Mediating Specialized Knowledge and L2 Abilities: New Research in Spanish/English Bilingual Models and Beyond 3030874753, 9783030874759

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Mediating Specialized Knowledge and L2 Abilities New Research in Spanish/English Bilingual Models and Beyond Edited by Linda Escobar Ana Ibáñez Moreno

Mediating Specialized Knowledge and L2 Abilities

Linda Escobar Ana Ibáñez Moreno Editors

Mediating Specialized Knowledge and L2 Abilities New Research in Spanish/English Bilingual Models and Beyond

Editors Linda Escobar Faculty of Humanities National University of Distance Education Madrid, Spain

Ana Ibáñez Moreno Faculty of Humanities National University of Distance Education Madrid, Spain

ISBN 978-3-030-87475-9    ISBN 978-3-030-87476-6 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-87476-6 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover illustration: Jennifer Chen / Alamy Stock Photo. This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG. The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

Acknowledgements

This book has received the support of the following research groups: “OLGA-2018-3” of educational innovation financed by the UNED, coordinated by Dr. Linda Escobar, “REMARE-EMI” financed by the University of Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM) and Ciencias + Letras = CLAP (Sciences and linguistics: practical applications) with reference FCT-20-15816, funded by the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology. It also has the participation of two research groups: DILEAR (Didactics of languages and art), directed by Esther Nieto Moreno de Diezmas, and CACLE (Communication, learning and competences in a foreign language), directed by Gema Alcaraz Mármol. The editors also thank the collaboration of the International ESP Teacher’s Association (IESPTA). More specific acknowledgements may be found inside the chapters included in this book.

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Contents

Part I L2 Education in English/Spanish Bilingual Contexts   1 1 Tertiary Bilingual Education: The Iberian Spanish Case Versus Other Multilingual Contexts  3 Linda Escobar 2 Translanguaging and Language Mediation in EMI Contexts: Emotional Stances and Translation Issues 17 Esther Nieto Moreno de Diezmas and Alicia Fernández Barrera 3 Translator Competence in Second Foreign Language Teaching: Acquisition of Intercultural Competence 35 Laura González Fernández 4 The Making of Future School Mediators: Using Digital Narratives for Mediation Purposes 63 María Victoria Guadamillas Gómez 5 CLILing EMI for Effective Mediation in the L2 in Preservice Teacher Education: A Case Study at a Spanish University 81 Magdalena Custodio-Espinar and Alfonso López-Hernández vii

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Part II ESP Instruction Practices in International Context 109 6 Positive Psychology and L2 Motivation in ESP111 Imelda Katherine Brady 7 Using English-Learning Apps Inside Tourism and Business Classes: Analysis and Critical Review133 Yolanda Joy Calvo Benzies 8 ESP for Tourism: Does It Meet Employers’ Needs and Prepare Students for the Workplace?153 Gloria Chamorro, María Vázquez-Amador, and María del Carmen Garrido-Hornos 9 Teaching Spanish Medical Students How to Write a Case History191 Ariel Sebastián Mercado 10 Teaching ESP Through Data-Driven Learning: An Exploratory Study in Health Sciences Degrees209 Jorge Soto-Almela and Gema Alcaraz-Mármol 11 Division of Labour and the Development of Professional Literacies: Problematising ESP Learners’ Preparedness for Workplace Writing229 Tayba S. Al Hilali and Jim McKinley Part III EAP Instruction Practices and Academic Writing 249 12 Insights from an ERASMUS Teaching Programme on Academic Writing: The French Case251 Ourania Katsara

 Contents 

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13 A Case Study on Needs Analysis in English for Academic Environmental Purposes275 Octavia Raluca Zglobiu 14 Navigating Corpora for Self-Directed LSP Writing: A Comparative Study of Digital Method and Resource Integration in L1 Versus L2 Language Courses289 Loredana Bercuci, Ana-Maria Pop, Mădălina Chitez, and Andreea Dincă 15 Corpus-Based Discourse Analysis: Titles in Civil Engineering Research Articles311 Ana Roldan-Riejos 16 Tales from the Philippines: Fostering Intercultural Language Learning Through a Literary Journey Around the Philippine Archipelago333 Ana Sevilla-Pavón and María Alcantud-Díaz Index361

List of Contributors

María Alcantud-Díaz  TALIS, Universitat de València, Valencia, Spain Gema Alcaraz-Mármol  Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Ciudad Real, Spain Tayba S. Al Hilali University of Technology and Applied Sciences, Muscat, Oman Linda Escobar Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED), Madrid, Spain Alicia Fernández Barrera  University of Castilla-La Mancha, Ciudad Real, Spain Yolanda Joy Calvo Benzies  University of the Balearic Islands (UBI), Palma de Mallorca, Spain Loredana Bercuci  West University of Timisoara, Timișoara, Romania Imelda Katherine Brady Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED), Madrid, Spain Gloria Chamorro  University of Kent, Canterbury, UK Mădălina Chitez  West University of Timisoara, Timișoara, Romania xi

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List of Contributors

Magdalena Custodio-Espinar  Comillas Madrid, Spain

Pontifical

University,

Esther Nieto Moreno de Diezmas  University of Castilla-La Mancha, Ciudad Real, Spain Andreea Dincă  West University of Timisoara, Timișoara, Romania Laura González Fernández  University of Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain María del Carmen Garrido-Hornos University Valladolid, Spain

of Valladolid,

María Victoria Guadamillas Gómez  University of Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM), Toledo, Spain Ourania Katsara  University of Patras, Patras, Greece Alfonso López-Hernández  Comillas Pontifical University, Madrid, Spain Jim McKinley  UCL Institute of Education, London, UK Jorge Soto-Almela  Universidad de Alicante, Alicante, Spain Ariel Sebastián Mercado  McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada Ana-Maria Pop  West University of Timisoara, Timișoara, Romania Ana Roldan-Riejos  Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Madrid, Spain Ana Sevilla-Pavón  IULMA-TALIS, Valencia, Spain

Universitat

de

València,

María Vázquez-Amador  Cádiz University, Cadiz, Spain Octavia Raluca Zglobiu Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-­Napoca, Romania

List of Figures

Fig. 5.1

Fig. 5.2

Fig. 8.1 Fig. 8.2 Fig. 8.3 Fig. 8.4 Fig. 14.1 Fig. 14.2 Fig. 14.3 Fig. 14.4 Fig. 14.5 Fig. 15.1

Content taught in English: the language/content continuum. (Adapted from “EAP, EMI or CLIL?” by J. Airei, in The Routledge handbook of English for academic purposes, 2016, p. 73. Routledge) Varieties from non-CLIL to CLIL in L2/FL-mediated higher education in Europe. (Adapted from “Report on the LANQUA Subproject on Content and Language Integrated Learning: Redefining CLIL—Towards Multilingual Competence” by Greere & Räsänen, 2008, p. 6) Frequency of the ratings in the question about the use of English in the companies Frequency of the people students interact with in each type of company Frequency of the ratings in the question about the importance to speak English to be hired in the company Frequency of the ratings in the question about the overall English competence of student Fluctuations between Batches 1 and 3 Differences in frequency between CELR-1 and CELR-2 Differences in frequency between CELR-1 and CELR-2 Fluctuations between batches in CLLR Survey differences between L1 and L2 Representation of title elements in (7)

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84 183 184 184 185 297 300 301 304 306 324 xiii

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List of Figures

Fig. 16.1 Central Luzon languages of the Philippines, based on Ethnologue342 Fig. 16.2 Northern Luzon languages of the Philippines, based on Ethnologue343

List of Tables

Table 2.1 Table 5.1 Table 5.2 Table 5.3 Table 5.4 Table 5.5 Table 5.6 Table 5.7 Table 5.8 Table 5.9 Table 5.10 Table 5.11 Table 7.1

Lecturers’ profile (EMI and English Friendly) 23 Mediation activities in the CEFR Companion Volume 87 Overview of the English-taught courses in the education degrees at Comillas 90 Overview of the strategies and resources for intra-linguistic (English) mediation in the TEFL courses93 Overview of the CLIL strategies for intra-linguistic (English) mediation in the CLIL course 94 Innovation project schedule 95 Mediation in EMI assessment checklist 95 Comparison of English-leveled groups and their academic performance per course and degree 96 Student positive and negative responses to exit slips (online questionnaire) in TEFL 2 station teaching 96 Student positive and negative responses to exit slips (online questionnaire) in CLIL team teaching and parallel teaching97 Differences in the learning experience and the perceived “effectiveness of two instructors” after the CLIL module (paired samples) 98 Focus groups’ student responses on “CLILed EMI” courses 99 Recent studies on mobile learning within different ESP disciplines135 xv

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List of Tables

Table 7.2 Table 7.3 Table 7.4 Table 7.5 Table 7.6 Table 7.7 Table 7.8 Table 7.9 Table 7.10 Table 7.11 Table 7.12 Table 7.13 Table 7.14 Table 7.15 Table 7.16 Table 8.1 Table 8.2 Table 8.3 Table 8.4 Table 8.5 Table 8.6 Table 9.1 Table 10.1 Table 10.2 Table 10.3 Table 10.4 Table 10.5 Table 10.6

List of apps analysed, number ascribed to each of them and reference to the subjects they are useful for Presence and types of adverts in the apps analysed Presence of music in the apps analysed Personalisation functions in the apps analysed Individual progress in the apps analysed Degree of intuitiveness of the apps analysed Analysis of the apps according to their price Transparency within the title Emphasis of receptive and/or productive skills Language skills emphasised in the different apps Classification of apps according to the criterion theoretical versus practical Types of theoretical and practical sections encountered in the apps Number of speakers included in each app analysed Inclusion of feedback in the apps analysed Inclusion of help sections in the apps reviewed Rating means and SDs of the frequency in which English is used in each type of company Rating means and SDs of the frequency in which each skill is used by students in each type of company Rating means and SDs of the importance to speak English to be hired in each type of company Rating means and SDs of the frequency in which each function is performed in English by students in each type of company Rating means and SDs of the overall English competence of students in each type of company Rating means and SDs of students’ preparation to perform each function in English in each type of company Contents of English for Medicine at UAX (2010–2019) Participants Difficulty of use of AntConc (I) Difficulty of use of AntConc (II) Usefulness of AntConc tools (I) Usefulness of AntConc tools (II) Classroom methodology (I)

139 141 142 142 143 143 144 144 145 146 146 146 147 149 149 178 178 178 179 181 181 199 217 217 218 218 219 220

  List of Tables 

Table 10.7 Table 10.8 Table 10.9 Table 10.10 Table 10.11 Table 10.12 Table 12.1 Table 12.2 Table 12.3 Table 12.4 Table 12.5 Table 12.6 Table 12.7 Table 13.1 Table 13.2 Table 13.3 Table 13.4 Table 13.5 Table 13.6 Table 14.1 Table 15.1 Table 15.2a

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Classroom methodology (II) 220 Usefulness of the project activities (I) 220 Usefulness of the project activities (II) 220 Advantages and applications of DDL in ESP (I) 221 Advantages and applications of DDL in ESP (II) 221 Overall assessment of DDL 221 Gender 269 Level of English 269 Overall evaluation 270 Aspects of the presentation 270 Detail in the presentation 270 Favourite part 271 Least favourite part 271 First semester survey (representative items) 284 Profile of the EAEP group 285 CEFR levels of the group 285 Scaling the abilities of the group in EAEP 285 Specialists’ questionnaires 286 Second semester survey (representative items) 286 Most frequent N-Grams in TourEXP 293 Title typology in the corpus 315 Most frequent function words ordered by rank (frequency value)317 Table 15.2b Most frequent content words ordered by rank (frequency value)317 Table 15.3a Number and % of technical and research-related nouns and verbs 318 Table 15.3b Number and % of technical and research-related adjectives 318 Table 15.4 Semantic arrangement and word number of two-part titles 323 Table 16.1 Sustainable Development Goals present in the tales from Bulacan State University within the “TALIS Tales from the Philippines” project 344 Table 16.2 SDGs targeted by the Little Free Library (first batch) tales within the TALIS: Tales of the Philippines Project 348 Table 16.3 Region/island of origin and language of the original version of the tales written by the Little Free Library Philippines (Batch 1) within the TALIS: Tales of the Philippines project 353

