Lucía Bellés-Calvera

The aim of this study is to analyze the writing errors made by first-year undergraduate Medicine students in the English classroom at a Spanish university. Forty-nine subjects enrolled in the English for Health Sciences module were expected to subtitle short videos not only implementing medical vocabulary seen in previous lessons, but also using Open Educational Resources (OERs), more specifically Bombay TV. This online tool allows learners to practise and develop their writing skills in the target language as well as their autonomy and creativity. Results showed that the most frequently committed errors were, in order, punctuation, spelling wrong verb choice, wrong word choice, pronouns, fragment, word order, articles, verb tense, subject-verb agreement, nouns, prepositions, capitalization and adjectives respectively. Moreover, the negative transfer of students' first language (L1) occasionally resulted in a lack of grammar and vocabulary accuracy that should be taken into account in order to enhance students' writing competence in the target language. A final questionnaire revealed that the use of new technologies in the foreign language classroom triggered students' motivation.

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.

The aim of this paper is to explore the writing of Spanish students in an online learning context. The sample for this study consisted of a group of forty-three Psychology undergraduate students having a B2 level of English, and the corpus compiled contains eighty compositions in total. To achieve the purpose of our study, those written contributions were corrected and analysed so as to check their progress over the course. Their most common errors were classified into a number of categories, including addition, word form, word choice and spelling. Results indicated that first language (L1) interference played an important role in students’ inaccuracies at a lexical level. Gender-based differences could be observed in terms of written performance, especially when it comes to spelling. These findings also indicate that written accuracy seems to be affected by the formality of the register. What language teachers may find profitable about this study may be linked to the identification of problematic areas in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) that need to be tackled in higher education, more specifically in the Psychology classroom. The implementation of scaffolding learning strategies can have a positive impact on the written performance of students who work in online learning environments.

The aim of this study is to analyze the writing errors made by first-year undergraduate Medicine students in the English classroom at a Spanish university. Forty-nine subjects enrolled in the English for Health Sciences module were expected to subtitle short videos not only implementing medical vocabulary seen in previous lessons, but also using Open Educational Resources (OERs), more specifically Bombay TV. This online tool allows learners to practise and develop their writing skills in the target language as well as their autonomy and creativity. Results showed that the most frequently committed errors were, in order, punctuation, spelling, wrong verb choice, wrong word choice, pronouns, fragment, word order, articles, verb tense, subject-verb agreement, nouns, prepositions, capitalization and adjectives respectively. Moreover, the negative transfer of students' first language (L1) occasionally resulted in a lack of grammar and vocabulary accuracy that should be taken into account in order to enhance students' writing competence in the target language. A final questionnaire revealed that the use of new technologies in the foreign language classroom triggered students' motivation. Likewise, students are provided with corrective feedback, a practice used in the field of education. Given that OERs are key in the study, the focus will be on online feedback.

Over the past few years, there has been a growing interest in the teaching and learning
of several languages in an attempt to generate multilingual education opportunities, particularly in Europe. In response to the demands of our globalized society, Content-Based Instruction (CBI), which has also been referred to as “immersion and Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) programs,” emerged as a teaching approach that combines the learning of curricular contents and the communicative competence in the target language. This study was carried out at a public high school set in a Spanish bilingual community, where music is taught through a CLIL approach in English class. The purpose of this paper is to examine how students value their music lessons in English and to check the adequacy of teaching music as a subject in English. To achieve this goal, materials adapted to their level of proficiency and a final questionnaire were designed. Results indicate that students are satisfied with this proposal, since they consider these music lessons to be easier than the regular ones. Not only did they enjoy being exposed to English in these music lessons, but a considerable number of students would also like to take a CLIL program in the near future. Pedagogical implications to this CBI model account for the development of learners’ autonomy, the use of audio-visual aids and further research in bilingual and multilingual regions overseas.

To reference this article in APA style / Para citar este artículo en APA / Para citar este artigo

Bellés-Calvera, L. (2018). Teaching music in English: A content-based instruction model in
secondary education. LACLIL, 11(1), 109-139. DOI: 10.5294/laclil.2018.11.1.6

Over the past few years, there has been a growing interest in the teaching and learning of several languages in an attempt to generate multilingual education opportunities, particularly in Europe. In response to the demands of our globalized society, Content-Based Instruction
(CBI), which has also been referred to as “immersion and Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) programs,” emerged as a teaching approach that combines the learning of curricular contents and the communicative competence in the target language. This study was carried out at a public high school set in a Spanish bilingual community, where music is taught through a CLIL approach in English class. The purpose of this paper is to examine how students value their music lessons in English and to check the adequacy of teaching music as a subject in English. To achieve this goal, materials adapted to their level of proficiency and a final questionnaire were designed. Results indicate that students are satisfied with this proposal, since they consider these
music lessons to be easier than the regular ones. Not only did they enjoy being exposed to English in these music lessons, but a considerable number of students would also like to take a CLIL program in the near future. Pedagogical implications to this CBI model account for the development of learners’ autonomy, the use of audio-visual aids and further research in bilingual and multilingual regions overseas.

