Nonverbal communication in EFL teaching

XXI Jornades de Foment de la Investigació de la Facultat de Ciències Humanes i Socials (Any 2016)In recent years a number of researchers have stressed the importance of nonverbal communication – especially Kinesics – in the teaching and learning of languages (Bernsen, 2002; Jung, 2003; González, 2004; Querol-Julián and Belles-Fortuño, 2010; Surkamp, 2014). This paper aims to investigate the importance of gestures in the communication process and how the appropriate use of nonverbal communication enhances classroom interaction and contributes to conveying meaning. EFL language teaching can benefited from nonverbal communication when this is used in an effective way. The paper examines a small corpus of two videos taken from YouTube in which EFL teachers’ discourse and co-speech gestures (McNeill, 1992) were analysed. Results suggest that teachers used primarily iconic hand movements, which in turn enhanced students’ acquisition of the target language (TL). Finally, a section of pedagogical implications will focus on the appropriate use of gestures in a number of interactive activities

CLIL and e-learning environments: The role of Google My Maps and students' written performance in Classical History.

Education in the 21st century has moved towards digital learning to offer high quality programmes that meet the technological and communicative demands of today's society. Well-known approaches such as Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) and English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) may benefit from this new reality by addressing linguistic and cognitive challenges in written discourse. This paper examines the written performance of forty first-year undergraduate students coursing a CLIL module in History of the Classical World at a Spanish university. By means of Google My Maps, participants were expected to create a custom map describing five Roman vestiges of their choice. The findings indicate that students' L1 negative transfer may lead to grammatical and lexical inaccuracy. Google My Maps has proved to be a valid resource for the retention of History contents as well as for the acquisition of a foreign language in online learning environments

Learning Pronunciation with OERs: a practical case for Medicine students

[EN] The aim of this study is to improve English pronunciation in the university classroom of first-year Medicine students through the use of OERs. Technologies such as Voki or LEO network are used in the practical sessions of the English for Health Sciences module. Voki platform allows learners to practise and improve their fluency and spoken skills in the target language. LEO network was also used to allow students to exercise and check their pronunciation performance with the tool ‘Learn English through dictation’. Two surveys addressed to students tried to delve into their level of English pronunciation and the importance given to this ability up to now. We aimed at knowing how much the students were exposed to pronunciation training before entering university and whether this training was presented through the use of new technologies. First-year Medicine students seemed motivated to the improvement and learning of pronunciation techniques through the use of OERs. A final questionnaire revealed that, although the teaching proposal with the use of computer tools was rewarding, not all of them seemed so fond of new technologies as expected.Bellés-Fortuño, B.; Bellés-Calvera, L. (2017). Learning Pronunciation with OERs: a practical case for Medicine students. En Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Higher Education Advances. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 1255-1262. https://doi.org/10.4995/HEAD17.2017.5571OCS1255126

El enfoque AICLE y los entornos de aprendizaje en línea: El papel de Google My Maps y la producción escrita de los estudiantes en Historia Antigua

Education in the 21 st century has moved towards digital learning to offer high quality programmes that meet the technological and communicative demands of today’s society. Well - known approaches such as Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) and English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) may benefit from this new reality by addressing linguistic and cognitive challenges in written discourse. This paper examines the written performance of forty first - year undergraduate students coursing a CLIL module in History of the Classical World at a Spanish university . By means of Google My Maps, participants were expected to create a custom map describing five Roman vestiges of their choice. The findings indicate that students’ L1 negative transfer may lead to grammatical and lexical inaccuracy. Google My Maps has pr oved to be a valid resource for the retention of History contents as well as for the acquisition of a foreign language in online learning environments.La educación en el siglo XXI ha introducido el aprendizaje digital en programas de alta calidad para satisfacer las demandas tecnológicas y comunicativas de la sociedad actual. Enfoques conocidos como el Aprendizaje Integrado de Contenido y Lenguaje (AICLE) y el Inglés como Medio de Instrucción (IME) pueden beneficiarse de esta nueva realidad al abordar los desafíos lingüísticos y cognitivos del discurso escrito. Este trabajo examina la producción escrita de cuarenta y dos estudiantes de primer año de grado que cursan un módulo de AICLE en Historia del Mundo Clásico en una universidad española. Por medio de Google My Maps se espera que los participantes creen un mapa personalizado que describa los cinco vestigios romanos según su elección. Los resultados indican que la transferencia negativa de la L1 puede llevar a inexactitudes gramaticales y léxicas en la L2. Google My Maps ha demostrado ser un recurso válido para la retención de contenidos en Historia, así como para la adquisición de un idioma extranjero en entornos de aprendizaje en línea