Part I L2 Education in English/Spanish Bilingual Contexts

1 Tertiary Bilingual Education: The Iberian Spanish Case Versus Other Multilingual Contexts Linda Escobar

Introduction The use of English as an international language in tertiary education seems to be a crucial factor in decision-making for prospective international students, be they short-term credit or longer-term degree-seeking, incoming or outgoing. Therefore, universities need to adopt English as a Lingua Franca via English-medium instruction (EMI). On the other hand, the knowledge of other foreign languages has been emphasized as an indispensable requirement in various professional and academic fields and in the world of international communication in general. This situation was collected by the European Commission in its 1995 White Paper on Education and Training entitled Teaching and learning: towards the learning society. In these studies, among the main lines of action on education and training, the objective that all citizens of the European Union (EU) are competent in three European languages in addition to their

L. Escobar (*) Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED), Madrid, Spain e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 L. Escobar, A. Ibáñez Moreno (eds.), Mediating Specialized Knowledge and L2 Abilities, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-87476-6_1

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mother tongue. The reasons given by the commission to justify this proposal are that all citizens benefit from both work and personal opportunities offered by the EU and by facilitating coexistence with other cultures within the Union. Likewise, it is pointed out that learning languages at an early age favours the general learning of schoolchildren. Today, Iberian Spanish (Castilian) has become a ubiquitous linguistic resource that is vastly predominant in everyday life, in mass media and on the street in Spain, including the officially bilingual communities. Therefore, there is a growing interest in analysing how Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) programmes in Spain fit within the current bilingual education models, taking into account that they have often been perceived as competitors with the teaching of minority languages, and local governments might use the promotion of English as an alibi to diminish the role of local languages.

 he Importance of Learning L2 English in Most T Academic Fields The importance of learning foreign languages is key in today’s society for an acceptable knowledge of international relations in different sectors (educational, labour, professional, cultural or tourism), to have access to the media and for the development of new technologies. In addition, citizens expect to find the globalization of higher education according to the establishment of multilingual policies (Cots et al., 2014). In addition to being one of the mother tongues with the greatest number of speakers, various political-historical reasons have led many countries such as Spain to adopt English as their mother tongue or as a second language (Alcaraz Varó, 2000). The rapid technological development of English-speaking countries, especially the United States, has played an important role in its status as a means of international communication or lingua franca. But not only in English-speaking countries but throughout the world, the technological and commercial fields have undergone a very rapid evolution and English has become the indispensable language for communication in the scientific and business sectors (Escobar, 2011;

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Kenny et al., 2020). In addition, the press, television, cinema and literature in the English language are available to almost every country in the world, and most of the world’s scientific-technological studies are written in English. Flowerdew and Peacock (2001, p. 10) argue that “the international language of research and academic publication is English”. According to Alcaraz Varó (2000, p. 15), “in most of the different specialties, the publications of magazines in English are the ones with the greatest prestige and international diffusion.” We must not forget that English is often the only tool available to access the world of knowledge and research (Hyland and Wong 2019). Actually, English is the most common international language in the administrative spheres of different states of the world and that has managed to gain a foothold in the administrative instances, so reluctant to change and novelty is the ratification that the English language has become an international language and not as a fad that will pass when China takes over from world economic leadership. English is here to stay, as civil society and states around the world have invested enormously in helping their citizens learn English, making it inevitable that this dynamic will increase. The Community Institutions have 24 official languages (German, Bulgarian, Czech, Croatian, Danish, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Estonian, Finnish, French, Greek, Hungarian, English, Irish, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Dutch, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian and Swedish). Only three of them have the category of working language in the EU bodies: French, German and predominantly English. The trend in Spain seems to be the same as in the rest of Europe. According to information from the Spanish Association of Promoters of Courses Abroad (ASEPROCE), English is the language most demanded by language students, in 141 teaching project concrete by 90%. Today, there are multiple causes and a wide variety of reasons why English has become an international language (EIL). In fact, their knowledge is almost an indispensable condition for professional success, since it is considered a lingua franca spoken by a wide variety of speakers around the world (Llurda, 2004, 2017), which requires a teaching agenda that incorporates pedagogical approaches to account for EIL (Matsuda, 2003, 2012).

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 enefits of Training University Students B to Think Positively Nowadays many universities attempt to develop a positive mindset in their community. Thinking positively implies a powerful motivational process that enhances learning, guides academic and career trajectories, and is essential to academic success. Following Hyland (2014), today’s education is in need of a revitalization of its affective function, since learners, more than ever, require developing their emotional, social, moral and personal skills. Among the benefits that a positive mind can offer when learning a second language, the development of mental abilities at all ages has been attested, like memory improvement, multi-task enhancement and decision-­making. Furthermore, it seems that thinking positively reduces the level of stress in students’ academic life. For many years, students have been suffering from anxiety, stress, depression or low self-esteem coming from their studies during the university period. It is said that many physical illnesses have their origins in one’s mind too. Teachers often forget the importance of being mentally healthy not only for students’ mental well-­ being but also for their future careers, since having a positive thinking will prevent them from future bad consequences and, presumably, favour their way to positive futures. In addition, one more fact for mental wellness which is worth paying attention to is the power that positivism gives to students, since a mind full of negative thoughts can work against them. But the truth is that, when having to quickly fix a problem, positive minds will always find more and faster ways to reach their solution. Therefore, we can say that a positive personality is linked with a determined and a resilient one in the classroom which may also turn into a translanguaging space, in which both instructors and students could express themselves through dynamic bilingualism. They should negotiate classroom policies depending on their needs and demands. When students are able to negotiate and manipulate their own language production, class discussions and task-­ based language learning may be two alternative strategies to foster mindfulness as well.

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In brief, students’ preferences are vital in order to captivate their attention and improve motivation, as well as avoiding enforced participation if students are not comfortable, either due to social, personal or linguistic factors. Instructors need to be constantly informed and study their students’ interests and learn how to effectively apply them into the classroom, considering individual limitations to create a positive learning space for them.

Learning Needs and Academic Discourse According to Hyland (2009), it is essential that academic discourse be acquired, as it becomes a relevant resource that allows students to learn and communicate the contents of the curriculum effectively. Some authors have tried to provide a linguistic characterization of textual genres typically used in the different academic disciplines. Working on discourse in Spanish, da Cunha and Montané’s (2020) corpus study considered some textual genres as the most often written among students and other professional actors and attempted to offer an analysis of the most frequently occurring textual genres posing the greatest writing difficulties. Their conclusions highlighted five genres—allegation, cover letter, letter of complaint, claim and application—and found that the greatest writing difficulties were related to textual structure, selection of contents, lexical choices, text cohesion and the degree of formality. By extension, we may assume that these writing difficulties can also be found in the academic discourse of L2 English at the tertiary level. Actually, there are several studies on teaching practices that offer reinforcement since academic language is a requirement for success with challenging literacy tasks, such as reading textbooks or writing research papers and literature review (Snow & Uccelli, 2009). All these tasks can cover learning needs of foreign language learners, and, therefore, more attention is being paid to linguistic reinforcement. Carlino (2012), reflecting on the didactics of academic discourse, raised the notion of academic literacy at the tertiary level, in reference to the activities of production and analysis of texts of university students. In particular, searching, acquiring, elaborating and communicating knowledge is not the

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same in all areas as in English for specific purpose (ESP), where academic speech requires to know how to communicate knowledge in the foreign language. A large number of other researchers have claimed that problems in learning the university subjects are due precisely to a lack of competence in the use of advanced literacy (Schleppegrell & Colombi, 2002). The fact that acquisition of academic records in the foreign language often poses difficulties for students has also been observed (Snow & Uccelli, 2009). Furthermore, academic communication seems to emerge neither with the frequency nor with the quality that it should (Dalton-Puffer, 2007; Hellermann, 2009). This has led to highlight the relevance of English as Academic Purposes (EAP) as a fully fledged discipline (Hyland 2018 and Hyland and Wong 2019).

The Spanish/English Bilingual Case L 1 in Bilingual Education and CLIL: Code-Switching and Translanguaging The use of translanguaging has commonly been recognized in bilingual classrooms. The main language functions that the use of L1 covers are switching between topics, changing from one language to another, affective and repetitive functions, and expressing emotions. In many cases, students use L1 to find and revisit information and to understand content in texts. As regards the Spanish context, Pavón Vazquez and Ramos Ordoñez’s (2019) study focuses on whether and how L1 use may facilitate L2 acquisition and how the L1 and L2 can work together to develop student’s bilingualism and biliteracy. The authors seek to analyse the different communication strategies in classroom interaction when students employ their L1. According to Pavón Vazquez and Ramos Ordoñez (2019), the relevance of code-switching is indisputable for some students since it is a relevant pedagogic tool in the bilingual context where the primary focus of instruction is the acquisition of the content subject matter. Students

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seem to use a variety of communication strategies in the L1 that allow them to connect with the lesson content. At least in this particular context, the use of L1 is beneficial for learning content since all communication strategies used by students help to facilitate their learning process. Students’ L1 should then be allowed to construct meaning, but cautiously, so as not to reduce the exposure to L2. Therefore, the utilization of L1 should be reduced if students receive language support specific for the academic dimension of the language content. This can be implemented in CLIL by redirecting the goals of the foreign language subject towards this particular support (Martinez et al., 2018). It is also relevant to train teachers on when and how to use L1 strategies. The deciding factor that compels teachers to introduce L1 in their classes appears to be the students’ proficiency in L2. Alternatively, teachers may reconsider the efficiency of ESP programmes that are mainly oriented towards enhancing the students’ content-based knowledge. These programmes have an obvious impact on the development of academic content. In this book some contexts are analysed where some specific methodologies are in place.

Using Scaffolding Strategies As is well known, written production requires greater difficulty than understanding a written text in English as a foreign language. The difficulty increases in the case of specialized texts since it is necessary to know how to communicate using a certain register and follow a specific structure for each type of text. ESP teachers in Spain usually offer a scaffolding strategy to students as an excellent way to provide comprehensible input. The main tenet is that students learn the key parts of different types of written texts for specific purposes to cope with most common difficulties. Not only will they learn the essential writing skills for these text genres, but they will also make progress in their acquisition of English for specific purposes, as shown in Escobar and da Cunha (2018). Indeed, one way to make students be engaged in their own learning process is to let them work with semi-­ automatic writing systems which may offer a comprehensive description

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of some text genres as discussed in Bloch (2013) and Franklin-­ Landi (2017). Escobar and Ibáñez (2018), for example, showed how digital and/or mobile technologies may be applied in an integrated teaching course of the English language in formal remote university contexts at the National University of Teaching a Distance (UNED, Spain). In this work, four innovation projects in the English classroom are discussed for professional purposes, using mainly mobile technology. The main objective was to examine the results obtained from the implementation of various ICT tools which promote mobile language learning, collaboration, peer review and the gamification of teaching. In this line, further research about the language use in class together with the real use of scaffolding methodologies in multilingual contexts may shed more light on how to implement the best method to provide students with content-based teaching.

