers have attempted to clarify the CLIL phenomenon, developing a theoretical framework (Coyle, 2006, 2007; Coyle, Hood & Marsh, 2010; Mehisto, Marsh & Frigols, 2008; Pérez-Cañado, 2012) On the other hand, other studies have attempted to identify its main advantages and drawbacks. This latter trend has reported clear benefits of using CLIL approaches in terms of vocabulary learning, L1 transfer (Agustín Llach, 2009) and fluency (Ruiz de Zarobe, 2008) among others. However, although CLIL approaches are developed in academic settings, most of the studies focusing on the area of vocabulary research have concentrated on learners’ general receptive vocabulary size in relation to the CLIL practice (Canga Alonso, 2012; Canga Alonso, 2013; Canga Alonso, 2015; Jiménez Catalán & Ruiz de Zarobe, 2009) and have neglected the analysis of the academic vocabulary.
This paper presents a preliminary study on the academic vocabulary and its interaction with the educational approach (CLIL vs English as a Foreign Language) of two groups of secondary-school learners. 100 students in their 3rd year of secondary education took part in this study. They were asked to respond the Academic Level version of the Vocabulary Levels Tests (Schmitt, Schmitt, and Clapham 2001) and the data obtained were compared looking into differences according to the kind of approach. Pearson’s correlation coefficient was used for pinpointing significant correlations. As expected, results show significant discordances as regards academic vocabulary size, revealing higher size of academic vocabulary for the CLIL learners.

Abstract. In recent decades, under the pressures of globalization and within the framework of the European Union education policies, Portuguese Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have undergone an intense process of internationalization, with rising figures in the production and dissemination of scientific knowledge and research as well as student and staff international mobility and real academic cooperation amongst HEIs. Despite these indicators, other issues such as the internationalization of curricula content, student development of intercultural skills, and institutional foreign language learning policies, require attention in the debate on internationalization in Higher Education (HE) and open the challenge to the broad strategic area of “Internationalization at Home” (de Wit et al. 2015b).
In this paper, which is a part of ongoing research on the introduction of the Content and Language Integrated Learning approach in Portuguese HEIs, we present an overview of the national internationalization policies in Portuguese HE over the past decade and focus on just how these policies have been transferred and transformed institutionally. We start by reviewing the different definitions of internationalization in HE, both abroad and at home, and then focus on national policies, specifically a recent Resolution of the Portuguese Council of Ministers (78/2016). Finally, we conclude arguing for the need to not only move on with these efforts but also to move beyond to broaden the scope of action of internationalization strategies in Portuguese HEIs.

Abstract. As Dearden notes (2015), teaching tertiary programs in English is a growing phenomenon, and the number of universities incorporating these into their program offerings have risen substantially in the last decade. This may be due to the rise of the importance of internationalization (Morell, Alesón, Bell, Escabias, Palazón & Martínez, 2014). Bologna is also often credited for this change (Kirkpatrick, 2016). However, as the case in Italian public universities show, converting whole programs to English as a matter of course may meet with resistance from faculty and students, and perhaps for good reasons. This paper explores the rise in EMI tertiary programs in Spain and from a European context, and presents approaches to develop linguistic competence in instructors. It seeks to understand how this up and coming trend may affect teaching English at this level. How will EMI instructors become more focused on teaching language as well as their content area?

Abstract. The paper investigates the gradual transition from traditional methods of language instruction to delivering teaching material in a blended format and reports on some of the findings of a research grant dedicated to measuring the impact of flipped learning on students' development of productive skills. This transition reconsiders the learning/teaching stages and aims at both reducing teachers' lecturing time in class and increasing students' speaking time, so that more emphasis is given to productive oral activities and to fostering fluency. The process of reversing the learning and teaching stages prompts changes in the curriculum planning, in restructuring part of the materials available and reconsidering the role of both language instructor and student. These aspects are submitted under the concept of flipped learning and pinpoint the first steps involved in creating video materials for students in Cultural Tourism. The author reflects on choice of material (units, topics), curriculum changes (task-based and competence-based syllabi), comparing different learning environments and also on the advantages and challenges of implementing flipped methods. The benefits of transitioning from traditional to blended-learning methods stem from several aspects regarding the educational spectrum and its stakeholders. At the institutional level, it serves the language policy of the university and its long-term strategy of developing more blended teaching corpus and of encouraging multicultural and intercultural awareness through foreign language learning and teaching. At the European level, the focus on the proliferation of blended strategies, on Open Educational Resources and on facilitating the development of transversal and cross-sector skills are proof of the changes that need to be adopted by all European universities. At the local level, students' needs and their preparation for a mobile, ever-changing labor market acknowledge the role of language instruction in formal and informal interaction, inside and outside the classroom.

