Begoña Montero-Fleta | Universitat Politècnica de València (original) (raw)
Papers by Begoña Montero-Fleta
Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, Jan 1, 2011
The present research, based on constructivist learning paradigms, describes the outcomes of a pro... more The present research, based on constructivist learning paradigms, describes the outcomes of a project which complies with real life projection into the professional world: a Wiki-based approach is devised to construct knowledge, manage own learning and develop communication and linguistic skills in English. The paper aims to analyze the process and product of students" contribution to group work. A qualitative analysis reveals the students" positive and negative feedback. The study complies with the shift of current learning paradigms in the focus of learning: from gaining knowledge to producing knowledge
The application of new technologies and media has changed the concept of teaching and learning, o... more The application of new technologies and media has changed the concept of teaching and learning, offering effective and attractive possibilities to the educational system, particularly to the learning of languages in specific contexts. Educators in general will agree on the importance of motivation as a key to success in language acquisition as it is both a condition and a result of effective instruction. However, although research has recognized the positive effect of intrinsic motivation on learning and academic achievement, little is known about the impact of different technology-supported learning activities on students’ intrinsic motivation, the most critical factor for success in language teaching through computers according to some scholars.
In this paper we present a university course project carried out in the English class in a degree of Library and Information Management. By means of an integrated analysis which includes qualitative and quantitative research, we see the influence of a CMC (Computer-mediated Communication) genre, that of weblogs, in learning, and the way this new learning environment enhances motivation. In the project we present, students were asked to participate in blogs dealing with topics of their field of studies, a fact that constitutes the authentic learning environment suggested by some scholars in the field of education. Blogging was the key activity of their writing course. Students’ participation in blogs implied exchanging posts, making comments, agreeing and disagreeing on what was discussed in the posts, asking for clarification, etc., always with the hope of raising the interest of other bloggers and starting a discussion.
Questionnaires administered to the students and interviews have provided insightful data to the research about the students’ perception of the experience, in other words, their levels of involvement in learning, their engagement in efficient and creative thinking processes, and their use of problem-solving strategies. Language achievement tests as well as daily one minute papers supplied information on the students’ acquisition of the content dealt with.
The innovative approach of this research is that it has allowed students to participate in real-world environments: blogs where students were able to apply theoretical knowledge acquired in the degree of Information and Management Education in the medium of English. Writing for a purpose, a truly novel component of the educational application of blogs used in the present project has resulted in a positive attitude of the students and, thus, has enhanced motivation.
Keywords: motivation, language learning, computers for education, Library and Information Management Education
The market economy, which is the driving force behind recent changes in the working dynamics of b... more The market economy, which is the driving force behind recent changes in the working dynamics of businesses and institutions, is compelling stakeholders in education to facilitate the acquisition of communicative competency in a second or foreign language as a means of preparing the workforce for mobile or virtual work. The CoMoViWo project, financed by the European Union’s Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA), aims to improve the employability of graduates by developing literacy training for virtual communication. The innovative aspect of this project is the fusion of communication, technology and multiculturality in association with business enterprises. The present study focuses on the first phase of the project, whose aim is to obtain information concerning the real needs detected in mobility and virtual communication in the workplace. After a preliminary study of the literature it was found that one of the most common instruments for carrying out needs analyses was the questionnaire. Therefore, the questionnaire was taken as a tool for the present study. As a result of the fieldwork carried out in the elaboration and filtering of the items in the questionnaire, the validity of the instrument was verified. The questionnaires were then piloted in the different companies involved in the project. Analysis of the results provided the necessary feedback for the design of the prototype of intensive modules to improve the use of a foreign language in a virtual and mobile context in the
workplace, which is the ultimate objective of the present project.
IN PREVIOUS PAPERS we have examined and contrasted the phenomenon that Fairclough terms the infor... more IN PREVIOUS PAPERS we have examined and contrasted the phenomenon that Fairclough terms the informalization or conversationalization of discourse in different academic and technical genres in English, Spanish and Catalan (Pérez Sabater et al., 2001; Montero et al., forthcoming 2003).
Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2010
The incorporation of asynchronous computer-mediated communication in the classroom is currently i... more The incorporation of asynchronous computer-mediated communication in the classroom is currently in need of research. In the present study we observe the effect of the implementation of this technique to improve writing and students’ motivation. Students worked in groups and got involved in professional blogs posting responses and exchanging comments with the other groups. The analysis of the results shows a high motivation of the students. Writing for a purpose has encouraged them to produce language more fluently and be more concerned on correctness, which leads us to consider blogs as a potential tool for the development of linguistic skills.
The traditional classroom paradigm has been lately experiencing innovative changes with the adven... more The traditional classroom paradigm has been lately experiencing innovative changes with the advent of new technologies. This paper reports on the results of an exploratory study that puts into practice a blended learning approach in a university English course which favoured face-to-face as well as online meetings. Within this learning paradigm, the objective of this treatment was to analyse how the use of Twitter, a microblogging tool could help to increase students’ confidence in English. This would imply a novelty in the field of language learning through computers, as it incorporated social networking to an explicit structured vocabulary task of ESL learning, which allowed peer revision of tweets and feedback from the instructor. Results showed that students largely preferred to recast rather than to carry out metalinguistic prompts as a feedback. Conclusions suggested that this blended learning approach contributed to internalize students’ own target form errors through corrections to and from their peers. Using Twitter in the language class was an informal, easier and less intimidating way of starting to use new vocabulary in the target language.
Games: Virtual Words and Reality, Proceedings of the 39th Conference International Simulation and Gaming Association. Kaunas. Lituania. ISBN 978-9955-25-532-1. pp-179-187., 2008
Traditionally, educational approaches have paid more attention to individual work than to group w... more Traditionally, educational approaches have paid more attention to individual work than to group work such as that found in simulations. However, group work is today considered more effective for promoting student learning and retention than traditional methods. Those who are involved in research in gaming and simulation find problems in the criteria to be used in assessing: group? individuals?; and in getting every participant equally involved in the simulation. In this paper we report on the outcomes of our research on active learning based on group work with a game format in a university environment in which students play the role of tutors and get collaboratively involved in the production of teaching materials in support of class learning objectives. As part of an ongoing study first presented at ISAGA’07, the paper aims to analyze the process and the students’ individual contribution to group work. To promote student participation in meeting the task objectives and to overcome the problems of unequal participation or “free riders”, self and peer assessment have been used. Assessment should support equity principles and the criteria and standards by which performance is to be judged should be made clear to students from the outset. For this reason, problems regarding fairness in self and peer assessment will be discussed with the participants at the session. Results obtained show that if students are personally involved in the teaching process, motivation is higher and learning is more successful. The study identifies salient issues of constructing effective contributions to group work, facilitating the group’s ability to regulate group processes and participation.
Games: Virtual Words and Reality, Proceedings of the 39th Conference International Simulation and Gaming Association. Kaunas. Lituania. ISBN 978-9955-25-532-1. pp-179-187., 2008
Traditionally, educational approaches have paid more attention to individual work than to group w... more Traditionally, educational approaches have paid more attention to individual work than to group work such as that found in simulations. However, group work is today considered more effective for promoting student learning and retention than traditional methods. Those who are involved in research in gaming and simulation find problems in the criteria to be used in assessing: group? individuals?; and in getting every participant equally involved in the simulation. In this paper we report on the outcomes of our research on active learning based on group work with a game format in a university environment in which students play the role of tutors and get collaboratively involved in the production of teaching materials in support of class learning objectives. As part of an ongoing study first presented at ISAGA’07, the paper aims to analyze the process and the students’ individual contribution to group work. To promote student participation in meeting the task objectives and to overcome the problems of unequal participation or “free riders”, self and peer assessment have been used. Assessment should support equity principles and the criteria and standards by which performance is to be judged should be made clear to students from the outset. For this reason, problems regarding fairness in self and peer assessment will be discussed with the participants at the session. Results obtained show that if students are personally involved in the teaching process, motivation is higher and learning is more successful. The study identifies salient issues of constructing effective contributions to group work, facilitating the group’s ability to regulate group processes and participation.