The Commodification of English and Multilingualism The ideology of the commodification of English in the global era, which refers to the value assigned to English as a marketable skill to compete in the neoliberal job market, is part of the existing tensions between what is taught in the language classroom and the linguistic skills that students will need in the real world outside the classroom, as discussed in Cameron (2012) and Kramsch (2014). In this context, it is crucial to consider how multilingual education is addressed in the Iberian Spanish region through the medium of Spanish/ English within CLIL programmes. In particular, Relaño Pastor’s (2014) study deals with how the symbolic value assigned to CLIL programmes in the Madrid region, as discussed in Llinares and Dafouz (2010), is linked to the sociolinguistic reality of Madrid as a bilingual community against the backdrop of European second-language education policies to promote plurilingualism. The main finding from this chapter is the free use of both languages in the classroom, although there is a preference for students to use L1 Spanish to reinforce their identity as Spanish speakers who are learning English in CLIL classes.

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Another interesting finding is that students are not really aware of the importance of using English to become bilingual. On the other hand, they seemed to be really interested in working on content-based programmes to work on their English performance. Their language choices are thus balanced and the ways they are framed in formal learning environments reveal rather how English-medium instruction is carried out in CLIL classrooms. The main conclusion from this chapter is that English CLIL programmes in Madrid perpetuate the ideology of English as commodity. The study in Relaño Pastor and Fernandez Barrera (2018) focuses on the region of Castilla la Mancha and reflects on the idea of neoliberalism as ideology and practice being embedded in the narratives of CLIL teachers participating in different bilingual education programmes in the region. According to the findings reported there, teachers’ narratives of prestige and elitism share comparable motivations in the pursuit of English learning in the different CLIL-type bilingual programmes. They argue that there is a common goal to achieve a marketable command of English, a commodity that schools can offer to students seen as future qualified workers of a competitive professional market. Therefore, language planning policy is crucially related to CLIL programmes to meet L2 English needs throughout all the range of subjects offered in this second language especially at tertiary level (Escobar 2020). However, language-in-education policies are controversial for some authors as discussed in Vila et al. (2017). This study claims that Iberian Spanish (Castilian) has become an omnipresent linguistic resource that is vastly predominant in every day’s life, even in other Spanish regions with another official language. This is the case of the autonomous regions of Spain, specifically Catalonia, the Valencian Community, the Balearic Islands, Galicia, the Basque Country and Navarra, where Spanish coexists with Catalan, Galician and Basque, respectively. Multilingual education in these communities is, thus, vital for the successful integration of both Spanish and the autochthonous languages, as well as for the acquisition of English as the most relevant foreign language, which could potentially put Spain on the international map. As a consequence, Castilian-medium or ‘balanced’ bilingual programmes rarely achieve the goal of high-level bilingualism and biliteracy,

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unless the local language is the predominant means of instruction in those educational models. It concludes that a generalized bilingualism remains to be achieved in all territories, with the promotion of out-of-­ school use of minoritized languages and with an increase in the proficiency in foreign languages. This is the reason why there is a growing interest in discussing whether CLIL programmes in English fit within the current bilingual education models, taking into account that they are often perceived as competitors with the minority languages (Hemmi and Banegas 2021). However, as authors such as Aparicio García (2009) and Ozfidan and Burlbaw (2016) point out, second- or third-language acquisition should not be perceived as harmful, but as an opportunity towards multilingualism. Several languages can coexist within a speaker’s repertoire and it is only beneficial on the long run, for it opens up broader social and labour opportunities. The way to approach this coexistence is through balanced instruction, that is, dedicating an equal number of hours and content subjects to the target languages (Aparicio García, 2009). All in all, materials, syllabus organization, teachers and educational staff implication and, especially, cultural promotion are highly impactful factors, which need more future attention to be able to offer inspiring courses to students who want to target challenging professional jobs in the global market.

References Alcaraz Varó, E. (2000). El inglés profesional y académico. Alianza. Aparicio García, M. (2009). Análisis de la Educación Bilingüe en España. Instituto Complutense de Estudios Internacionales: ICEI Paper, 12(1), 1–4. Bloch, J. (2013). Technology and ESP. In B. Paltridge & S. Starfield (Eds.), The handbook of English for specific purposes (pp. 385–401). Wiley-Blackwell. Cameron, D. (2012). The commodification of language: English as a global commodity. In T. Nevalainen & E. C. Traugott (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of the history of English (pp. 352–361). Oxford University Press. Carlino, P. (2012). Leer textos científicos y académicos en la educación superior: Obstáculos y bienvenidas a una cultura nueva. Uni-Pluriversidad, 3(2), 17–23.

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Cots, J. M., Llurda, E., & Garrett, P. (2014). Language policies and practices in the internationalisation of higher education on the European margins: An introduction. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 35(4), 311–317. da Cunha, I., & Montané, M.  A. (2020). A corpus-based analysis of textual genres in the administration domain. Discourse Studies, 22(1), 3–31. Dalton-Puffer, C. (2007). Discourse in content and language integrated learning (CLIL) classrooms. John Benjamins. Escobar, L. (2011). English grammar and learning tasks for tourism studies. UNED. Escobar, L. (2020). Developing CLIL in tertiary education: Working with tourism texts. In N. Kenny, E. E. Isik-Tas, & J. Huang (Eds.), English for specific purposes instruction and research. Current practices, challenges and innovations (pp. 269–288). Palgrave Macmillan. Escobar, L., & da Cunha, I. (2018). Designing writing materials for tourism text genres through technological tools. In L. Hurajová, G. Chmelíková, & N.  Stojkovic (Eds.), Convergence of ESP with other disciplines (pp.  1–18). Vernon Press. Escobar, L., & Ibáñez, A. (2018). ICTs in English for specific purposes: A methodological proposal. Encuentro, 27, 38–52. Flowerdew, J., & Peacock, M. (2001). Issues in EAP: A preliminary perspective. In J. Flowerdew & M. Peacock (Eds.), Research perspectives on english for academic purposes (pp. 8–24). Cambridge University Press. Franklin-Landi, R. (2017). Identifying and responding to learner needs at the medical faculty: The use of audio-visual specialised fiction (FASP). In C. Sarré & S. Whyte (Eds.), New developments in ESP teaching and learning research (pp. 153–170). Research-publishing. Hellermann, J. (2009). Looking for evidence of language learning in practices for repair: A case study of self-initiated self-repair by an adult learner of English. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 53(2), 113–132. Hemmi, C., & Banegas, D.  L. (Eds.). (2021). International perspectives on CLIL. Palgrave Macmillan. Hyland, K. (2009). Academic discourse: English in a global context. Continuum. Hyland, K. (2014). Mindfulness-based interventions and the affective domain of education. Educational Studies, 40(3), 277–291. Hyland, K. (2018). Sympathy for the devil? A defence of EAP. Language Teaching, 51(3), 383–399. Hyland, K., & Wong, L. C. (Eds.). (2019). New focal points in critical EAP and ESP research and practice. Routledge.

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Kenny, N., Işık-Taş, E., & Jian, H. (Eds.). (2020). English for specific purposes instruction and research. Palgrave Macmillan. Kramsch, C. (2014). Teaching foreign languages in an era of globalization: Introduction. The Modern Language Journal, 98, 296–311. Llinares, A., & Dafouz, E. (2010). Content and language integrated programmes in the Madrid region: Overview and research findings. In D. Lasagabaster & Y. Ruiz de Zarobe (Eds.), CLIL in Spain: Implementation, results and teacher training (pp. 95–115). Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Llurda, E. (2004). Non-native-speaker teachers and English as an international language. International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 14(3), 314–323. Llurda, E. (2017). English language teachers and ELF. In J. Jenkins, M. Dewey, & W.  Baker (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of English as a lingua franca (pp. 518–528). Routledge. Martínez-Adrián, M., Gutiérrez-Mangado, M.  J., & Gallardo-del-Puerto, F. (2018). L1 use in content-based and CLIL settings. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 22(1), 1–4. Matsuda, A. (2003). Incorporating world Englishes in teaching English as an international language. TESOL Quarterly, 37, 719–729. Matsuda, A. (2012). Teaching English as an international language: Principles and practice. Multilingual Matters. Ozfidan, B., & Burlbaw, L. M. (2016). Perceptions of bilingual education model in Spain: How to implement a bilingual education model in Turkey. Journal of Ethnic and Cultural Studies, 3(1), 49–58. Pavón Vazquez, V., & Ramos Ordoñez, M. C. (2019). Describing the use of L1 in CLIL: An analysis of L1 communication strategies in classroom interaction. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 22(1), 35–48. Relaño Pastor, A.  M. (2014). The commodification of English in ‘Madrid: Comunidad bilingüe’: Insights from the CLIL classroom. In M. Perez Milans (Ed.), Journal of language policy. Special issue: Language education policy in late modernity: Insights from situated approaches (pp. 131–151). Relaño Pastor, A.  M., & Fernandez Barrera, A. (2018). Competing bilingual schools in la Mancha City: Teacher’s responses to neoliberal language policy and CLIL practices. Foro de Educación, 16(25), 283–309. Schleppegrell, M. J., & Colombi, M. C. (2002). Developing advanced literacy in first and second languages. Meaning with power (1st ed.). Routledge.

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Snow, C.  E., & Uccelli, P. (2009). The challenge of academic language. In D.  R. Olson & N.  Torrance (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of literacy (pp. 112–133). Cambridge University Press. Vila, F. X., Lasagabaster, D., & Ramallo, F. (2017). Bilingual education in the autonomous regions of Spain. In O.  García, A.  Lin, & S.  May (Eds.), Bilingual and multilingual education (pp. 505–517). ELE Springer.

2 Translanguaging and Language Mediation in EMI Contexts: Emotional Stances and Translation Issues Esther Nieto Moreno de Diezmas and Alicia Fernández Barrera

Introduction English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) has gained popularity in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in the last years, being widely understood as “the use of the English language to teach academic subjects (other than English itself ) in countries or jurisdictions where the first language of the majority of the population is not English” (Macaro  et  al., 2018, p. 37). Against the backdrop of globalisation, EMI implementation in European universities has exponentially increased giving rise to a higher number of university courses taught in English (Dafouz & Smit, 2020). These EMI initiatives gained popularity after the Bologna Declaration (1999), whose directions intended to increase international competitiveness and achieve “global excellence” (Piller & Cho, 2013), which is a key factor behind the “EMIzation” process all over Europe—that is, the spread E. N. M. de Diezmas (*) • A. F. Barrera University of Castilla-La Mancha, Ciudad Real, Spain e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 L. Escobar, A. Ibáñez Moreno (eds.), Mediating Specialized Knowledge and L2 Abilities, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-87476-6_2

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of English as the medium of instruction in tertiary education. Consequently, EMI has become a marketisation strategy for internationalisation purposes with a twofold aim: (1) attracting students and academic staff and (2) improving local students’ competences in relation to intercultural communication (Wächter & Friedhelm, 2014). In contrast to this “EMIzation” phenomenon expanding among EU countries, Spain is still taking its first steps towards implementing university instruction in L2 while reconfiguring its traditionally based on L1 teaching process. The case of the University of Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM, central Spain) is one of the latecomers in this trend. Despite the institutional efforts to increase the number of courses taught in English, only two Bachelor’s and five Master’s degrees have already incorporated the bilingual track. Although EMI has been widely explored from different perspectives and approaches in relation to its implementation at HEIs, recent research has brought to the fore the difficulties and challenges that teaching in English implies at university level (de Diezmas & Barrera, 2021). According to Doiz et  al. (2019), the elaboration of teaching material, lectures’ preparation and assessment tools for EMI courses delivered by non-native English-speaking lecturers entail both personal and emotional investment. In this regard, previous studies detected some shortcomings of teaching in a second language such as lecturer’s insufficient command to clearly and accurately deliver their lectures, and reduction of terminology. Under these circumstances, interaction, elaboration of teaching material and classroom management have turned out to be the main obstacles for EMI teachers. This is particularly the case of the University of Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM, hereafter), where lecturers have struggled to cope with these pedagogical difficulties through language mediation processes, such as translanguaging and translation. These are the two most common strategies found in the course of this investigation when teachers had to convert a monolingual teaching practice into a bilingual one, being the elaboration of teaching materials and classroom management the most challenging tasks. Therefore, this chapter aims at getting insight into the role of mediation and translanguaging in the process of meaning-making and knowledge construction in EMI. More specifically, it sheds light on the main obstacles

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EMI lecturers face when shifting the language of instruction from their L1 to L2 (Spanish to English) in the process of mediation. Data analysis will elucidate lecturers’ reflections, stances and attitudes towards the different mediation strategies used in English instruction. Results have detected manifold complexities emerging in their teaching practices, where the negotiation of meaning plays a fundamental role through the use of the L1 (Spanish) and/or the L2 (English) for different mediation purposes. This chapter is structured as follows: after providing some of the most relevant and current theoretical foundations and approaches to EMI programme implementation, a general overview of the existing EMI and English Friendly programmes will be explained as a contextual framework in the context of Castilla-La Mancha. This chapter will then continue with the main methodological aspects and the research questions this investigation addresses. It will conclude with the most insightful accounts discussed on the grounds of interview data analysis which will lead to the final conclusions of this study.