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.

During the last decades, the promotion of multilingualism has been key when designing linguistic policies in Europe. Previous research studies have focused on how languages are employed in fields such as education, media, and urban sites, among others. Bearing all this in mind, the aim of this paper is to analyse the linguistic landscapes of three municipalities located in a bilingual region in Spain, that of the Valencian Community. Thus, issues such as language contact, language dominance, and the languages used by a number of institutions on private and public signs were examined. As for the method, over 140 pictures of language signs were taken in order to examine language contact, language dominance, and the influence of official and foreign languages on private and public signs. The results suggest that the presence of languages may vary depending on the population living in these settings, the citizens' mother tongue, and the policy regarding the minority language. The findings also indicate that the power of the two co-official languages is reinforced by public signs, whereas rich linguistic diversity is shown in private signs. All in all, it can be stated that the linguistic policy in the Valencian Community is not homogeneous throughout the region.

Begoña Bellés-Fortuño-Universitat Jaume I bbelles@uji.es Rebut / Received: 28-6-17 Acceptat / Accepted: 7-11-17 Resum. L'aprenentatge de la pronúncia anglesa mitjançant REO: El cas de Voki. Al llarg dels anys, l'anglès s'ha situat com una vertadera llengua global a la nostra societat. Això ha donat pas a l'aplicació d'un nombre de mètodes i enfocaments pel que fa a l'àrea d'ensenyament i aprenentatge de l'anglès com a llengua estrangera o segona llengua, on tant la integració de les Tecnologies de la Informació i la Comunicació (TIC) com dels Recursos Educatius Oberts (REO) és primordial. Tenint això en compte, aquest estudi té dos objectius. D'una banda, es pretén investigar fins a quin punt els estudiants universitaris matriculats a l'assignatura de Pronunciació i Comprensió de l'Anglès Oral són capaços de millorar la pronunciació mitjançant l'eina en línia anomenada Voki. D'altra banda, es vol examinar si tenen una actitud positiva cap a la utilització de les TIC per a l'aprenentatge de la pronunciació. Els resultats mostren que les TIC, en aquest cas Voki, té un gran potencial per a estimular l'aprenentatge de la pronunciació anglesa. Paraules clau: anglès com a llengua estrangera/segona llengua, TIC, pronunciació anglesa, Voki. Abstract. Teaching English pronunciation with OERs: The case of Voki. Along the years English has emerged as a truly global language in our society. This has resulted in a number of methods and approaches used in the field of teaching and learning English as a Foreign or Second Language (EFL/ESL), where both the integration of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and the Open Educational Resources (OERs) are paramount. Bearing this in mind, the objective of the present paper is twofold. On the one hand, to investigate to what extent university students enrolled in the Pronunciation and Understanding of Spoken English module are able to improve their pronunciation through an online tool called Voki. On the Sintagma 30 bis.indd 57

Written communication is one of the main competences in language acquisition, not least foreign language learning. The onus to teach this skill to highly qualified future workers is on higher educational institutions (Dickson, 2009), as written discourse is pivotal in both academic and professional contexts (Whittaker & Llinares, 2011; Chaudron, Martín Úriz & Whittaker, 2005). Despite the myriad of free online tools available to edit and self-review texts, students seem to struggle with those rules which are different in their mother tongue (Futina, Fata & Fitrisia, 2016). In fact, lexical transfers and other grammatical errors are generally found in EFL academic writing (Bellés-Calvera & Bellés-Fortuño, 2018; Manzano Vázquez, 2014). At this point, corrective feedback has proven to be an intrinsic part of the writing process (Ferris, 2002) as it has traditionally been used by students to improve their communicative competence in the target language (Hyland, 1998). The aim of this paper is to present a comparative study in which students’ most common errors at B2 level will be analysed on the basis of gender in an online learning context since recent studies have revealed that female learners are better at second language acquisition than male learners (Larsen-Freeman & Long, 2014; Futina, Fata & Fitrisia, 2016). The sample for this study consisted of a group of 40 Psychology undergraduate students and the corpus compiled contains eighty compositions in total. To achieve the purpose of our study, those written contributions were corrected and analysed so as to check their progress over the course. To this end, students’ most common errors were classified into a number of categories, including spelling, organisation, wrong word choice, verb tense or word order, among others. Results indicated that first language (L1) interference played an important role in students’ inaccuracies, particularly at a lexico-grammatical level. Surprisingly, no significant gender-based differences could be observed in terms of written performance. The provision of corrective feedback should also be considered as it is intended to help students overcome persistent linguistic shortcomings. What language teachers may find profitable about this study may be linked to the identification of problematic areas in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) that need to be tackled in higher education, more specifically in the Psychology classroom. The current research could also shed some light on the set of corrective feedback strategies that seem to have a positive effect on students’ written performance and, thus, work in online learning environments.

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