Porta Linguarum 20, Jun 29, 2013
ABSTRACT. The present study, based on the principles of simulation methodology, sets forth the ... more ABSTRACT.
The present study, based on the principles of simulation methodology, sets
forth the implementation of experiential learning to enhance transferable skills and the
development of innovation competences in an English course setting. The innovative
contribution of the educational research undertaken is an experiential learning tool, devised
within the tenets of the simulation methodology: an open simulation approached from
competence framework to a hands-on experience. The Scenario, Profiles, Facilitator’s
Directions and Debriefing Process of the simulation are described in detail throughout
the paper as well as the educational implications.
Keywords:
simulation, experiential learning, innovation competences, communication
skills in English.
ONOMÁZEIN 27 (junio de 2013): 269 - 285, Jun 2013
This manuscript sets forth an in-depth study of competing pairs of prefixes of Greek and Latin or... more This manuscript sets forth an in-depth study of competing pairs of prefixes of Greek and Latin origin: hyper-vs. super-, micro-vs. mini-and poly- vs. multi-from a contrastive Spanish-English
perspective. Two major source corpora, the Corpus de Referencia del Español Actual for Spanish, and the British National Corpus for English were used for the purpose of this research. The prefixes were further analysed within the framework of a corpus of 200 translational equivalences, compiled from a lexicographic bilingual source, the Oxford Spanish Dictionary (2003); the results were then corroborated with the use of the prefixed words in a bilingual text-based online source, Linguee. This research sheds light on similarities and differences between such pairs of prefixes. The present contribution confirms the higher use of prefixation in Spanish. A much more frequent use of Latin prefixes, mainly super-and multi-, is attested in both languages. The cross-linguistic study reveals that prefixes seem to overlap semantically and syntactically across Spanish and English. Nevertheless, a representative percentage of Spanish prefixed words contrastively exhibit a non-morphological equivalence in English. Hence, a single different word, or a multiword unit may be used in English where derivational expansion of the base is preferred in Spanish.
Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences. Elsevier
"This pioneer study is rooted in a constructivist paradigm and undertakes an empirical research b... more "This pioneer study is rooted in a constructivist paradigm and undertakes an empirical research based on a content analysis of 400 digital job vacancies to find out the employability skills required by the job market. The study is focused on introducing innovations in an English language subject in an engineering degree to enhance the development not only of linguistic skills but also of generic skills, a challenge aimed at professional competitiveness and employability. The methodology used and outcomes are discussed in this paper.
© 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Keywords: English language learning, professional competencies, generic skills, innovative learning,"
ESPWorld, Nov 2013
The paper reports on a comparative study of equivalence in scientific and popular terminology acr... more The paper reports on a comparative study of equivalence in scientific and popular terminology across Romance and Germanic languages. The study is carried out within the framework of Languages for Specific Purposes lexicography, and focuses on a corpus of medical terminology in seven European languages. The first aim of the study was to confirm or reject the international character of the terms of the corpus. The neoclassical etymology of the international words was highlighted, as well as the changes experienced in the loanwords to be adapted to the host lexical system. A second aim of the research undertaken was to analyse the corresponding popular language equivalents to the scientific medical terms studied. The hypothesis that Romance languages had a higher tendency to use international words in popular communication than Germanic languages, as stated by Stichele (2000), was only partially confirmed; English and French lexical items had more cases of overlap of scientific and popular terms than German and Spanish. As most of the scientific terms are mainly known by professionals but appear less accessible to lay audiences, the study claimed that specialized words should be substituted by their popular equivalents to reach a successful communication in doctor-patient healthcare interactions.
