Teaching English Pronunciation Online during the COVID-19 Crisis Outbreak

[EN] The abrupt emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic in spring 2020 forced tertiary professors to urgently adapt the face-to-face courses they were lecturing to emergency remote teaching. Researchers of different fields have started to investigate and share their thoughts on which are the best methodologies to guarantee a high-quality learning experience while coping with students’ anxiety and teachers’ lack of technical background. The present study examines the adaptation of an English pronunciation course at Rovira i Virgili university to the online setting imposed by the outbreak of the pandemic. The students who took the course were asked to fill in a satisfaction survey containing multiple choice, Likert scale and open questions on the different measures taken and the general progress of the course. Results show that students were higly satisfied with the adaptation of the course to the online context, and that the methods adopted and tools provided were useful and sufficient to continue with the adequate functioning of the course. Hence, this study is a sample of how to teach pronunciation remotely in particular, and how to successfully adapt a face-to-face university course to emergency remote teaching in general, guaranteeing students’ learning and engagement.Quesada Vázquez, L. (2021). Teaching English Pronunciation Online during the COVID-19 Crisis Outbreak. En 7th International Conference on Higher Education Advances (HEAd'21). Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 351-358. https://doi.org/10.4995/HEAd21.2021.1290635135

ESP within ESP: the design and implementation of a pronunciation module in a technical English course

This paper focuses on the design and implementation of a ten-week pronunciation module within a university technical English course as part of a broader study that investigates the efficacy of explicit rhythm instruction to improve engineering students’ prosody in English. Sessions were adapted to the course contents and followed Celce-Murcia, Brinton & Goodwin's (1996) steps to teach communicatively. The participants were 298 Spanish/Catalan-speaking first-year undergraduate engineering students divided into three experimental groups and three control groups. The experimental groups received explicit rhythm instruction while the control groups did not. They all were recorded before and after the training. Ten sentences were analyzed acoustically and measures of rhythm (VarcoV) were obtained. Preliminary results revealed that students who took rhythm instruction tended to increase their VarcoV values, approaching English rhythm, while the control group showed a volatile behavior. The comparison of the effect sizes of each group’s differences in performance before and after instruction was statistically significant. Findings suggest that rhythm instruction can be beneficial to enhance EFL students’ prosody and that pronunciation can be effectively introduced within an ESP course

Subclinical atherosclerosis and accelerated epigenetic age mediated by inflammation: a multi-omics study.

AIMS Epigenetic age is emerging as a personalized and accurate predictor of biological age. The aim of this article is to assess the association of subclinical atherosclerosis with accelerated epigenetic age and to investigate the underlying mechanisms mediating this association. METHODS AND RESULTS Whole blood methylomics, transcriptomics, and plasma proteomics were obtained for 391 participants of the Progression of Early Subclinical Atherosclerosis study. Epigenetic age was calculated from methylomics data for each participant. Its divergence from chronological age is termed epigenetic age acceleration. Subclinical atherosclerosis burden was estimated by multi-territory 2D/3D vascular ultrasound and by coronary artery calcification. In healthy individuals, the presence, extension, and progression of subclinical atherosclerosis were associated with a significant acceleration of the Grim epigenetic age, a predictor of health and lifespan, regardless of traditional cardiovascular risk factors. Individuals with an accelerated Grim epigenetic age were characterized by an increased systemic inflammation and associated with a score of low-grade, chronic inflammation. Mediation analysis using transcriptomics and proteomics data revealed key pro-inflammatory pathways (IL6, Inflammasome, and IL10) and genes (IL1B, OSM, TLR5, and CD14) mediating the association between subclinical atherosclerosis and epigenetic age acceleration. CONCLUSION The presence, extension, and progression of subclinical atherosclerosis in middle-aged asymptomatic individuals are associated with an acceleration in the Grim epigenetic age. Mediation analysis using transcriptomics and proteomics data suggests a key role of systemic inflammation in this association, reinforcing the relevance of interventions on inflammation to prevent cardiovascular disease.The PESA study is co-funded by the Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares (CNIC), Madrid, Spain, and Banco Santander, Madrid, Spain. The study also receives funding from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (PI15/02019, PI17/00590, and PI20/00819) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) ‘Una manera de hacer Europa’. The CNIC is supported by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII), the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MCIN) and the Pro CNIC Foundation, and is a Severo Ochoa Center of Excellence (grant CEX2020-001041-S funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033).S

El uso de ChatGPT como herramienta innovadora para la mejora de la calidad docente en filología inglesa, inglés general e inglés para fines específicos

Actualmente, la universidad enfrenta el desafío de integrar inteligencias artificiales (IA) como ChatGPT, un modelo de lenguaje desarrollado por OpenAI que genera textos en varios idiomas. Aunque algunos ven esta tecnología como una amenaza que podría inhibir el aprendizaje y fomentar la pereza académica, el proyecto ve en estas herramientas un potencial educativo significativo. La IA puede ser utilizada para fomentar un aprendizaje activo y crítico, alineado con las necesidades de estudiantes nativos digitales. La transición de una cultura del libro físico a una virtual requiere que la academia adopte nuevas tecnologías y metodologías. En lugar de competir con la IA, los profesores deben buscar formas innovadoras de integrarla en la enseñanza para mejorar la práctica docente y el aprendizaje estudiantil, aprovechando las oportunidades que ofrece para conectar mejor con los alumnos y prepararles para el futuro. El objetivo fundamental de este proyecto es la integración de herramientas LLM como ChatGPT, basadas en la comunicación con una inteligencia artificial para la producción de textos de diferente índole en cuestión de segundos, para la docencia de asignaturas de filología inglesa e inglés general (Grado de Estudios Ingleses) e inglés para fines específicos (Grados de Económicas, Comercio, Turismo y Ciencias de la Información y Documentación). De todo ello, además, se desprenden una serie de objetivos específicos especialmente orientados para los siguientes colectivos: el alumnado, el profesorado, la investigación y la transferencia a la sociedad.Depto. de Estudios Ingleses: Lingüística y LiteraturaFac. de Ciencias Económicas y EmpresarialesFALSEsubmitte