9:00 – 9:30   Ana Ibáñez & M.ª Ángeles Escobar Álvarez, UNED (SPAIN)

    “ENVITOUR app: ENglish VIdeos for TOURism”

In this presentation we briefly describe a mobile app to practice English in the field of tourism in an enjoyable and authentic way by means of short clips which the users have to describe what they see. The app, which is being currently developed, offers a battery of videos of different levels, and with different touristic situations by being linked to our YouTube channel. The users can select the videos they want to watch and describe, and they can, once they have recorded themselves, choose to send them to us, in order to get personalized feedback, by clicking on the button send, or they can also evaluate themselves, by clicking on a link that directs them to a self-evaluation test.

This app is aimed for students of English for tourism who want to practice their oral skills (both listening and speaking) in an authentic way and anytime, anywhere. It is partly based on previous app, VISP (VIdeos for SPeaking), which was designed by Ibáñez Moreno and Vermeulen (2015) for students of translation English-Spanish. This app proved to be quite successful, but students reported difficulties in understanding how it works (Ibáñez Moreno and Vermeulen 2016). In this case, we wanted to take a step further, and make it simpler and more user friendly.

9:30 – 10:00       Carolina Arias Contreras, The University of Qeensland (AUSTRALIA)

    “Exploring ESP in the agricultural sector: A needs analysis in the Chilean context”

Although English for Specific Purposes (ESP) has been investigated in almost all disciplines, few studies have explored the role of ESP in the field of agriculture; specifically, the role it plays for agricultural technicians in Chile. This study seeks to address this gap by investigating the tasks that require English in the work of agricultural technicians and teachers’ perceptions towards the teaching of English to secondary students of agriculture. Data were elicited from documents and interviews with five workers from one agricultural company and five teachers from one secondary school. Findings reveal that English language is essential for technicians to carry out specific tasks (e.g., reading manuals and labels). From the teachers’ perspective, however, there exist several limitations concerning the EFL curriculum and teaching materials which hamper students’ preparation in terms of English skills for the demands of their future jobs. The study provides ESP researchers and practitioners with insights into needs analysis research.

10:00 – 10:30  Yolanda Joy Calvo Benzies, Univeristy of the Balearic Islands (SPAIN) 

    “Using English-Learning Apps inside Tourism and Business Classes: Analysis and Critical Review”

In recent years, some studies have been conducted on the use of apps within ESP classrooms; most of them either report students´ and/or teachers´ views on particular apps or analyse students´ improvement at a lexical level thanks to using certain apps. Furthermore, the vast majority focus on one single app. However, to the best of my knowledge, not many studies have critically reviewed and compared a number of apps specifically addressed to a certain group of ESP students; this lack of studies is even greater if we focus on the fields of Tourism and Business. The present study therefore aims to be a contribution to the field in the sense that 17 apps designed for Business English and Tourism students are reviewed, analysed and compared. Only apps which cover the topics seen within the subjects English 1, 2 and 3 at the University of the Balearic Islands (degree in Tourism/double degree in Tourism and Business Administration) were chosen. Attention is paid both to format (menu and general design, advertising, personalisation, etc) and content (title-transparency, topics, skills and language areas emphasised, activities…).

The results indicate that, although most of the apps contain useful topics and/or authentic language for university students enrolled in the previously-mentioned degrees (such as, vocabulary for preparing job interviews, business meetings or presentations, dealing with reservations or writing cover letters), emphasis is mainly placed on receptive skills and hardly ever on productive ones. Moreover, most of the apps offer theoretical explanations, word-lists or dialogues with several speakers but very few of them include practical activities for students to put into practise the concepts learnt; similarly, hardly any of them contain tests for students to check whether they have learnt the content correctly. In conclusion, teachers should look at mobile apps in detail before recommending them to their students.

10:30 – 11:00   Octavia Raluca Zglobiu, Babes-Bolyai Univeristy (ROMANIA)

    “A Case Study on Needs Analysis in English for Academic Environmental Purposes”

The present study sets out to detect if there are possible steps that can be taken in order to conduct an exhaustive target needs analysis for 1^st year students in an ESP course (English for Environmental Science and Engineering). The research has been carried out during one academic year and provides useful insights into how the ESP instructors could balance the present needs analysis results with the target needs analysis objectives in order to obtain effectiveness in teaching specialised content. At the same time, possible ways to obtain effectiveness in correlating needs analysis, syllabi and methodology shall be addressed, trying to detect if the results of the research match the ESP instructor’s expectations and if they help in designing an online distance course in ESP.