Keywords. Internationalisms; Word formation; Scientific terminology; Popular terms; Language of medicine; Equivalence.
"Scholars have stated the particularities of the language used in specialized discourse but littl... more "Scholars have stated the particularities of the language used in specialized discourse but little attention has been so far paid to the role derivational morphology may play in register variation. The present research makes a contribution to the study of word-formation in scientific registers by means of a corpus-based approach to the productivity of 14 suffixes in two scientific English registers, i.e., computer science and medicine. In order to empirically examine the productivity of the suffixes in each register, types, tokens and hapaxes ratio were used. Results obtained were then contrasted with the presence of the same suffixes in the written language wordlist of the British National Corpus (BNC). The study shows that suffixes are a productive word-formation resource in scientific registers and that their productivity differs in the registers under study. Findings ranked higher productivity of abstract noun-forming suffixes such as -ity, -ion and -ness in scientific registers than in the BNC. The suffix ize reached values in the scientific corpora highly over the ranking drawn from the BNC. On the contrary,
the BNC yielded an outstanding productivity rate of free and -like, suffixes
which proved to be fully unproductive in the scientific registers under study"
Abstract Approaches to the linguistic characteristics of computer-mediated communication (CMC) ha... more Abstract Approaches to the linguistic characteristics of computer-mediated communication (CMC) have highlighted the frequent oral traits involved in electronic mail along with features of written language. But email is today a new communication exchange medium in social, professional and academic settings, frequently used as a substitute for the traditional formal letter. The oral characterizations and linguistic formality involved in this use of emails are still in need of research.
Abstract Research at the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia has shown that computer-mediated com... more Abstract Research at the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia has shown that computer-mediated communication by way of telematic simulation enhances the learning of English as a foreign language in the specific aspects of written expression, reading comprehension, listening comprehension and grammar (García Carbonell 1998).
Abstract: The development of Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) has given rise to a number of ... more Abstract: The development of Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) has given rise to a number of linguistic studies of human communication via the computer. The overwhelming majority of these studies have centred on one language, English, and they have focussed mainly on online multiuser environments, chats, e-mails and messages posted to online fora and internet mailing lists.
Abstract For more than three decades, researchers and practitioners in the field of English as a ... more Abstract For more than three decades, researchers and practitioners in the field of English as a foreign language have faced the issue of communicative competence as a goal in language acquisition and how to reach this goal.
Abstract This paper introduces the background of learning communities and simulation and gaming. ... more Abstract This paper introduces the background of learning communities and simulation and gaming. Both topics are explored from their origin after defining characteristics and giving examples of learning communities and simulation and gaming, establishing between the two concepts the principles of interaction, complementation, enrichment, motivation, effectiveness and self-stimulus.
Abstract Electronic mails have nowadays become the most usual support to exchange information in ... more Abstract Electronic mails have nowadays become the most usual support to exchange information in professional and academic environments. A lot of research on this topic to date has focused on the linguistic characteristics of electronic communication and on the formal and informal features and the orality involved in this form of communication. Most of the studies have referred to group-based asynchronous communication.
Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, Jan 1, 2011
The present research, based on constructivist learning paradigms, describes the outcomes of a pro... more The present research, based on constructivist learning paradigms, describes the outcomes of a project which complies with real life projection into the professional world: a Wiki-based approach is devised to construct knowledge, manage own learning and develop communication and linguistic skills in English. The paper aims to analyze the process and product of students" contribution to group work. A qualitative analysis reveals the students" positive and negative feedback. The study complies with the shift of current learning paradigms in the focus of learning: from gaining knowledge to producing knowledge
The application of new technologies and media has changed the concept of teaching and learning, o... more The application of new technologies and media has changed the concept of teaching and learning, offering effective and attractive possibilities to the educational system, particularly to the learning of languages in specific contexts. Educators in general will agree on the importance of motivation as a key to success in language acquisition as it is both a condition and a result of effective instruction. However, although research has recognized the positive effect of intrinsic motivation on learning and academic achievement, little is known about the impact of different technology-supported learning activities on students’ intrinsic motivation, the most critical factor for success in language teaching through computers according to some scholars.