Theoretical Framework EMI has been explored from different perspectives and approaches in terms of its implementation. Previous investigations have highlighted its benefits and problems (Yuan, 2020), and others have critically examined EMI curriculum design (Leong, 2017). Nevertheless, most of the current studies have shed light on students’ level of proficiency and the challenge of understanding content, which might lead to communicative anxiety and limited productive skills (Macaro et al., 2018; Maiworm & Wächter, 2002; Hu & Lei, 2014; Santos et al., 2018). The ongoing debate whether EMI can affect students’ performance is not only related to students’ level of English but also to lecturers’ linguistic and pedagogical expertise. In this vein, scarce empirical research has been carried out to account for EMI lecturers’ stances towards the current challenges and implications that EMI entails for non-native English speakers in terms of mediation processes. Within this framework, this contribution explores the main difficulties underlying the conversion of mainstream content subjects (taught in Spanish) into EMI courses (in English) at the UCLM.

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Languages have been traditionally conceptualised as independent systems of communication. In the language teaching and learning field, the concept of mediation was introduced by the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) and described as written and oral activities that make communication possible between people who are not capable of understanding each other (Council of Europe, 2001). More specifically, language mediation refers to translation or interpretation, a paraphrase, summary or record, provides for a third party a (re)formulation of a source text to which this third party does not have direct access. Mediation language activities, (re)processing an existing text, occupy an important place in the normal linguistic functioning of our societies. (Council of Europe, 2001, p. 14)

In EMI contexts, mediation language activities establish a bridge from one language to another, thus facilitating the communicative process. These mediation strategies help students and teachers to mutually understand each other, although the L1 is mainly shared by all interlocutors. Despite the ongoing debate whether the use of two languages in the education sphere is beneficial or detrimental for the L2 acquisition and development, some research has highlighted the importance of using the L1 “to mediate their understanding and generation of complex ideas (languaging) before they produce an end product in the target language”. These authors suggest that L2 could be preferably used as a tool for mediation once the language proficiency has increased. As a matter of fact, when dealing with abstract concepts or complicated terminology relying on mediation strategies in L1 could favour students’ understanding of subject-related content and, therefore, reduce their anxiety in the classroom. Against still pervasive monolingual ideologies appraising English-only policy in EMI programmes (see Doiz & Lasagabaster, 2018, and Daryai-­ Hansen et al., 2017), translanguaging has stepped forward to break linguistic barriers in a scenario where the monoglossic ideology (García & Torres, 2009) has framed EMI in some contexts—like the University of the Basque Country, where teachers delegitimised the use of the L1 (Doiz & Lasagabaster, 2018). On the contrary, more critical research (Cook,

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2001) has emphasised the benefits of linguistic connections between the L1 and L2 for students’ learning. In this regard, translanguaging provides a wider and more flexible language policy. It is understood as a set of fluid, linguistic practices with a pedagogical purpose based on the “alternation of languages for input and output” (Muguruza et al., 2020). The different lens that translanguaging provides to understanding EMI relies on a language pedagogy shift with a particular focus on meaning-making and negotiation, thus enhancing bilingualism. In this regard, bilingual performances are considered “as part of the students’ linguistic repertoire rather than as separate compartments in a hierarchical relationship” (Vogel & García, 2017, p. 2). Particularly in the context of EMI at the UCLM, this mediation strategy may well serve as (1) a scaffold for students to learn new content and (2) as a useful pedagogical tool for lecturers when dealing with complex terminology, elaboration of materials and classroom management. In the following sections, both EMI and English Friendly lecturers’ stances will be analysed providing insights into the use of language mediation strategies.

 MI And English Friendly Programmes at the E University of Castilla-La Mancha The focus of this research is the UCLM, located in central Spain and composed of six different campuses all over the region of Castilla-La Mancha. In the last years, in order to meet the global ranking standards, this institution has experienced a considerable transformation regarding internationalisation plans, that is, increasing student and staff mobility opportunities and implementing EMI courses. Unlike other Spanish universities and despite such efforts to internationalise the UCLM, only two bilingual Bachelor’s degrees and five bilingual Master’s degrees are offered parallel to the mainstream—non-bilingual—studies. Although EMI at the UCLM is not framed within specific language policies, a set of organisational and language requirements are established in the implementation of the current bilingual degrees. In these cases, 40% of the total

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number of credits of each study plan is designated to English teaching. EMI lecturers’ access to bilingual degrees does not entail a challenge in terms of strict language proficiency requirements as the minimum level of English they need to certify is a B2 (according to the CEFR). Regarding methodological aspects, they are not required to have accomplished any mandatory pedagogical training. On the contrary, in-service lecturers receive complementary training such as English language courses offered through the Centre for Languages of the UCLM.  Considering these methodological weaknesses of EMI implementation, it is crucial to account for lecturers’ stances to better understand the manifold challenges they have to face not only linguistically but also pedagogically. The only incentive for them is the one-third reduction in their overall teaching load to compensate for the amount extra workload that teaching in English entails. In addition to the current bilingual degrees offer—in a relatively insufficient number to meet the internationalisation standards—the UCLM has opted for the creation of an English Friendly Catalogue, which is updated on a yearly basis depending on the lecturers’ commitment to three main prerequisites: (1) providing international students with teaching materials in English, (2) using English in communicative exchanges with them and (3) elaborating exams and assignments in the L2 for these students. Most lecturers involved in the English Friendly programme hold a B2 certificate, although no incentives or support measures are provided for them. Being highly engaged with English teaching and learning, these EMI novice lecturers actually teach in non-bilingual degrees and they have not received any type of linguistic or pedagogical training to prepare their subjects in order to be included in the English Friendly Catalogue.

Methodology and Research Questions Drawing on qualitative research methods based on interview data collection, this contribution sheds light on lecturers’ perspectives and emotional stances towards the challenges of EMI at the UCLM. Data include audiotaped semi-structured interviews carried out in Spanish with two

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groups of lecturers from different areas of knowledge: (1) EMI practitioners (Computer Engineering and Mathematics) and (2) English Friendly teachers—interested in English instruction with no EMI expertise (Geography, Mathematics and Civil Engineering) (see Table 2.1 below). Interviews were conducted from March to April 2020, as part of a wider innovation teaching project (REMARE-EMI)1 aimed at creating a repository of materials to support in-service EMI lecturers in their teaching practice. The interview extracts analysed in the following section are provided with both language versions (Spanish and English) and the participants’ names have been coded for anonymity matters (e.g. P1 and P2). For the purpose of this chapter, the semi-structured interviews were conducted in line with the following two overarching research questions: 1. RQ1: How do expert lecturers in EMI and lecturers in the English friendly programme face the mediation process necessary to elaborate teaching materials in English? 2. RQ2: How do EMI lecturers deal with mediation between the L1 and the L2  in the classroom and what is their attitude towards translanguaging? In the results and discussion section further below, data is analysed by taking into account teachers’ emotional stances towards the mediation process with a particular focus on translanguaging and translation issues in EMI programmes. Table 2.1  Lecturers’ profile (EMI and English Friendly) Participants

Teaching profile

Area of knowledge

P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 P6

English Friendly English Friendly EMI—Bilingual Degree EMI—Bilingual Degree EMI—Bilingual Degree English Friendly

Civil Engineering Geography Computer Engineering Computer Engineering Mathematics Mathematics

 “REMARE-EMI: Repository of Materials and Resources for English-Medium Instruction” (2019–2021). Innovation teaching project granted by the UCLM’s Vice-Rectorate for Teaching. 1

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Results and Discussion In this section, data analysis and results are expounded and discussed by following the two main research questions which led this investigation. RQ1  : How do expert lecturers in EMI and lecturers in the English friendly programme face the mediation process necessary to elaborate teaching materials in English?  The elaboration of teaching materials in English is deemed to be a considerable burden for lecturers in the English Friendly programme. The extra workload this task entails is seen as a substantial impediment to deliver their subjects in English and prevent most of them from joining the EMI programme. Cuando necesitas de verdad que tu asignatura esté en inglés, es cuando se te cae el mundo encima. (P1). When you really need your subject to be in English, that’s when the world comes down on top of you. Si un nativo me ayuda a convertir mi asignatura en inglés, entonces estaría dispuesta a dar el paso. (P2). If a native helps me convert my subject into English, then I would be willing to step forward.

To overcome this major obstacle, English Friendly lecturers claim for help. When they reflect on the kind of support they need, they only think in experts in English (a native speaker or even a modern language university student), leaving apart pedagogical considerations: Se me ocurren cosas tan sencillas como un tipo de becas, o sea una beca para un alumno que tus apuntes propios te ayude a pasarlos. (P1) I can think of things as simple as a type of scholarship, that is, a scholarship for a student that helps you passing your own notes [into English]

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Thus, English Friendly lecturers demand support from an expert in the English language, who can assist them in the task of “passing” their notes into English. These narratives indicate teaching material preparation is considered to be a mere translation process, as it can be drawn from the expressions participants use, such as “put your subject in English/turn it into English/ translate your notes”, and so on. As a result of this conception, the main difficulties considered are related to technical language and specific terminology, which they do not always master. It is a fact that English is used as a lingua franca in the academia, particularly for science, and therefore, lecturers are used to reading and writing papers in English. Accordingly, they are usually familiar with the specific terms of their particular area of research. However, university teachers are not always in position of choosing to impart subjects connected to their main research lines. When this happens, and they have to elaborate their teaching materials in English, they feel lost and without the necessary mediation strategies, as they are not language specialists, thus not used to dealing with translation issues. This was particularly the case of one of the participants of the English Friendly programme, who states it was a kind of riddle for her to translate every single concept into English of an area far away from their research specialisation: Trabajo en inglés, estuve de estancia, hago mi investigación en inglés, pero ¿qué me pasa?, que yo doy dibujo técnico en primero, y yo jamás en la vida se me había planteado hablar de perspectiva caballera, perspectiva cónica en inglés. Cuando te pones con tu asignatura, lo que pasa es que nunca hemos usado esos conceptos y que no los puedes buscar en un diccionario porque perspectiva caballera te la traduce como gentleman perspective… Esos pequeños detalles, pues te complican la vida, no es fácil, es algo que pasa y eso genera miedo. (P1) I work in English, I have carried out stays abroad, I do my research in English, but what is my problem? I teach technical drawing in first grade, and I had never in my life considered talking about cabinet projection, conical projection in English. When you start with your subject, what happens is that we have never used those concepts and that you cannot look them up in a dictionary because “perspectiva caballera” is translated as gentleman perspective…

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Those little details, they complicate your life, it’s not easy, it’s something that happens and that generates fear.