Abstract. I explore the narrative strategies adopted by a specific type of institutional discourse grounded in the authority of expertise: risk communication, aimed at influencing our conceptions of hazard and danger to ultimately prevent unsafe behaviours. My focus is the unique discourse of the fatal aviation accident synopses issued yearly online by the National Transportation Safety Board of the United States of America (NTSB for short). Through a blended framework that merges Narratology, Critical Discourse Analysis and the Positioning and Proximisation Theories, I examine how the NTSB didactically brings risks and dangers close to its broad mixed virtual audience while undertaking fluid roles for branding purposes and disseminating the ideological principles of American democracy. In doing so, I especially attend to issues of narrative focalisation (i.e. recounting perspective) and speech representation.

Abstract. The present study focuses on the academic discourse shaped by Spanish scholars publishing in English. Writing and publishing in the academia are regarded as central not only to the construction of knowledge in individual disciplines but also to the construction of the identities of scholars and the negotiation of their positions and voices within academic communities (Hyland 2013). Drawing upon the theoretical stances of argumentation theory and more particularly on Pragma-dialectics (van Eemeren & Grootendorst, 2004), the aim of this study is to explore the discursive practices of the Spanish scholars who engage in the academic “debates” of their respective communities using English as a second language. While the need for participation in English is increasing around the world, the experience of publishing in a second language has been widely identified as challenging (Hanauer & Englander, 2010; Moreno et al., 2012). The study uses the systematic method of Pragma-dialectics to examine sixty research articles from scientific and engineering disciplines and to determine how their authors discursively construct their work and how they make a case for their contributions. The analysis focuses on the authors ́ strategic maneuvering, which is the efforts arguers make in argumentative discourse to reconcile aiming for rhetorical effectiveness with maintaining dialectical standards of reasonableness (van Eemeren, 2010). Argumentative strategies highly underlie the reasoning patterns of individuals (Mercier & Sperber, 2011) and the way they position themselves and their claims within a given communicative situation. The systematic analysis of argumentative strategies attempts to shed some light on the writing practices of Spanish scholars and the stances they maintain within more and more demanding academic environments.

Abstract. Es una realidad aceptada de forma unánime que el traductor especializado ha de conocer el campo temático en el que trabaja, siendo por tanto imprescindible que junto a la competencia lingüística sea necesario además un profundo conocimiento de la temática sobre la cual versa el texto al que se ha de enfrentar. El presente trabajo aborda las principales características de una terminología propia de un sector, el de la vitivinicultura, que contiene numerosas unidades de significado especializadas, dada la ingente cantidad de dominios y subdominios léxicos que subyacen al evento [vino]. Partimos de las premisas establecidas para la ejecución del proyecto WeinApp: Sistema multilingüe de información y recursos vitivinícolas (Ref. FFI2016-79785-R, Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad), centrado especialmente en el estudio del léxico desde perspectivas contrastivas y la búsqueda de equivalencias para la correcta traducción de los textos especializados. No en vano, dentro del sector agroalimentario, la vitivinicultura constituye un amplio campo de estudio no sólo dentro de las denominadas disciplinas científicas, sino también, dentro del campo de las Humanidades, en torno a tipologías textuales, fraseología, léxico especializado, culturemas y análisis contrastivo aplicado a la traducción de textos y a la interpretación de discursos, dada la indudable relevancia del producto en torno al cual surgen todas estas unidades lingüísticas, textuales y culturales. El conocimiento de las estructuras gramaticales, la formación de palabras y los mecanismos para la creación de nuevos términos en lengua original –el alemán-, posibilitará, como veremos a lo largo de la exposición del trabajo, una herramienta útil de trabajo para el traductor, que logrará con éxito la correcta traducción de los textos al español.