Keywords: English for Specific Purposes, Needs Analysis, Curriculum Development, ESP Syllabus, English for Environmental Science and Engineering

                                                                          ~11:00-11:30 COFFEE BREAK~

11:30 – 12:00    Eva Estebas, Mariángel Solans, UNED (SPAIN)

    “An L-MOOC on literature and pronunciation to enhance the oral skills of ESP students”

The aim of this paper is to examine how new models of online-teaching, such as Language Massive Open Online Courses (L-MOOCs), can help students of ESP improve their oral skills in a distance learning environment. In particular, this paper analyses the effects of the L-MOOC “The Acquisition of English Pronunciation through songs and literary texts” on the oral productions of students of English for Tourism. Over the last few years, MOOCs have emerged as a new model of online teaching (Baker 2012, Castrillo, 2014), not only favourable to the general public but also to students of higher education courses (Czerniewicz et al. 2014, Schuwer et al. 2015, León-Urrutia et al. 2018, among others). The L-MOOC, designed by a group of teachers from the Distance University in Spain (UNED), aimed at finding a new way of teaching English pronunciation through literary and music forms which could reach a variety of students from different university degrees. This innovative method of phonetics teaching follows the opposite approach to most higher education courses on English pronunciation and involves approaching phonetics from prosody to sounds, that is, from the rhythmic pattern of sentences to specific vowel and consonant contrasts (Estebas-Vilaplana and Solans, 2020). The impact of the L-MOOC on the English pronunciation competences of the students was measured as part of a final oral exam in the subject “Prácticas de Comunicación en Inglés” from the Degree in Tourism (UNED). The students that followed the L-MOOC did better in their oral productions, proving that a reverse approach to phonetics teaching can be highly beneficial to the students of ESP. The results also corroborated the positive effect of incorporating an L-MOOC as complementary work to ESP courses.

Keywords: MOOC, English pronunciation, literature, English for Tourism, distance learning.

12:00 – 12:30   Jelena Bobkina; Elena Domínguez Romero, UPM & Mª Jose Gómez Ortiz, UCM (SPAIN)

    “Body language in video-pitch presentations: Developing non-verbal communication skills in ESP engineering undergraduate programmes»

Recent advances in technology are replacing traditional communication by video communication and social media (Atkinson, 2017). Video and lightning-fast messaging are reshaping the quality and quantity of face-to-face communication, revolutionising communication in informal everyday situations and formal contexts such as public speaking. However, technology has not replaced the need to carefully prepare speeches (Alias & Osman, 2015; Checa Romero, 2015; Iordache et al., 2017), despite proving some additional tools to facilitate the process (Graveline, 2013).

The present paper stems from digital communication in order to highlight 21^st century effective communicators’ need to acquire kinesic skills related to digital oracy literacy. Communication skills comprise a combination of verbal, physical and interpersonal strategies which are necessary to interact confidently and efficiently with a variety of audiences.

Physical communication cannot be obviated as it impacts on verbal communication, enhancing fluency. Gestures, facial expression, and eye-gazing function as non-verbal means to control and organize conversations (Jokinen, 2009). This is a must for our English for Specific Purposes engineering students. Current global and plurilingual society demands engineers able to collaborate in international and interdisciplinary working teams offering new engineering solutions. Undergraduate engineering students often find presenting their research as an intimidating or daunting experience because of the lack of experience. In this regard, the present paper addresse the study of kinesic physical elements, as they play an important role in effective communication.

Contrary to traditional communication, the use of kinesics in video-pitch presentations has remained unexplored. Aiming to bridge the existing gap, this paper strives to analyse our engineering students’ kinesic performing communication skills in digital settings such as video-pitches. Based on the results of our analysis, some pedagogical implications are suggested on how students can improve their kinesic communication skills in digital settings. 

Keywords: kinesic performing communication skills, non-verbal communication, traditional and digital communication settings, ESP, engineering programmes

12:30 – 13:00   Ourania Katsara, University of Patras (GREECE)

    “Insights from an ERASMUS teaching programme on Academic Writing: The French case”

This article discusses the importance of Erasmus teaching mobility within the context of internationalization. The teaching of a short course in English for General Academic Purposes (EGAP) within the Erasmus staff mobility teaching programme in Université Polytechnique Hauts- de-France in Valenciennes in France is discussed. The article offers a detailed presentation of the students’ analysis of their opinions of its usefulness. Specifically, 98 French first year students of the Marketing Techniques Department at the Valenciennes IUT completed a questionnaire distributed at the end of the course. It was found that overall students were satisfied with the quality of the short academic course. The main findings of the investigation indicated that students felt that the content of the materials presented was relevant to the course topic reporting that the presentation level was somewhat detailed for them. It was also found that students showed preference towards specific skills in academic writing such as interpreting the research essay topic, paraphrasing, summarizing and discussing results of a research paper. Students’ suggestions for improvement included issues on the length of the course, division of smaller groups and more interaction between the tutor and the students. Issues relating to the impact of French culture on learning were noted. A set of preliminary pedagogical implications in relation to a departmental language policy which promotes internationalization of academic staff are also offered.