This problematic stance contrast to the perspective of expert EMI lecturers, who consider translation is not the right strategy to elaborate teaching materials in English. From their perspective, it is easier to create their teaching materials directly in English, thereby avoiding the additional workload of mediating between Spanish and English: De hecho, muchas veces el problema es que mucha gente lo que entiende que tiene que hacer es montar una asignatura en castellano y luego traducirla. Ese es el proceso que desgasta, la traducción, porque, además, en la traducción pierdes mucho tiempo, mucho esfuerzo y tal […] Es lo que estamos acostumbrados muchas veces y lo que hacemos como primera opción, pero cuando directamente trabajas en inglés…os pasará igual con los artículos y con todo, una vez que te das cuenta de que no tiene sentido escribirlo en castellano y luego traducirlo sino escribirlo en inglés y luego si acaso, revísalo, ganas muchísimo tiempo. (P3) In fact, many times the problem is that what many people understand that they have to do is set up a course in Spanish and then translate it. That is the process that wears out, the translation, because in addition, in the translation you waste a lot of time, a lot of effort and all that stuff […] It is what we are used to many times and what we do as a first option, but when you work directly in English … It will happen the same with the articles and with everything, once you realize that it does not make sense to write it in Spanish and then translate, but to write it in English and then, perhaps, review it, you save a lot of time.

Furthermore, EMI lecturers of Computer Engineering acknowledge they have the added advantage of counting with the assistance of international technological corporations that provide a great deal of teaching materials in English. On the other side of the coin, lecturers belonging to humanities or the education branch complain about the shortage of materials in English. They are attached to disciplinary literature originally written in Spanish for preparing their classes, and teaching in the EMI programme would require a substantial extra effort: either they would have to translate all their teaching materials which are in Spanish or make

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clean sweep and start from scratch drawing on materials and bibliography in English. En algunas asignaturas es fácil encontrar recursos en inglés, pero en otras no tanto. Habría que invertir mucho tiempo en la preparación de materiales en inglés y en formación, pero formación continua de forma que se haga un seguimiento más personalizado y paulatino. (P6) In some subjects, it is easy to find resources in English, but not so much in others. It would be necessary to invest a lot of time when preparing materials in English and training, but continuous training so that there is a more personalised and gradual monitoring.

Additionally, lecturers are concerned about the reception of teaching materials in English among students. Students who are in the EMI programme have voluntarily chosen this option, and although it goes without saying that most of them expect that all teaching materials are in English, occasionally, the least proficient learners ask their teachers to provide them with the slides in Spanish. Interestingly, similar slide presentations do exist in English and in Spanish, since the same subjects are imparted in English (in the EMI branch) and in the Spanish (for mainstream students), but EMI lecturers think they should not deliver directly the slides in Spanish, to avoid the intrusion of the L1 in the EMI course, and keep both languages wide apart. The sustained idea is that if students do not make the effort to get used to having the materials in English, and they need the slides in Spanish, they might obtain them from their non-­ bilingual peers, but in that case, they would better enrol the regular degree in Spanish instead of the bilingual degree with subjects in English: Pero es cierto que algunos que tienen un nivel más bajo te dicen: “oye, ¿me puedes pasar las transparencias en español?” Y les digo, bueno, pues pídeselo a algún compañero no bilingüe, pero si empiezas así, mejor te cambias directamente y te vas a encontrar todo en español sin problemas. (P4) But it is true that some of them who have a lower level say to you: “hey, can you pass me the slides in Spanish?” And I tell them, well, ask a non-bilingual classmate, but if you start like this, you’d better change directly, and you will find everything in Spanish without problems.

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The separation between languages is also firmly established in the students’ mindset. Students in bilingual degrees are willing to receive in English as much exposure as possible through teaching materials and classroom interaction, and, even, if students meet by chance the lecturer in the canteen, they hold conversations in English. In contrast, non-­ bilingual students openly reject the slightest trace of English in their classes if occasionally they find part of the teaching materials in that language. Si en alguna diapositiva hay algo en inglés, dicen: eh, eh, que esto está en inglés. (P4) If in some slide there is something in English, they [the students] say: hey, hey, that is in English. Pueden ser reticentes, puede haber pataleo. (P3) They may be reticent, they may complain.

For one of the participants this attitude is “a mental limitation I cannot help them to overcome” (P5). Lecturers consider that these students’ monolingual ideologies are incongruent with the presence of English in our globalised culture of entertaining, since they think all of them watch series in English and listen to music in English. When it comes to watch an educational video in English or read a paper in English, students who have not chosen to enrol the EMI branch are reluctant to use a language which is not their mother tongue, in the academic context. The students’ demand of a distinct separation between English and Spanish in the classroom has been paradoxically exacerbated with the implementation of bilingual degrees. Students seem to stick to their language choices: only in Spanish for mainstream degrees and only in English for the bilingual (EMI) degrees. Intriguingly, in the past, students seemed to have a more open mindset regarding mixing languages in the classroom, and accepted the situation as an opportunity to learn a foreign language while learning the university subjects, without showing the opposition observed today: Yo de formación soy física, […] estudié ya hace muchos años […] yo en segundo de carrera, tenía todos los libros en inglés y yo no era de inglés, era

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de francés, o sea, que me tuve que buscar la vida. Ahora eso no lo podríamos hacer, porque nos denunciarían los alumnos. (P5) I studied physics, […] I studied many years ago, […] when I was in the second year, I had all the books in English and I haven’t studied English at school, but French, so I had to manage. Now we could not do that, because the students would report on it.

RQ2  : How do EMI lecturers deal with mediation between the L1 and the L2 in the classroom and what is their attitude towards translanguaging? EMI lecturers display a monolingual conception on the interaction in their classes, which is in keeping with previous studies (Doiz & Lasagabaster, 2018). Lecturers do their best to guarantee maximised exposure to English, which is not an easy task, particularly during the first years of the implementation of EMI, since classroom language and classroom management require specific language competences beyond general English proficiency: A lo mejor tenía un buen nivel de inglés para los congresos, pero cuando empecé, desde luego que no lo tenía para dar clase. (P4) I may have had a good level of English for the conferences, but when I started, of course I didn’t have it to teach.

In line with monolingual ideologies, the objective in mind for EMI lecturers is to avoid Spanish in all interaction and ensure 100% of exposure to English, which may sometimes lead to sacrificing the emotional connection via jokes and humour lecturers are used to implementing in their classes when imparted in Spanish. Although lecturers believe Spanish should not be allowed in the classroom—which, incidentally, seems to be a general trend in EMI teachers (Roothooft, 2019)—they feel that making connections between English and Spanish may improve the construction of knowledge. This is particularly the case of specific terminology which is very different in English and Spanish. Lecturers consider they have to equip students with the corresponding translations in Spanish in these punctual cases, since they

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feel responsible for training future professionals to perform both in the global and in the Spanish labour market: En algún caso muy concreto, algún término que la traducción pueda ser distinta, o que pueda haber alguna jerga específica en castellano, puede ser que les diga… Por ejemplo, tenemos un término que es “foreign key”, que en castellano no se traduce como “clave extranjera”, sino como “clave ajena”, y se lo traduzco para que lo sepan. (P3) In very specific cases, a term with a very different translation, or with some specific jargon in Spanish, I may tell them … For example, we have a term that is “foreign key”, which in Spanish is translated as “foreign key”, but as “clave ajena”, and I translate it so that they know.

Translanguaging strategies and code-switching are, though, used exceptionally and only if backed up with a well-justified reason. This is the case of the classes imparted online during the lockdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the delicate emotional circumstances, one of the EMI lecturers used to allocate a couple of minutes at the beginning of the class to make sure all students were doing well and to give them an opportunity to share their experiences and feelings regarding the lockdown. This practice is considered by the lecturer as a “therapy moment”, which was always delivered in Spanish. Interestingly, when the lecturer asked the students if they were prepared to start the lesson and if they wanted to do it in English or in Spanish, students unanimously demanded the use of English as the language of instruction for academic contents. This way, translanguaging has a role in the development of the lecture, but teachers and students seem to advocate for language separation, thus allowing the use of Spanish to discuss extracurricular issues but proscribing it when it is the turn of the transmission of academic knowledge. Besides, expert EMI lecturers acknowledge the use of translanguaging with a certain fear. They feel they might be transgressing the rules of the English language use in the classroom or even making wrong pedagogical decisions. It is not surprising that EMI lecturers declare that before taking part in the bilingual programme, they only received training to improve their general English language proficiency, and they were not provided with

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the necessary knowledge to deal with linguistic issues and specific pedagogies for EMI. Consequently, EMI teachers seem to reject translanguaging performances, leaving apart the potential benefits of using such techniques, which range from providing scaffolding (Luk & Lin, 2015) to contributing to reduced anxiety levels (Santos et al., 2018). On the bright side, the use of translanguaging emerged naturally in the EMI classroom thanks to the intuition of EMI lecturers. Nevertheless, their teaching practice would have been possibly more meaningful if they had been provided beforehand with solid linguistic and methodological training, including awareness of the role of mediation and translanguaging in the process of meaning-making and knowledge construction in EMI settings.

Conclusions This study intended to get insight into the most relevant challenges lecturers have to face when shifting the language for the instruction from Spanish, their L1, to English (L2). This arduous process especially impacts the elaboration of teaching materials in English and classroom management and interaction. Results showed that the difficulties and additional workload these issues entail are the main obstacle which prevent many lecturers interested in EMI from participating in bilingual degrees, since they do not rely on the university institution to provide them with the necessary training and support. Expert EMI lecturers, compared to lecturers in the English Friendly programme, displayed more advanced strategies to perform in the issues addressed in this study. The latter see the elaboration of teaching materials for EMI as a process of translation of their materials from Spanish to English, while the former prefer using and adapt materials that are already in English or elaborate them directly in English, without explicit mediation between the L1 and the L2. Within this framework, data brings to the fore that lecturers in the fields of arts, humanities and education have additional difficulties to implement EMI programmes, since it is harder to find contextualised teaching materials in English in these disciplinary areas than in technology and science.

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Interestingly enough, results of this study distil that monolingual ideologies and language separation conceptions take hold among lecturers and students. Instead of fuelling multilingualism and interculturalism, the implementation of bilingual degrees seems to have contributed to fostering the confinement of languages in watertight departments. EMI lecturers and students consider there is no room for using the Spanish language in their classes in English, while non-EMI students vehemently reject the least presence of English. When lecturers occasionally break this status quo, they usually feel guilty, since using Spanish in the EMI degrees is considered a kind of taboo. The absence of a sound institutional teacher training programme for EMI may be behind these language ideologies. EMI lecturers do not receive specific instruction to deal with linguistic, pedagogical and methodological issues, and feel that flexibility and permeability between languages may water down the EMI programme, unaware of the positive impact that language mediation activities, such as translanguaging, may display. In this sense, the main pedagogical implications that can be drawn from this study are as follows: (1) more support for English Friendly teachers and teachers interested in EMI is needed to assist them in the task of preparing their teaching materials in English, and (2) teacher training programmes cannot be restricted to provide general English language proficiency. They should equip lecturers with linguistic awareness, pedagogical guidelines and methodological strategies to enhance reflective practice and intentional use of teaching techniques such as translanguaging, among others.FundingThis work has been supported by the University of Castilla-La Mancha. We would like to thank this institution for their financial support through the programme “Plan Propio de Investigación” [2018/11744], cofounded by the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER, UE).

References Cook, V. (2001). Second language learning and language teaching (3rd ed.). London: Arnold.