Abstract. Bajo el techo de la lexicología es indiscutible la interrelación que se establece entre la morfología con la sintaxis y la semántica. En este sentido, el fenómeno de la formación de palabras ocupa siempre un importante lugar en la investigación lexicológica ya que genera modelos estables, es decir, nuevas formaciones de palabras tomando como punto de partida morfemas libres. Este hecho cobra especial importancia en una lengua como el alemán donde existen en torno a medio millón de palabras de las cuales unas pocas miles son palabras originales (cfr. Götze/Hess–Lüttich) y el resto se han obtenido mediante el proceso de composición o a través de otros recursos morfológicos, de los cuales el más frecuente es la derivación. De tal manera que su estudio cobra plenamente sentido en el caso de las creaciones ad hoc.

La presente comunicación tiene por objeto realizar un análisis, desde el punto de vista morfológico, de la terminología en el sector turístico con la finalidad de descubrir el rol que desempeña la morfología léxica, estudio lingüístico que aplicaremos a la lengua alemana ya que los diferentes procesos de formación de palabras juegan el papel más importante en la ampliación del vocabulario de una lengua y, en lo que al alemán se refiere, este fenómeno es el ejemplo más claro de creatividad lingüística.

Abstract. Este trabajo estudia las traducciones españolas de la palabra italiana tondo, que entra en español como préstamo del italiano en el lenguaje de la arquitectura. Sin embargo, en italiano tondo se usa también en el lenguaje de la pintura, como testimonia la famosa obra de Miguel Ángel Tondo Doni.
El estudio del término tondo ejemplifica la metodología utilizada en el marco del proyecto interuniversitario Lessico dei Beni Culturali (LBC) del Dipartimento di Lingue, Letterature e Studi Multiculturali de la Universidad de Florencia, cuya finalidad es la creación de diccionarios monolingües y bilingües relacionados entre sí mediante enlaces hipertextuales, que ayuden a los traductores que se enfrentan a un texto de temática artística a comprenderlo y a escoger los términos adecuados en la lengua meta, con relación al contexto en que aparecen y a las variadas tipologías de discurso de las guías turísticas, de las páginas web de museos o de los catálogos de exposiciones. Para cada palabra estudiada se redacta una ficha-fuente en italiano y otra para cada lengua del proyecto (alemán, inglés, chino, español, francés, portugués, ruso) en perspectiva diacrónica y sincrónica, en la base de textos especializados y diccionarios; la dos perspectivas son necesarias para comprender los conceptos subyacentes a las denominaciones en la lengua fuente, generalmente caracterizadas por un alto grado de variación semántica.

Abstract. Como parte de un proyecto desarrollado conjuntamente entre miembros del ámbito académico y del mundo profesional se está llevando a cabo un estudio sobre pragmática en interpretación telefónica. Se centra, en concreto, en la interpretación en los servicios públicos y en las estrategias que utilizan los intérpretes a la hora de enfrentarse a las dificultades que surgen durante el desarrollo de su trabajo.
Huelga mencionar que la interpretación a distancia implica un gran número de nuevas estrategias y habilidades que los profesionales deben adquirir. Resulta especialmente complicada la interpretación de las FTA, que, según nuestros datos, son muy frecuentes en las conversaciones con mediación lingüística. En ocasiones, los interlocutores se esconden tras el intérprete a la hora de expresar contenido potencialemente ofensivo; en otras, esperan que el intérprete modifique su ataque contra la imagen de su interlocutor o llegan a presuponer que el intérprete omitirá esa parte ofensiva de su discurso.
Los intérpretes telefónicos profesionales, que suelen apoyarse en su propio bagaje de habilidades y experiencias personales, consiguen desarrollar una serie de estrategias para lidiar con estas dificultades. Entendemos que es aconsejable compilar estas estrategias para facilitar una formación útil, actualizada y realista para los intérpretes telefónicos, tanto para principiantes como para expertos.
Queremos compartir en este congreso un conjunto de ejemplos, fruto de nuestro análisis discursivo de conversaciones reales mediadas por intérpretes entre usuarios y proveedores de los servicios públicos (personal de hospital, ambulancias, ayuntamientos, oficinas de turismo, comisarías de policía…). Nuestro objetivo es aislar y describir las diferentes reacciones y soluciones que aplican los intérpretes cuando se enfrentan a las FTA. El fin último de este estudio es elaborar una lista de recomendaciones y materiales formativos para actuales y futuros intérpretes telefónicos.