Keywords: English for General Academic Purposes (EGAP), Erasmus staff mobility, Academic writing, Higher Education, French students

                                                                       ~13:00-15:00: LUNCH BREAK~

15: 00 – 15:30  Ana Roldán-Riejos, UPM (SPAIN)

     “Phraseological nuances of civil engineering RA titles”

The function of titles in any work of investigation is invaluable, as they serve to introduce the theme, aim, method, result, or any other element that the author intends to highlight. In research papers (RA), titles metonymically aim to encapsulate their content since the title stands for the whole article, assuming this PART/WHOLE relationship, the title represents the paper, therefore triggering in the reader a number of cognitive and associative operations capable to arise inferences about it ( Zeng 2019).  In fact, the choice of an effective title can spark the interest of peer researchers and may result in a higher number of downloads and citations. In the biological and medical sciences, Jamali and Nikzad (2011) establish a correlation between title length, downloads and citations. They argue that longer titles such as those divided with a colon tend to receive fewer citations and downloads. These are aspects that are likely to depend on discipline variation (Hartley 2007, Hudson 2016) and do not fall within the scope of this paper. The present study intends to apply an approach meant to integrate “macroscopic” and “microscopic” perspectives (Soler 2007: 92). Accordingly, attention is paid not only to title structure, configuration and phraseology but also to length, word order and syntax. The following research questions are particularly investigated:

• What types of CERA (Civil Engineering Research Articles) titles are more used in the CE field?What is their composition and lenght?
• Do these titles contain any conventionalized rhetorical patterns, and which are they?
• What are the main phraseological features of these titles?

The findings of this work may provide insights to inform ESP teaching materials and to advance in the phraseological study of engineering communication.

15: 30 – 16:00      Laura González Fernández, University of Salamanca (SPAIN)

    “Translator competence in Second Foreign Language teaching: acquisition of intercultural skills”

This paper aims to find new ways to develop specific aspects of translator competence, namely intercultural competence, in Second/ Foreign Language teaching (FLT henceforth), in the curriculum of Translation and Interpreting studies. FLT provides a favourable environment to improve and acquire intercultural competence, while at the same time strengthening other areas of translator competence from a holistic perspective.

A diachronic study of the different teaching approaches and methodologies used to integrate and develop intercultural competence in FLT is presented, which supports the use of the series of teaching strategies outlined below. On the basis of these findings, we elaborate an integrative task-based approach to FLT syllabus design aimed at fostering Translation and Interpreting students’ intercultural competence. Effective language learning paths with a modulated degree of academic and professional complexity are presented to the student with the aim of favouring the autopoiesis processes that are necessary for the integral development of translator competence, focusing especially on the intercultural domain.

A series of communicative, collaborative activities, contextualized by authentic cultural audiovisual materials and texts allows students to acquire and practice the necessary attitudes, knowledge, skills and competences required to carry out the final task successfully. The pedagogical task, translation and subtitling of a short video clip (2-3 minutes) using an open source subtitling editor (Subtitle Edit), offers a highly motivating and professionally relevant scenario and seeks to foster emergence of students’ language competence in combination with translation competence, focusing especially on intercultural awareness and communication.

This pedagogical approach and the proposed tasks represent a firm commitment to a kind of FLT syllabus design that aims at competence building and development, which, in the specific case of Translation and Interpreting Studies, would revolve around translator supercompetence, and symbolic and intercultural subcompetences, as they are all crucial for professionals in intercultural mediation.

Keywords: FLT, intercultural competence, translator competence, symbolic competence, task-based learning, subtitling.

                                                                        ~16:00-16:30: COFFEE BREAK~

16:30–17:30     Closing conference by Elena Bárcena, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (SPAIN)  

    “The inclusive open online teaching of second languages for immediate needs”

The concepts of topic relevance and inclusion require special attention in the domain of languages for special purposes on the part of the online teaching community. The standard contents of general-purpose language courses are usually inadequate for those people who need to communicate in the target language speaking community on their first arrival to the country. This partly explains the low popularity of these courses among displaced people, such as refugees and migrants, since they are at risk of suffering social exclusion and cannot count on other complementary forms of language training or support. They are often reluctant about the cost-effectiveness and efficiency of such courses in addressing their communicative requirements in a new country, given the differences with respect to those of other social and professional groups. However, it can be argued that displaced people can benefit from this type of second language courses when they are designed to cover their immediate needs of being linguistically self-sufficient and functional in a host country. The availability, flexibility, and lack of costs of MOOCs for students make them an ideal pedagogical modality for displaced people. However, dropout rates are extraordinarily high on these courses. The plethora of causes identified so far include feelings of detachment and isolation on the part of the course participants and the social, learning and digital cultural divide between them and the course developers. Such feelings may be particularly intense due to complex life conditions and emotional trauma often present in displaced people. Making an online course inclusive both in form and content appears to be a solution to improve course satisfaction and the associated completion rates. A number of linguistic resources and teaching practices that may impact both group exclusion and individual discrimination have been identified, therefore, based on principles and categories from Appraisal Theory. These resources and practices fulfill a double formative goal in second language MOOCs thanks to the strategies used by the teachers and facilitators to address the course participants.  Since language is both the means and the end of such courses, its explicit inclusive nature not only has a direct supporting effect on the students but also serves as a model for them to emulate, causing it to be propagated in their daily communicative situations, both online and face-to-face.