In this paper we present a university course project carried out in the English class in a degree of Library and Information Management. By means of an integrated analysis which includes qualitative and quantitative research, we see the influence of a CMC (Computer-mediated Communication) genre, that of weblogs, in learning, and the way this new learning environment enhances motivation. In the project we present, students were asked to participate in blogs dealing with topics of their field of studies, a fact that constitutes the authentic learning environment suggested by some scholars in the field of education. Blogging was the key activity of their writing course. Students’ participation in blogs implied exchanging posts, making comments, agreeing and disagreeing on what was discussed in the posts, asking for clarification, etc., always with the hope of raising the interest of other bloggers and starting a discussion.
Questionnaires administered to the students and interviews have provided insightful data to the research about the students’ perception of the experience, in other words, their levels of involvement in learning, their engagement in efficient and creative thinking processes, and their use of problem-solving strategies. Language achievement tests as well as daily one minute papers supplied information on the students’ acquisition of the content dealt with.
The innovative approach of this research is that it has allowed students to participate in real-world environments: blogs where students were able to apply theoretical knowledge acquired in the degree of Information and Management Education in the medium of English. Writing for a purpose, a truly novel component of the educational application of blogs used in the present project has resulted in a positive attitude of the students and, thus, has enhanced motivation.
Keywords: motivation, language learning, computers for education, Library and Information Management Education
The market economy, which is the driving force behind recent changes in the working dynamics of b... more The market economy, which is the driving force behind recent changes in the working dynamics of businesses and institutions, is compelling stakeholders in education to facilitate the acquisition of communicative competency in a second or foreign language as a means of preparing the workforce for mobile or virtual work. The CoMoViWo project, financed by the European Union’s Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA), aims to improve the employability of graduates by developing literacy training for virtual communication. The innovative aspect of this project is the fusion of communication, technology and multiculturality in association with business enterprises. The present study focuses on the first phase of the project, whose aim is to obtain information concerning the real needs detected in mobility and virtual communication in the workplace. After a preliminary study of the literature it was found that one of the most common instruments for carrying out needs analyses was the questionnaire. Therefore, the questionnaire was taken as a tool for the present study. As a result of the fieldwork carried out in the elaboration and filtering of the items in the questionnaire, the validity of the instrument was verified. The questionnaires were then piloted in the different companies involved in the project. Analysis of the results provided the necessary feedback for the design of the prototype of intensive modules to improve the use of a foreign language in a virtual and mobile context in the
workplace, which is the ultimate objective of the present project.
IN PREVIOUS PAPERS we have examined and contrasted the phenomenon that Fairclough terms the infor... more IN PREVIOUS PAPERS we have examined and contrasted the phenomenon that Fairclough terms the informalization or conversationalization of discourse in different academic and technical genres in English, Spanish and Catalan (Pérez Sabater et al., 2001; Montero et al., forthcoming 2003).
Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2010
The incorporation of asynchronous computer-mediated communication in the classroom is currently i... more The incorporation of asynchronous computer-mediated communication in the classroom is currently in need of research. In the present study we observe the effect of the implementation of this technique to improve writing and students’ motivation. Students worked in groups and got involved in professional blogs posting responses and exchanging comments with the other groups. The analysis of the results shows a high motivation of the students. Writing for a purpose has encouraged them to produce language more fluently and be more concerned on correctness, which leads us to consider blogs as a potential tool for the development of linguistic skills.