Abstract. The purpose of the paper is to present a report on the motivations, objectives, initial research stages and preliminary results of a research project, conducted during the 2016-2017 academic year at the Faculty of Letters, Babeș-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania, focused on designing a bilingual (Romanian-English) glossary of historical terms. The desire of the research team, myself as a team leader and my associates, two PhD students in History, Faculty of History and Philosophy, BBU Cluj-Napoca, is for this glossary to be published at the beginning of the 2017-2018 academic year and, consequently, for it to become a useful tool for all the specialists in the field of History (with all its encompassing subfields: Archaeology, Archival Studies, Art History, Historiography, Library Studies and so on) willing to publish research papers in English, translate or access English bibliographical titles pertinent to their fields of study.
The paper will attempt both a brief presentation of the current status of “English for History” within the general frame of English for Specific Purposes (ESP), in order to better understand the context for our research in progress, as well as an overview of the research steps and of the most important results up to this point.

Abstract. Los libros de viaje, existentes desde épocas remotas, permiten al lector conocer parte de esos lugares que se describen. El viaje pasó de ser una necesidad por cuestiones de climatología, de subsistencia, en los primeros tiempos, a ser razón de fortalecimiento de las naciones con la conquista de nuevos territorios en el siglo XV, a convertirse en una experiencia educativa e “ilustrada” de importancia para la clase media-alta británica en los siglos XVII-XVIII a través del Grand Tour. A pesar de que España no formaba parte de ese itinerario de viaje suscitó la curiosidad de algunos viajeros con deseos de saber algo más de ese país desconocido para muchos. Estos intrépidos viajeros dejaron constancia de todo aquello que iban conociendo en libros de viajes, relatos, cartas, etc. y describieron no sólo el patrimonio histórico y artístico sino también su cultura, costumbres, tradiciones y modo de vida.
Este trabajo tiene como objetivo presentar los préstamos utilizados por Richard Twiss, uno de esos aventureros que se lanzó a conocer España a finales del siglo XVIII, a lo largo de las páginas de su obra Travels through Portugal and Spain in 1772 and 1773. A través de este trabajo pretendemos analizar estos vocablos y determinar la procedencia de esos préstamos, si se trata de un fenómeno utilizado con frecuencia en el texto, las áreas temáticas a las que se adscriben y si aparecen con una explicación del significado de la voz o con un equivalente en lengua inglesa.

Abstract. La presente investigación surge en el ámbito del proyecto financiado por la Unión Europea a través de la agencia Erasmus +, ICCAGE-Intercultural Communicative Competence: an advantage for global employability (http://iccageproject.wixsite.com/presentation), cuya finalidad es, mediante el incremento de la competencia comunicativa intercultural de los estudiantes de la educación superior de Portugal, España, Hungría y la República Checa, mejorar los índices de inserción laboral de los recién graduados de estos cuatro países especialmente damnificados por el desempleo juvenil.
Pretendemos con este estudio determinar qué competencias de comunicación intercultural empresarial son requeridas en la actualidad por los empleadores internacionales, y averiguar cuál es el modo más adecuado de activarlas e incorporarlas a los estudiantes de español para fines económicos y comerciales (ELEFEC) en la enseñanza superior.
El instrumento de recogida de datos destinado a averiguar cuál es el papel que juega en nuestros días la comunicación empresarial internacional, es un cuestionario/entrevista que fue creado por un conjunto de especialistas en comunicación intercultural empresarial de Hungría, España, Portugal y la República Checa. El cuestionario/entrevista se aplicó, entre noviembre de 2015 y enero de 2016, a un total de 28 empleadores que desarrollaban su actividad profesional en empresas de ámbito internacional.
Los datos obtenidos nos permiten identificar cuáles son las competencias en comunicación empresarial internacional imprescindibles para integrarse con éxito en los contextos multiculturales y multilingües que caracterizan a las empresas actuales, así como averiguar cuál es la metodología más adecuada para desarrollar estas destrezas, conocimientos, actitudes y conciencia crítica intercultural en el marco de la enseñanza y aprendizaje de ELEFEC en la educación superior.