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Council of Europe. (2001). Common European framework of reference for languages: Learning, teaching, assessment. Cambridge University Press. Dafouz, E., & Smit, U. (2020). ROAD-MAPPING English medium education in the internationalised university. Palgrave Macmillan. Daryai-Hansen, P., Barfod, S., & Schwarz, L. (2017). A Call for (Trans)languaging: The language profiles at Roskilde University. In C. M. Mazak & K. S. Carroll (Eds.), Translanguaging in higher education: Beyond monolingual ideologies (pp. 29–49). Multilingual Matters. de Diezmas, E. N. M., & Barrera, A. F. (2021). Main challenges of EMI at the UCLM: Teachers’ perceptions on language proficiency, training and incentives. Alicante Journal of English Studies/Revista Alicantina de Estudios Ingleses, 34, 39–61. Doiz, A., & Lasagabaster, D. (2018). Teachers’ beliefs about translanguaging practices. In C. M. Mazak & K. S. Carroll (Eds.), Translanguaging in higher education: Beyond monolingual ideologies (pp. 157–176). Multilingual Matters. Doiz, A., Lasagabaster, D., & Pavón, V. (2019). The integration of language and content in English-medium instruction courses. Lecturers’ beliefs and practices. Ibérica: Revista de la Asociación Europea de Lenguas para Fines Específicos, 38, 151–176. García, O., & Torres, R. (2009). Monoglossic ideologies and language policies in the education of US Latinas/os. In Handbook of latinos and education (pp. 208–219). Routledge. Hu, G., & Lei, J. (2014). English-medium instruction in Chinese higher education: A case study. Higher Education, 67(5), 551–567. https://doi. org/10.1007/s10734-­013-­9661-­5 Leong, P. N. C. (2017). English-medium instruction in Japanese universities: Policy implementation and constraints. Current Issues in Language Planning, 18, 57–67. Luk, G. N. Y., & Lin, A. M. Y. (2015). L1 as a pedagogical resource in building students’ L2 academic literacy: Pedagogical innovation in a science classroom in a Hong Kong school. In J. Cenoz & D. Gorter (Eds.), Multilingual education: Between language learning and translanguaging (pp. 16–34). Cambridge University Press. Macaro, E., Curle, S., Pun, J., An, J., & Dearden, J. (2018). A systematic review of English medium instruction in higher education. Language Teaching, 51(1), 36–76. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261444817000350 Maiworm, F., & Wächter, B. (2002). English-language-taught degree programmes in European higher education: Trends and success factors. Lemmens.

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Muguruza, B., Cenoz, J., & Gorter, D. (2020). Implementing translanguaging pedagogies in an English medium instruction course. International Journal of Multilingualism, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/14790718.2020.1822848 Piller, I., & Cho, J. (2013). Neoliberalism as language policy. Language in Society, 42(1), 23–44. Roothooft, H. (2019). Spanish lecturers’ beliefs about English medium instruction: STEM versus Humanities. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2019.1707768 Santos, A., Cenoz, J., & Gorter, D. (2018). Attitudes and anxieties of business and education students towards English: Some data from the Basque Country. Language, Culture and Curriculum, 31(1), 94–110. https://doi.org/10.108 0/07908318.2017.1350189 Vogel, S., & García, O. (2017). Translanguaging. In Oxford research encyclopedia of education, edited by G. Noblit & L. Moll and reproduced by permission of Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/ acrefore/9780190264093.013.181 Wächter, B., & Friedhelm, M. (Eds.). (2014). English-taught programmes in European higher education: The state of play in 2014. Lemmens Medien. Yuan, R. (2020). Promoting EMI teacher development in EFL higher education contexts: A teacher educator’s reflections. RELC Journal, 51, 309–317.

3 Translator Competence in Second Foreign Language Teaching: Acquisition of Intercultural Competence Laura González Fernández

3.1 Introduction This chapter aims to develop specific aspects of translator competence, particularly intercultural competence, in foreign language teaching (FLT) for translation and interpreting students. FLT provides a favourable environment to enhance intercultural competence, while strengthening other areas of translator competence from a holistic perspective. A diachronic study of teaching approaches and methodologies used to integrate and develop intercultural competence in FLT is presented, which supports the use of the teaching strategies outlined below. Based on these findings, we elaborate an integrative task-based approach to FLT syllabus design aimed at fostering intercultural competence. Effective language learning paths with a modulated degree of academic and professional complexity are presented to the student to favour the autopoiesis processes that are necessary for translator competence emergence, focusing especially on the intercultural domain. L. González Fernández (*) University of Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 L. Escobar, A. Ibáñez Moreno (eds.), Mediating Specialized Knowledge and L2 Abilities, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-87476-6_3

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A series of communicative, collaborative activities, contextualized by authentic cultural audiovisual materials and texts, favours emergence of the competences required to carry out the final task successfully. This task, translation and subtitling of a short video clip, offers a motivating and professionally relevant scenario and fosters emergence of students’ language and translation competence, notably intercultural competence. This pedagogical approach represents 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, must revolve around translator super-competence and symbolic and intercultural sub-competences, as they are crucial for professionals in intercultural mediation.

3.2 Intercultural Competence, FLT and the Curriculum of Translation and Interpreting Studies It has been around 40 years since FLT specialists in both Europe and the US began to point out the importance of integrating intercultural competence in the FLT models developed under the influence of the communicative approach (Byram, 1988, 2009; Canale & Swain, 1980; Celce-Murcia et al., 1995; Celce-Murcia, 2007, among others). Beacco and Byram (2007) define intercultural competence as a “combination of knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviours which allow a speaker … to recognise, understand, interpret and accept other ways of living and thinking beyond his or her home culture. This competence is the basis of understanding among people, and is not limited to language ability” (p. 114). If a high degree of intercultural competence is desirable for any foreign language learner, it is crucial for translation and interpreting students. Several experts have addressed the role of the translator concerning intercultural communication, especially after the “cultural turn” in translation studies. For example, Hatim and Mason defined translators as “cultural mediators” as early as 1990 (p. 223), Federici called them “intercultural

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mediators” (2006), and Bassnett (2011) characterized the translator as an ideal “cross-cultural mediator” (p. 1). As regards translator competence models put forward by experts in translator training, several may be mentioned that highlight the crucial role of (inter)cultural competence in translator education: the PACTE group (2003) mentions “bicultural knowledge” as one of the extra-­ linguistic sub-competences. Kiraly (2013) lists “cultural competence” as part of “translation competence”, itself one of the three sub-competences that make up “professional translator’s super-competence” (pp. 201–2). Finally, the EMT Competence Framework (2017) presents “transcultural knowledge and skills” as one of the four components that make up the “language and culture” competence and describes it as “the driving force behind all the other competences described in this reference framework” (p. 6). From the point of view of translator training literature, experts also agree upon the importance of fostering trainee translators’ development of intercultural communication: Kelly (2005) lists “cultural and intercultural competence” (p. 32) as one of the seven competences that translation and interpreting graduates must have, and House (2018) conceptualizes translation as a “cross-cultural and intercultural phenomenon” (p. 20). It is therefore obvious that intercultural competence is a key component in translator training and it must be incorporated and fostered in as many courses and from as many different perspectives as possible throughout the translation and interpreting study programme.

3.3 A  Brief History of Intercultural Competence in FLT Ever since 1980, when Canale and Swain published their “Theoretical bases of communicative approaches to second language teaching and testing”, subsequent FLT models and methods departed from a linguistic focus to embrace a communicative approach. Canale and Swain (1980) seemed to point to the fact that foreign language learners are dealing not just with two different languages but also with two different cultures

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when learning a language: “We assume that a theory of communicative competence interacts (in as yet unspecified ways) with a theory of human action and with other systems of human knowledge (e.g. world knowledge)” (p. 29). Nevertheless, this study did not clearly articulate the role of culture and intercultural skills or competence in their communicative approach, and, therefore, in FLT. The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) helps settle the crucial role of intercultural competence by pointing out that it is essential for language learners to develop ‘intercultural awareness’. The CEFR (COE, 2001) defines it as “knowledge, awareness and understanding of the relation (similarities and distinctive differences) between the ‘world of origin’ and the ‘world of the target community’” (p. 103). Moreover, it states that certain knowledge and attitudes are necessary for its emergence (pp. 101–106), and it also highlights the four specific skills students need to develop (pp. 104–105). Neuner (2003) offers insight into how the notion of culture in language teaching in Europe has changed from a national to an international, postmodern perspective (p.  55). It could be argued that the European conceptualization of culture is moving progressively towards American theorist Claire Kramsch’s ideas about “culture as discourse” and “symbolic competence” (2006a, 2011), which will be dealt with in depth later. Even though this document and the CEFR offer a higher degree of specificity than previous documents and emphasize the key role of foreign language teaching as regards intercultural education, both are still essentially descriptive and do not provide specialists with the necessary guidelines to incorporate intercultural competence into the FLT curriculum. Something similar happens with the White Paper on Intercultural Dialogue (2008). It once again asserts the key role of “intercultural dialogue” in European society (p. 4) and claims that language learning is one of the key areas that must incorporate and strive to develop intercultural competence in their curricula (pp. 29–30). Furthermore, it highlights the crucial role of higher education institutions to form “intercultural intellectuals who can play an active role in the public sphere” (p. 31), but still, we find no trace of how to integrate this ideal into the reality of the classroom.

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Beacco and Byram (2007) provide guidelines to adapt the content of language courses in higher education: “In order to use the limited available time profitably, it may be judicious to specify courses according to competences” (p. 98). Intercultural competence is key both in language education and in translation and interpreting studies, so it is crucial to bear that in mind during the process of foreign language syllabus design in the degree of translation and interpreting. Furthermore, as Cavalli et al. (2009) point out, “it is through a knowledge of others and their otherness … that a full awareness is acquired of the different facets of one’s own identity” (p.  11). The new FLT models must help language learners to reflect on the aspects involved in an individual’s identity, so they may experience otherness and shed possible ethnocentric attitudes. Nevertheless, despite researchers and educators’ efforts, eminent language experts like Celce-Murcia (2007) and Byram (2014) acknowledge that the progress made in the theoretical field has not materialized in efficient integration of the intercultural sphere in the language classroom. Kramsch argues that the communicative approach has favoured efficacy and speed in the use of language to solve everyday tasks, neglecting reflection upon the relationship between the self and the other (the intercultural sphere). This has had the most negative impact on higher education, as university students “need a much more sophisticated competence in the manipulation of symbolic systems” (2006a, p. 251). In Kramsch’s opinion, an interculturally competent person is aware of all the cultures involved in the communication process. It is important to recall that she does not share the historically prevalent vision of culture as a unitary national narrative (Byram, 1997; Byram et al., 2001), but, drawing heavily on Bhabha’s (1994) theories about “hybridity” and the “third space”, she grants maximum importance to individuals’ or communities’ interpretation of individual and shared experience, conceiving culture as discourse (Scollon & Scollon, 2001). In doing so, she emphasizes the crucial role of the various symbolic systems at work in any communicative exchange and, especially, in intercultural communication (2018, p. 19). Kramsch (2018) contends that to solve the problem of FLT at university level, learners must face complex scenarios where they will need to become aware of the symbolic systems that permeate human communication; they need “symbolic competence”, which she defines as “an ability