The traditional classroom paradigm has been lately experiencing innovative changes with the adven... more The traditional classroom paradigm has been lately experiencing innovative changes with the advent of new technologies. This paper reports on the results of an exploratory study that puts into practice a blended learning approach in a university English course which favoured face-to-face as well as online meetings. Within this learning paradigm, the objective of this treatment was to analyse how the use of Twitter, a microblogging tool could help to increase students’ confidence in English. This would imply a novelty in the field of language learning through computers, as it incorporated social networking to an explicit structured vocabulary task of ESL learning, which allowed peer revision of tweets and feedback from the instructor. Results showed that students largely preferred to recast rather than to carry out metalinguistic prompts as a feedback. Conclusions suggested that this blended learning approach contributed to internalize students’ own target form errors through corrections to and from their peers. Using Twitter in the language class was an informal, easier and less intimidating way of starting to use new vocabulary in the target language.
Games: Virtual Words and Reality, Proceedings of the 39th Conference International Simulation and Gaming Association. Kaunas. Lituania. ISBN 978-9955-25-532-1. pp-179-187., 2008
Traditionally, educational approaches have paid more attention to individual work than to group w... more Traditionally, educational approaches have paid more attention to individual work than to group work such as that found in simulations. However, group work is today considered more effective for promoting student learning and retention than traditional methods. Those who are involved in research in gaming and simulation find problems in the criteria to be used in assessing: group? individuals?; and in getting every participant equally involved in the simulation. In this paper we report on the outcomes of our research on active learning based on group work with a game format in a university environment in which students play the role of tutors and get collaboratively involved in the production of teaching materials in support of class learning objectives. As part of an ongoing study first presented at ISAGA’07, the paper aims to analyze the process and the students’ individual contribution to group work. To promote student participation in meeting the task objectives and to overcome the problems of unequal participation or “free riders”, self and peer assessment have been used. Assessment should support equity principles and the criteria and standards by which performance is to be judged should be made clear to students from the outset. For this reason, problems regarding fairness in self and peer assessment will be discussed with the participants at the session. Results obtained show that if students are personally involved in the teaching process, motivation is higher and learning is more successful. The study identifies salient issues of constructing effective contributions to group work, facilitating the group’s ability to regulate group processes and participation.
Games: Virtual Words and Reality, Proceedings of the 39th Conference International Simulation and Gaming Association. Kaunas. Lituania. ISBN 978-9955-25-532-1. pp-179-187., 2008
Traditionally, educational approaches have paid more attention to individual work than to group w... more Traditionally, educational approaches have paid more attention to individual work than to group work such as that found in simulations. However, group work is today considered more effective for promoting student learning and retention than traditional methods. Those who are involved in research in gaming and simulation find problems in the criteria to be used in assessing: group? individuals?; and in getting every participant equally involved in the simulation. In this paper we report on the outcomes of our research on active learning based on group work with a game format in a university environment in which students play the role of tutors and get collaboratively involved in the production of teaching materials in support of class learning objectives. As part of an ongoing study first presented at ISAGA’07, the paper aims to analyze the process and the students’ individual contribution to group work. To promote student participation in meeting the task objectives and to overcome the problems of unequal participation or “free riders”, self and peer assessment have been used. Assessment should support equity principles and the criteria and standards by which performance is to be judged should be made clear to students from the outset. For this reason, problems regarding fairness in self and peer assessment will be discussed with the participants at the session. Results obtained show that if students are personally involved in the teaching process, motivation is higher and learning is more successful. The study identifies salient issues of constructing effective contributions to group work, facilitating the group’s ability to regulate group processes and participation.
Porta Linguarum 20, Jun 29, 2013
ABSTRACT. The present study, based on the principles of simulation methodology, sets forth the ... more ABSTRACT.