Abstract. This paper reports findings from a micro-ethnographic study of the academic literacy practices of the doctoral students that participate in the course in Academic English (AE) taught at the Graduate School of the University of Zaragoza (UZ), Spain. So far there is no evidence regarding the degree of competence in spoken and written communication in academic English to be expected from the students that enroll in the course. Accordingly, the UZ has funded a Teaching Innovation Project (TIP) with the aim of developing ethnographic study protocols capable of providing empirical data on competence profiles, and analysing the learning needs of a specific type of EFL adult learner. The aim of this paper is, therefore, to report on those results that can help to improve the AE course by planning it more efficiently on the basis of a needs analysis that takes disciplinary factors, among others, into account. Reading specialized bibliography, writing a dissertation, giving an oral presentation... all seem to constitute manifestations of, or generic competences for, Academic English in tertiary education, but the acquisition of those competences in an EFL environment may become a challenge for the young researcher attending the AE course. Nowadays, effective teaching in that context requires going beyond mere experience and gathering empirical, ethnographic information suitable for competence profiling (see e.g. Bocanegra-Valle, 2016). Consequently, our study draws on relevant ethnographic techniques in the field of EAP (see e.g. Dressen-Hamouda, 2012), the paper thus beginning by reporting on the results of the analysis of the answers to a structured questionnaire administered to students as the starting point for small-scale semi- structured interviews. Our ultimate aim is the examination of the acquisition and learning of second-language academic literacy practices in line with e.g. 'New Literacies' studies such as Seloni (2012).

Abstract. Over the last twenty years the impact of language in international and multinational companies has attracted significant scholarly attention, which is reflected in the growing literature. However, and despite the fact that small and medium enterprises (SMEs) constitute the engine of numerous economies worldwide, the impact of foreign languages on SMEs’ performance remains understudied. This is especially intricate because, considering that SMEs often have fewer resources, the commitment of such resources to language acquisition and foreign language education can only be justified in the case of improved performance. To address this gap, the objective of our research aims to get insights whether and how the domain of a foreign language (mainly English) affects SMEs’ performance. For this purpose, we perform an exploratory empirical study based on data collected through a telephone questionnaire during the first semester of 2017. A group of private Spanish SMEs constitutes our sample. Our work presents the results of the statistical analysis of these primary data, and contributes to a more nuanced perspective on language utility for organizational performance.

Abstract. Las políticas de movilidad universitaria facilitan la incorporación a las clases de inglés de alumnos de diferentes nacionalidades. El programa de Inglés aplicado a la Publicidad y las Relaciones Públicas de la Universidad de Cádiz ha tenido tradicionalmente al alumnado español como meta. Sin embargo, la incorporación de estudiantes de otros países en el aula la ha configurado como un espacio multicultural donde conviven diferentes concepciones de la realidad que se trasladan al proceso enseñanza-aprendizaje a través de distintas actitudes, conductas o percepciones frente a los mismos temas (Byram, Nichols & Stevens, 2001). La fusión de estas diferencias crea un espacio multicultural del que los alumnos se pueden enriquecer y aprender, teniendo el inglés como lengua vehicular y motivándolos a percibir la publicidad desde la mirada del otro. El objetivo de este trabajo es identificar sus expectativas según su nacionalidad y formación previa, a través de un cuestionario que identifique sus diferentes niveles, opinión sobre la pertinencia del programa y expectativas ante el curso. El análisis se dará a conocer al propio alumnado, favoreciendo el conocimiento sobre la identidad cultural del resto y su influencia en la visión de la publicidad. Así, se facilita el conocimiento del “otro”, modificando, en su caso, los posibles estereotipos y/o prejuicios sobre los distintos grupos culturales y creando un espacio común de convivencia donde el interés por conocer las otras realidades dentro de un marco común de aprendizaje de inglés les sirva de motivación para desarrollar su competencia comunicativa, lingüística e intercultural. Los resultados llevarán a la revisión de los contenidos y metodología de la asignatura, orientándonos hacia un ajuste de los mismos que dé respuesta a las necesidades detectadas, dadas las importantes implicaciones que estas diferentes concepciones tienen en un mundo publicitario global como en el que vivimos hoy en día.