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to enter into a dialogue with others to reframe the situation and redefine the real” (p.  29). To develop this competence, theorists and educators must enable learners’ meaningful contact with the other, so they may access that zone of interpretation and negotiation of meaning (“symbolic action”), as well as creation of meaning (“symbolic power”) through discourse (Kramsch, 2011, p. 356). This should be done using communicative activities that foster reflection on discourse and analysis of complexity (Kramsch, 2011), based on a plurilingual, pluricultural perspective (as opposed to English language teaching historical monolingualism), in an environment that values and nurtures translingual/transcultural practices such as translanguaging (Kramsch & Uryu, 2012; Kramsch, 2018, see also García & Wei, 2014; García & Lin, 2016; Larsen-Freeman, 2018). Likewise, Kramsch backs the relatively new trend among applied linguists and translator education specialists, which recommends the use of translation in FLT (Cook, 2007, 2011; Carreres, 2014; González Davies, 2014, 2020; Peverati, 2014; Lertola, 2018; Pym, 2018; Incalcaterra McLoughlin, 2019). In this sense, Anthony Pym (2018) most convincingly makes his point: “How can you discover cultural differences except by translating between cultures? And what is translation if not a use of language?” (p. 215). More precisely, Kramsch and others advocate the use of cultural translation in FLT: “cultural translation would make irrelevant the distinction between language courses and content courses. Both would be opportunities for a ‘translingual activism’” (Kramsch, 2006b, p.  251. See also Kramsch, 2019; Sturge, 2009; Vinall, 2016; Laviosa, 2018). Finally, to bring about this change in FLT at university level, Kramsch (2006a) suggests using authentic materials to facilitate students’ contact with the other, but proposes a shift from practical everyday materials to literary texts: “For it is through literature that learners can communicate not only with living others, but also with imagined others and with the other selves they might want to become. Through literature, they can learn the full meaning making potential of language” (p. 251). Certainly, literature, but I would add that also music, cinema and art in general, have the power to present different cultures and worldviews to the language learner in an appealing and creative way. If the language/translator educator may design equally appealing and motivating translating

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activities around those materials, we might be moving closer to achieving our goal. In 2013, Beacco addresses the issue of how to integrate intercultural competence in the FLT classroom. Drawing from a humanist perspective, and closer to Kramsch’s outlook on culture, he stresses the fact that language learning plays a key role in holistic personal development, especially regarding promotion of intercultural competence. To do so, Beacco describes three principles that must underpin the design of classroom activities: • build encounters with otherness …; • evoke reactions to these encounters, which must be expressed verbally so that attitudes can be studied; • “manage” learners’ reactions to the encounters by means of their verbalisations, which are essential … (p. 9) Indeed, it seems clear that the new recommendations in Europe share the same principles as those advocated by Kramsch. In my opinion, Beacco and Kramsch’s diagnoses have illuminated the way forward, and their key advice may be materialized through a new teaching approach that is gaining ground both in FLT and translator education. Drawing on ecological and emergentist theories propounded by both language learning (Larsen-freeman, 2012, 2018) and translator educators (Risku, 2010; Kiraly, 2015), I propose a kind of syllabus design that reflects the dynamic, fractal, situated (embodied), holistic nature of the emergence of learning, where competences emerge from a task/project-based collaborative pedagogy. This approach puts the learner’s experience at the centre of attention and fosters co-participation in competence emergence. Educators must act as facilitators or guides in the process of learning by “occasioning” (Kiraly, 2015, p. 19) that emergence. Even though progress has been made, total, efficient integration of intercultural competence and skills in FLT in Europe is not still a fact. As Beacco (2013), Byram (2014) and Kramsch (2018) remind us, a lot remains to be done as regards how to teach intercultural competence in foreign language education. We present the following integrative approach to syllabus design with the conviction that it both complies

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with the recommendations made by the COE and addresses the needs of language learners who also want to become translators or interpreters, from a holistic perspective.

3.4 A  n Integrative, Competence-Based Approach to FLT Syllabus Design to Foster Intercultural Competence This section presents, in a structured way, the key elements from previous pedagogical models that will be incorporated into our approach, the new perspectives, pedagogical tools and organization recommendations, and how the model promotes the development of students’ intercultural competence. Despite the overly practical nature of Canale and Swain’s communicative approach criticized by Kramsch (2006a), Celce-Murcia (2007) and Byram (2014), it meant a breakthrough regarding fostering the communication competence a learner needs to master linguistic, socio-pragmatic exchanges. FL learners must practice communicative interaction regularly, as it is an essential competence to achieve other more complex learning objectives, such as critical discourse analysis, cultural mediation or the ability to perform “cultural translation”, which will be discussed later. Byram et al. (2001) and Celce-Murcia et al.’s (1995), Celce-Murcia’s (2007) communicative models promoted the use of interactive classroom activities and the contextualization of the learning process through the use of authentic materials, which favour insightful interpretation of other people’s discourse as well as elaboration of one’s own. When learners confront complex authentic texts, they get quality target language exposure, which favours emergence of receptive and productive, oral and written skills, while they learn to decode complex discourse. Regarding authentic materials to be used in the classroom, following Kramsch (2019) and Vinall’s (2016) ideas, we propose selecting cultural and literary texts, to be used in combination with authentic audiovisual materials, such as film or documentaries excerpts, for example, as they

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offer an adequate degree of complexity for higher education students in general and future cross-cultural specialists in particular. These intellectually challenging materials are also the kind of documents native speakers of the target language deal with, so they provide an excellent opportunity for FL learners to familiarize themselves and interact with individualized, subjective interpretations of a person’s culture or cultures, situated in time and space. The activities may examine the same event from different perspectives: present/past, real/imaginary, insider’s/outsider’s. Moreover, combining the use of written and audiovisual documents dealing with the same or closely related subjects allows FL learners to deal with situated written and oral discourse, therefore approaching language in use in different contexts and making their language learning experience more realistic. The use of this kind of authentic texts within interactive, communicative activities is particularly relevant, as it allows FL learners to deal with the complexity of intercultural communication in a controlled environment, thus favouring the development of their symbolic competence, and “providing students with opportunities to help them define and design for themselves the ‘third place’ or ‘third culture’, a sphere of interculturality that enables language students to take an insider’s view as well as an outsider’s view on both their first and second cultures” (Kramsch, 2011, pp.  354–55). Dealing with varied artistic, complex visions of a culture favours the emergence of open-minded curious attitudes towards otherness, as well as intercultural skills and competence. But to reach this goal, future translators need to go beyond mere linguistic and socio-­ pragmatic competences. As trainee intercultural mediators, they must discover “the cognitive and affective values of … words and how they potentially channel a speaker’s perceptions of social reality” (Kramsch & Hua, 2016). By using this kind of texts in combination with communicative activities, we ensure that FL students nurture their symbolic dimension. Collaborative work is a most adequate learning technique to apply in this context. Smith and MacGregor define it as “an umbrella term for a variety of educational approaches involving joint intellectual effort by students, or students and teachers together … mutually searching for understanding, solutions, or meanings, or creating a product” (1992,

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p. 11). We propose the use of collaborative activities, as they favour personal engagement, positive interdependence, critical thinking, constructive action and development of interpersonal, teamwork and lifelong learning skills (Barkley et al., 2014), all of which are also key factors to develop students’ symbolic dimension, to nurture their intercultural competence, and to enhance language learning and translation and interpreting professional skills and competences. Research in the fields of FLT and translator education coincides in highlighting that task-based teaching is a highly effective general pedagogical approach for competence-based syllabus design in both areas (Hurtado Albir, 1999; Nunan, 2004; González Davies, 2004; Kelly, 2005; Kiraly, 2015). Kelly’s (2005) interpretation of task-based and project-­based approaches being “complementary” and “simply a question of level/stage of training” is adopted here (p. 116). Nunan (2004) defines a pedagogical task as “a piece of classroom work that involves learners in comprehending, manipulating, producing or interacting in the target language while their attention is focused on mobilizing their grammatical knowledge in order to express meaning, and in which the intention is to convey meaning rather than to manipulate form” (p. 4). If the acquisition of competence, as Kiraly (2013) affirms, is “a process of autopoietic emergence” (p. 214), then educators must search for an approach that revolves around student engagement and (co-)responsibility at developing and practising the right competences to solve tasks. Student motivation is triggered by pedagogical tasks that are meaningful in the context of language learning and translation, that is, they need to be as similar as possible to the real-world tasks students will confront in their professional lives. This proposal draws on Nunan’s (2004) pedagogical task framework and unit organization (pp. 19–35) but adapts it to our twofold purpose: we seek holistic emergence of students’ language competence in combination with translation competence, focusing especially on intercultural awareness and communication. For each unit, we propose a set of activities organized in four stages. The first three stages introduce, rehearse and activate language, skills and resources (Nunan, 2004, p.  29), but also knowledge, attitudes and skills relating to the realm of translation, with special attention to those connected with their symbolic dimension and intercultural competence, as Kramsch (2011) and Vinall (2016) suggest.

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This way, students prepare to deal with the pedagogical task (fourth stage) from a holistic point of view, as, according to Larsen-Freeman’s ecologic theory (2018), true holistic learning occurs when students “seek to interpret and make meaning by adapting and innovating their linguistic resources, including nonverbal, graphic, and visual modes … in interaction with others in a particular situation” (p. 58). By following this structured set of activities, students may reflect upon a cultural dilemma while acquiring/activating the language needed to solve it. The activities must also make students think about how each text or audiovisual document interprets the topic, which they will do by analysing the different discourses and debating about them to complete the tasks proposed. The fact that they need to discuss the issues and collaborate to complete the tasks (mediate cultural difference), also allows students to examine their teammates’ and their own discourses under a new light, cultivate humanistic values, improve their professional competences and, hopefully, find new meanings together, by visiting that ‘third place’ of symbolic dimension. As regards pedagogical tools recommended in this approach, following ecological theories, we suggest adopting an integrative perspective, embracing the multiple possibilities that plurilingualism has to offer. Language learning scholars and translation education specialists highlight the learning possibilities afforded by living in today’s plurilingual, pluricultural, highly technological, interconnected and complex world. We favour practices like translanguaging (Kramsch & Uryu, 2012; Kramsch, 2018; García & Wei, 2014; García & Lin, 2016; Larsen-Freeman, 2018), translation (Cook, 2007, 2011; Carreres, 2014; González Davies, 2014, 2020; Peverati, 2014; Lertola, 2018; Pym, 2018; Incalcaterra McLoughlin, 2019; Kramsch, 2019), but more specifically cultural translation (Kramsch, 2006b, 2019; Sturge, 2009; Vinall, 2016; Laviosa, 2018). According to García and Lin (2016), ‘translanguaging’ is “using our language to reinforce the other in order to increase understanding and augment the pupil’s activity in both languages” (p.  3). The possibility afforded by using students’ L1 and L2, of translating experience from one language to the other, discussing in their L1 a text written or spoken in their L2 or vice versa, develops students’ capacity “to act socially as bilinguals and multilinguals, to have two or more cultural and socio-political

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identities” (Otheguy et al., 2019, p. 627). Furthermore, it improves students’ symbolic and intercultural competence, as it encourages them to constantly change their cultural perspective, prevents essentialist attitudes and promotes empathy. Translanguaging requires students to visit the ‘third place’, as they need to understand the meaning of texts, understand their peers’ discourse and produce their own. The use of this pedagogical tool is also in agreement with the CEFR recommendations, as stated by Cenoz and Gorter (2017, p. 312). Recent research shows that translation can be easily integrated within a communicative language teaching perspective, and it brings significant benefits to language learners and translators. As House (2018) claims, it is imperative to overcome “the powerful monolingual myth in language learning and teaching which has resulted in either effectively banning translation from the classroom or ‘misusing’ it” (p. 143). Cook (2007, p. 397) has related translation to lowering the affective filter for the language learner (Krashen, 1985, 2003). It can also be maintained that if student engagement and personal motivation are two key factors for lowering the affective filter, translation students cannot help but be especially motivated to solve this kind of task, as, apart from being an aid to language acquisition, it is directly related to their professional field (Cook, 2007, p. 398). A second reason to reintroduce translation in the language classroom (especially for trainee translators) is that it is our mission to prepare our students to be active mediators in increasingly multilingual and multicultural societies (COE, 2001, p.  43, 2018, p.  28). As Pym (2018) underlines, translating is a communicative activity between two languages and cultures (p. 218), and therefore, it must be one of the best activities to enhance our students’ intercultural awareness and competences. Sturge (2009) defines cultural translation as “those practices of literary translation that mediate cultural difference, or try to convey extensive cultural background, or set out to represent another culture via translation. In this sense, ‘cultural translation’ is counterposed to a ‘linguistic’ or ‘grammatical translation’ that is limited in scope to the sentences on the page” (p. 67). It is my contention that cultural translation may also take place when professionals or students deal with audiovisual translation (AVT). When a film or a documentary discusses topics or issues that are