The present study, based on the principles of simulation methodology, sets
forth the implementation of experiential learning to enhance transferable skills and the
development of innovation competences in an English course setting. The innovative
contribution of the educational research undertaken is an experiential learning tool, devised
within the tenets of the simulation methodology: an open simulation approached from
competence framework to a hands-on experience. The Scenario, Profiles, Facilitator’s
Directions and Debriefing Process of the simulation are described in detail throughout
the paper as well as the educational implications.
Keywords:
simulation, experiential learning, innovation competences, communication
skills in English.
ONOMÁZEIN 27 (junio de 2013): 269 - 285, Jun 2013
This manuscript sets forth an in-depth study of competing pairs of prefixes of Greek and Latin or... more This manuscript sets forth an in-depth study of competing pairs of prefixes of Greek and Latin origin: hyper-vs. super-, micro-vs. mini-and poly- vs. multi-from a contrastive Spanish-English
perspective. Two major source corpora, the Corpus de Referencia del Español Actual for Spanish, and the British National Corpus for English were used for the purpose of this research. The prefixes were further analysed within the framework of a corpus of 200 translational equivalences, compiled from a lexicographic bilingual source, the Oxford Spanish Dictionary (2003); the results were then corroborated with the use of the prefixed words in a bilingual text-based online source, Linguee. This research sheds light on similarities and differences between such pairs of prefixes. The present contribution confirms the higher use of prefixation in Spanish. A much more frequent use of Latin prefixes, mainly super-and multi-, is attested in both languages. The cross-linguistic study reveals that prefixes seem to overlap semantically and syntactically across Spanish and English. Nevertheless, a representative percentage of Spanish prefixed words contrastively exhibit a non-morphological equivalence in English. Hence, a single different word, or a multiword unit may be used in English where derivational expansion of the base is preferred in Spanish.
Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences. Elsevier
"This pioneer study is rooted in a constructivist paradigm and undertakes an empirical research b... more "This pioneer study is rooted in a constructivist paradigm and undertakes an empirical research based on a content analysis of 400 digital job vacancies to find out the employability skills required by the job market. The study is focused on introducing innovations in an English language subject in an engineering degree to enhance the development not only of linguistic skills but also of generic skills, a challenge aimed at professional competitiveness and employability. The methodology used and outcomes are discussed in this paper.
© 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Keywords: English language learning, professional competencies, generic skills, innovative learning,"
ESPWorld, Nov 2013
The paper reports on a comparative study of equivalence in scientific and popular terminology acr... more The paper reports on a comparative study of equivalence in scientific and popular terminology across Romance and Germanic languages. The study is carried out within the framework of Languages for Specific Purposes lexicography, and focuses on a corpus of medical terminology in seven European languages. The first aim of the study was to confirm or reject the international character of the terms of the corpus. The neoclassical etymology of the international words was highlighted, as well as the changes experienced in the loanwords to be adapted to the host lexical system. A second aim of the research undertaken was to analyse the corresponding popular language equivalents to the scientific medical terms studied. The hypothesis that Romance languages had a higher tendency to use international words in popular communication than Germanic languages, as stated by Stichele (2000), was only partially confirmed; English and French lexical items had more cases of overlap of scientific and popular terms than German and Spanish. As most of the scientific terms are mainly known by professionals but appear less accessible to lay audiences, the study claimed that specialized words should be substituted by their popular equivalents to reach a successful communication in doctor-patient healthcare interactions.
Keywords. Internationalisms; Word formation; Scientific terminology; Popular terms; Language of medicine; Equivalence.