Abstract. Improving the employability of graduates and professionals is the main aim of the European project CoMoViWo, a project which strives to address linguistic, virtual communication and intercultural challenges in global work contexts. To this end, the design and development of a series of intensive modules to improve communication in virtual and mobile contexts in the workplace is the objective of this three-year research and development project. To validate these modules, CoMoViWo has sought to establish a framework for the subsequent piloting of the materials. The present paper is delivered at the end of the third year of the project, and reports on the process of creating a questionnaire, a useful tool to pilot the communication learning modules. The rationale involved in the design and implementation of the questionnaire is discussed. The grid was designed following the recommendations proposed in several "Quality Guidelines” publications during recent years (see, for example, Lasnier et al., 2000). These criteria involve aspects such as transparency, reliability, integrity, practicality, attractiveness, flexibility, awareness and generativeness. The questionnaire was administered to the students to get feedback on the learning modules and their satisfaction with the modules. Although the students were not necessarily in a position to address the validity of the pedagogical aims of the input, their feedback on the structure, content, format and exercises/tasks, and their engagement with the platform and activities provided important data on their feasibility. The analysis of the results obtained indicate that the process of piloting the modules is an essential part of any materials elaboration project and vital for giving relevant feedback for the final stage of materials development. This confirms the validation of the grid devised and confirms the considerable relevance of the piloting process.

Abstract. Spain, like many other countries, has faced high migration influx in the last decades and consequently has favoured the teaching of Spanish as a foreign language, a relatively new subject in our country. As a result of the growing number of immigrants, regional, national and European educational boards have invested in measures concerning intercultural awareness, social inclusion and language acquisition. Though the variety of textbooks for this purpose is scarce or null, being tailor-made when necessary, the material provided by the Internet and other media is valued for immediate, cost-effective and wide-ranging access to authentic materials, irrespective of the level of location of language learners and teacher (Bryram, ed., 2004, p. 311). These are regarded as a powerful set of teaching resources to promote effective communication, language and culture acquisition (Tanrıverdi, 2008). In this light, our work presents an innovative research-based proposal to support migrant integration through the development of communicative competences beyond the mere acquisition of instructional/survival language. The proposal, based on the LiMe Project (http://www.languages-in-media.eu/), provides a broad array of educational pills and methodological tips to help migrant population decode language and culture as portrayed in various types of media and to fit learners, who might find managing the new technologies a daunting task, into the language, culture and the host country.

Abstract. This paper describes the adaptation of a foreign language app called Guess it! Language Trainer, successfully used for several years with students from a German language course at the University of Cádiz, to suit the needs of Maritime English learners. The app is based on a community-driven learning system to support students in their vocabulary learning, especially outside class. The system requires students to guess words with the help of a given context; then, to assess and, eventually, report the words and sentences they have played and later, to create and propose their own sentences for one or more words from the course syllabus. Once students have introduced their own example sentences, these become part of the learning system—hence being available to the entire learner community for peer-assessment. By promoting students to actively participate in the design of their own learning resources, the authors aimed both to pay tribute to the increasing demand of researchers and practitioners to design learner-centered environments as well as to provide a learning system that can easily be implemented and adapted to different learning contexts, taking into account students’ language proficiency as well as collective learning preferences.