Genres in the forefront, languages in the background: the scope of genre analysis in language-related scenarios

Drawing on bibliometric methods (citation analysis and content analysis) and literature review, this paper offers some critical reflections of how genre analysis has been used, applied, expanded and refined to address the challenges of a culturally and linguistically diverse academic and research community. The first reflection opens with a brief review of the privileged status of English as the international language of academic and research communication to discuss contrasting scholarly positions that regard ‘Englishization’ as either ‘help’ or ‘hindrance’. The second reflection focuses on rhetorical move analysis, an aspect of genre theory that to date has been little considered outside ESP/EAP traditions of genre analysis. It discusses how move analysis, in cross-fertilization with various theoretical/analytical frameworks, can add to our understanding of the way L2 academic English writers accomplish meso- and micro-rhetorical manoeuvres. The final reflection touches upon the impact of internationalization and research assessment policies on the current knowledge exchange, dissemination and publication practices to emphasize the value of the Swalesian task-based approach and advocate a multiliterate rhetorical consciousness-raising pedagogy. The paper concludes with some suggestions for future genre research and proposes ways of articulating cogent language instructional intervention to empower members of bi-/multiliterate academic and research communities professionally

La función de la motivación en el aula de inglés

Trabajo de fin de Máster, modalidad A, que revisa y analiza dos trabajos realizados durante el año académico bajo el punto de vista de la motivación

Aprendizaje Basado en Tareas en Formación Profesional: puntos de vista y opiniones de los estudiantes en base a la puesta en práctica en el aula

Due to present-day fostering of learning English as a foreign language, its teaching has evolved from a more traditional perspective to a focus on oral communication (Ellis, 2003; Richards, 2006). In this line, different methodologies are applied in education to meet this new need, one of this being Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT). In addition, an important variety of English nowadays is English for Specific Purposes (ESP), and for that, it is being more researched in the educational periods that applies. The present study aims to contribute to an understanding of Vocational Education students’ views and opinions towards TBLT and the implications of teaching following this methodology or a more traditional one in this specific context. To this aim, qualitative tools were designed in order to compare the students’ views and opinions regarding TBLT. Overall, results showed that the students were aware of the usefulness of this methodology yet they relied on traditional teaching methods when it comes to learning English. The study suggests that although these students are aware of the impact of TBLT in their learning process, they do not seem to fully rely on this methodology to learn English because they have always being taught following a traditional presentation-practice-production approach