"Scholars have stated the particularities of the language used in specialized discourse but littl... more "Scholars have stated the particularities of the language used in specialized discourse but little attention has been so far paid to the role derivational morphology may play in register variation. The present research makes a contribution to the study of word-formation in scientific registers by means of a corpus-based approach to the productivity of 14 suffixes in two scientific English registers, i.e., computer science and medicine. In order to empirically examine the productivity of the suffixes in each register, types, tokens and hapaxes ratio were used. Results obtained were then contrasted with the presence of the same suffixes in the written language wordlist of the British National Corpus (BNC). The study shows that suffixes are a productive word-formation resource in scientific registers and that their productivity differs in the registers under study. Findings ranked higher productivity of abstract noun-forming suffixes such as -ity, -ion and -ness in scientific registers than in the BNC. The suffix ize reached values in the scientific corpora highly over the ranking drawn from the BNC. On the contrary,
the BNC yielded an outstanding productivity rate of free and -like, suffixes
which proved to be fully unproductive in the scientific registers under study"
Abstract Approaches to the linguistic characteristics of computer-mediated communication (CMC) ha... more Abstract Approaches to the linguistic characteristics of computer-mediated communication (CMC) have highlighted the frequent oral traits involved in electronic mail along with features of written language. But email is today a new communication exchange medium in social, professional and academic settings, frequently used as a substitute for the traditional formal letter. The oral characterizations and linguistic formality involved in this use of emails are still in need of research.
Abstract Research at the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia has shown that computer-mediated com... more Abstract Research at the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia has shown that computer-mediated communication by way of telematic simulation enhances the learning of English as a foreign language in the specific aspects of written expression, reading comprehension, listening comprehension and grammar (García Carbonell 1998).
Abstract: The development of Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) has given rise to a number of ... more Abstract: The development of Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) has given rise to a number of linguistic studies of human communication via the computer. The overwhelming majority of these studies have centred on one language, English, and they have focussed mainly on online multiuser environments, chats, e-mails and messages posted to online fora and internet mailing lists.
Abstract For more than three decades, researchers and practitioners in the field of English as a ... more Abstract For more than three decades, researchers and practitioners in the field of English as a foreign language have faced the issue of communicative competence as a goal in language acquisition and how to reach this goal.
Abstract This paper introduces the background of learning communities and simulation and gaming. ... more Abstract This paper introduces the background of learning communities and simulation and gaming. Both topics are explored from their origin after defining characteristics and giving examples of learning communities and simulation and gaming, establishing between the two concepts the principles of interaction, complementation, enrichment, motivation, effectiveness and self-stimulus.
Abstract Electronic mails have nowadays become the most usual support to exchange information in ... more Abstract Electronic mails have nowadays become the most usual support to exchange information in professional and academic environments. A lot of research on this topic to date has focused on the linguistic characteristics of electronic communication and on the formal and informal features and the orality involved in this form of communication. Most of the studies have referred to group-based asynchronous communication.
LSP in Multi-disciplinary contexts of Teaching and Research. Papers from the 16th International AELFE Conference. EPiC Series in Language and Linguistics, 2018
Improving the employability of graduates and professionals is the main aim of the European projec... more 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.
ESP World, 2017
Emerging communication practices in digitally mediated professional settings have changed the par... more Emerging communication practices in digitally mediated professional settings have changed the paradigm of current workforce requirements. This paper presents the results of a survey on the way people communicate virtually in the workplace and the specific needs that have been detected concerning virtual communication practices. The survey itself was carried out within the context of CoMoViWo, a European Erasmus Project which involves the participation of five European countries. Specifically, the current study carries out a contrastive analysis of the results of the needs analysis of Spanish and Finnish users of digital communication tools. The data obtained from the study highlights the differences found with regard to the communicative strategies preferred by the virtual workers of both countries. Although they all need to communicate formally on most online tools, Spanish workers prefer more informal registers in emails and social networking than Finnish virtual workers. Also, Spanish speakers manifest a greater need than the Finnish interviewees for improving strategies involving greetings, virtual presentations and negotiating. On the other hand, Finnish speakers perceive they only need to develop strategies in managing and/or hosting virtual group interactions. The results reflect the particular identity of both cultures and highlight the importance of understanding multiculturalism in international communication. The study, which has relevant implications, will contribute to the development of learning modules to train future employees to communicate successfully in an increasingly globalized world that is engaged daily in virtual communication.