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deeply ingrained in a culture, and therefore need a certain degree of intercultural knowledge and interpretation, audiovisual translators are also performing cultural (or intercultural) translation. That is the reason why I propose audiovisual materials, together with literary and historical texts, to work with and/or be translated throughout the different stages of a teaching unit. Going back to the motivating effects of translation in connection to developing students’ intercultural competences, today, the Internet, innovation in audiovisual technology, video-on-demand platforms and so on have radically changed our professional and personal lives. The audiovisual format has become so attractive that AVT has also gained ground against other translation fields (Díaz Cintas & Nikolić, 2018). This means that AVT may be one of the best options as a motivating, meaningful translation task for our FL students and translation undergraduates, as many experts contend (Talaván, 2010; Díaz Cintas, 2012; Calduch & Talaván, 2017; Lertola, 2018; Incalcaterra McLoughlin, 2019; among others). For the reasons stated above, and others that will be addressed further on, I have chosen a communicative, collaborative subtitling translation task as the main pedagogical task for the proposed teaching unit. Several scholars have emphasized the possibilities of AVT, and specifically interlingual subtitling, in relation to FLT (Díaz Cintas, 1995, 2012; Williams & Thorne, 2000; Neves, 2004; Sokoli, 2006; Talaván, 2006, 2010; Lertola, 2012, 2015, 2018; Romero et  al., 2011; Zabalbeascoa et  al., 2012; Borghetti & Lertola, 2014; Incalcaterra McLaughling & Lertola, 2014; Baños & Sokoli, 2015; Incalcaterra McLoughlin, 2019). Interlingual subtitling has proved to enhance a significant number of foreign language and translation areas and their related competences: –– Target language: contextualized target language, listening and reading comprehension skills, oral expression, intonation, vocabulary and collocation awareness, grammar … (Williams & Thorne, 2000; Neves, 2004; Romero et al., 2011; Díaz Cintas, 2012; Lertola, 2012, 2015, 2018; Incalcaterra McLaughling & Lertola, 2014; Talaván, 2010). –– Language competences in general, applicable to their L1, L2: written and oral expression, pragmatic awareness, text analysis, verbal and

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nonverbal communication, implied meanings, summarizing (reduction), identifying key information … (Williams & Thorne, 2000; Neves, 2004; Romero et al., 2011; Díaz Cintas, 2012; Zabalbeascoa et al., 2012; Lertola, 2018). –– Motivation, self-confidence, autonomous and collaborative learning, shareable/assessable output … (Williams & Thorne, 2000; Neves, 2004; Romero et  al., 2011; Díaz Cintas, 2012; Zabalbeascoa et  al., 2012; Lertola, 2018). –– Transferable skills, familiarity with the professional field, IT skills: subtitling/specialized software, video-processing technology … (Williams & Thorne, 2000; Neves, 2004; Romero et al., 2011; Díaz Cintas, 2012; Beseghi, 2018; Lertola, 2018; Incalcaterra McLoughlin, 2019). –– Translingual practices, translation skills and competences, mediation … (Neves, 2004; Lertola, 2018; Incalcaterra McLoughlin, 2019). As regards our main objective, integrating intercultural competences in FLT, studies show the possibilities of interlingual subtitling to foster intercultural awareness and competence emergence (Williams & Thorne, 2000; Neves, 2004; Borghetti, 2011; Romero et al., 2011; Díaz Cintas, 2012; Borghetti & Lertola, 2014; Beseghi, 2018; Lertola, 2018; Incalcaterra McLoughlin, 2019). Beyond the benefits stated above, the task of creating interlingual subtitles offers students an opportunity to deal with subjective interpretations of certain historical or cultural events, on several different levels: firstly, as they individually try to understand the audiovisual document; secondly, while collaborating and debating with their teammates to develop and complete the task; thirdly, when searching for ways to express the message in their own language. Those three stages in the process of completing the subtitling task require that students fully activate and develop their symbolic and intercultural competence to be able to mediate cultural difference and produce the translated subtitles.

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3.5 C  ollaborative Task-Based Syllabus Design for Intercultural Competence Emergence in English as a Foreign Language: Example of a Unit of Work This proposal is a teaching unit that may form part of a syllabus designed for an English as a Foreign Language module, level C1 of the CEFR in a translation and interpreting degree. The students are proficient language users: they “can understand a wide range of demanding, longer texts, and recognise implicit meaning” (COE, 2001, p. 24), including cultural, literary and audiovisual texts. Students in this module can also use English “fluently and spontaneously without much obvious searching for expressions” (COE, 2001, p. 24). Therefore, they will be able to participate in debates, argue their point persuasively, understand implied meanings and so on. They can also adapt their discourse according to the domain in which they are engaged, as well as produce correct well-structured texts (COE, 2001, p. 24). From the point of view of communicative language competences, and according to Krashen’s “comprehensible input hypothesis” (2003, p.  6), although students will need a reasonable process of scaffolding until they are ready to produce texts creatively, given the required input, they will be prepared to tackle the kind of task they are required to perform. Moreover, as regards intercultural competence, it is important to recall that some authors, like Olk (2009), argue that sometimes students’ lack of cultural knowledge or understanding is associated not only with the target culture but also with their own; therefore, educators must support effective acquisition and development of competences in both areas. The topic of the unit is “The year without a summer, Frankenstein and scientific, cultural and social revolution in nineteenth century Britain”. Extracts from authentic historical and literary texts, podcasts and films are used to gain more in-depth knowledge about early nineteenth-­century Britain. It is essential for student engagement to present the subject in an appealing, individualized way. Students will find out how the scientific, social, cultural changes and religious unrest at the time, the extreme weather conditions experienced in Europe in 1816 and Mary Shelley’s

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turbulent relationship with radical poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, inspired a masterpiece of terror: Frankenstein or, the Modern Prometheus, a book about loss, betrayal, guilt and the dangers of living in a world where science is devoid of morality and power lacks the necessary sense of responsibility it must entail. Following Kramsch and Vinall’s recommendations, the proposed texts seek to present important features of the target culture/s, a plurality of voices, perspectives and meanings, and individualized subjective points of view about the events. The texts will challenge students to discover how individuals may see reality differently, even within the same culture, according to the specific circumstances affecting the writer or reader, the speaker or listener, the historical moment, their degree of insight into both the source and target culture, their capacity for empathy concerning other people’s discourse, and their moral, linguistic and literary sensitivity. The tasks proposed in relation to these texts, as mentioned in the previous section, stimulate the student to go deeper into the third space/ place and develop symbolic and intercultural competences.

3.5.1 S  tage 1. Collaborative Activity: ‘Find Out What Happened’ The set of activities in this stage introduce the topic and provide context in terms of the language required (Nunan 31) as well as key information about the cultural background learners will need. Collaborative learning technique: ‘Think-Pair-Share’.  This technique helps students understand and evaluate a short complex text through a collaborative approach. Learners first work individually, trying to find the answers to specific questions formulated by the instructor. They need to read in depth, think about the meaning of the text and organize their thoughts before the communicative section begins. Next, students share, clarify and contrast their answers (2014, 153). Materials: Excerpt from ‘Darkness’ a poem written in 1816 by Lord Byron (1993, 31–33). Approximate time: 25  minutes (Think: 5  min. Pair: 5  min. Share: 10/15 min.)

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This technique has proved to be effective to raise students’ interest in a topic and develop students’ communicative and mediating competences. It enhances students’ linguistic competence, as it involves understanding and reformulating information. It also improves sociolinguistic competence (social relations, politeness, register …) and pragmatic competence (discourse organization, flexibility, turn-taking …). As regards intercultural awareness, students learn key cultural information without noticing, in a relaxed atmosphere. The questions must deal with important cultural elements and will motivate students to take responsibility for their own and their classmates’ learning. It favours dialogue, discourse analysis, acceptance of a plurality of interpretations of the same event and so on. This activity allows appropriation of the content of texts and reconstruction of their meaning from a pluricultural and plurilingual perspective, in line with Kramsch’s third space theory.

3.5.2 S  tage 2. Collaborative Activity: ‘Private Detectives: Reconstructing the Main Events That Inspired Frankenstein’ This stage provides further target language and culture input, both written and oral, and encourages controlled target language practice (Nunan 31–32). Collaborative learning technique: ‘Round Table’.  Students are divided into groups of four. Taking turns, students read/listen to four short excerpts from authentic materials that provide key information about the events that motivated the poem they analysed in the previous section, as well as Frankenstein, the novel that is the focus of stage 2. Then they take turns writing the key historical and personal factors that impacted Mary Shelley and inspired Frankenstein. As Barkley et al. point out, “writing helps students to focus their attention, gives students quiet time to think about their responses … provides a cumulative record … ensures equal participation … and exposes students to multiple viewpoints and ideas” (Barkley et  al., 2014, 297). Finally, the groups upload the assignment onto the online learning platform and a whole-class short debate takes place, where students share, discuss and contrast viewpoints.

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Materials: Short excerpts from: –– BBC Radio 4 In Our Time podcast “1816, the Year Without a Summer” (2016). –– History book The Year Without Summer. 1816 and the Volcano that Darkened the World and Changed History, by Klingaman and Klingaman (2014). –– “Author’s Introduction to the Standard Novels Edition (1831)” of Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley (1994b). –– Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley (1994a). Approximate time: 35 minutes. The rich and varied target language input students receive and process and the subsequent need to reformulate it in their own words benefits their language competence. This technique allows students to generate multiple ideas in a safe environment in a relatively short time and list them to be able to organize and use them for the next task. Furthermore, students can deal with other people’s authentic, situated, individualized interpretations of relevant topics concerning the target culture/s. This activity thus favours the development of students’ symbolic dimension and intercultural sphere, which is further enriched by the debate that takes place at the end.

3.5.3 S  tage 3. Collaborative Activity: “Put Yourself In Her Shoes: ‘Why, Oh Why Did Your Novel Get To Be So Successful?’” This activity provides freer practice (Nunan 33), so students may use the language and (inter)cultural knowledge and competences in different contexts and to fulfil specific purposes. Collaborative Learning Technique: ‘Role-Play’.  In groups of four, students assume the identity of a character assigned by the teacher (successful Mary Shelley, jealous Percy B.  Shelley, two twenty-first-century observers and conflict mediators). The teacher defines the scenario, different characters, their perspectives and frameworks of action. Students

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are allowed some time to prepare their dramatizations. They do the role-­ play activity, which “provides an action environment for students to experience the emotional and intellectual responses of an assumed identity or imagined circumstance” (Barkley et  al., 2014, 206). Students finally hold a short whole-class discussion. Documentation materials: books, the Internet. Approximate time: 60 minutes autonomous work, 40 minutes classroom work. Students process, analyse and understand the information they have previously acquired and discussed and use it in a more creative framework. The activity favours students’ ‘relationality’, encouraging critical thinking based on the interaction between different types of discourses, historical moments, cultures and so on. It also activates their capacity for ‘transgression’ (Vinall, 5–6), as they put themselves in the place of the other, overcoming the limits imposed by different languages, cultures, eras and boundaries. Finally, it offers the possibility to explore new discourses and meanings creatively (‘potentiality’). Students, therefore, work on the three components that allow the exploration of symbolic competence: relationality, transgression and potentiality (Vinall, 2016, 5–6) and explore the intercultural domain, while at the same time they practise the language.

3.5.4 S  tage 4. Collaborative Activity: Translating and Subtitling a Film Video Clip In pairs, students do the pedagogical task. This stage must present a language task that is engaging, challenging and meaningful for the students. It must also involve the cultural sphere, so students may develop their language and intercultural competences. Collaborative Learning Techniques: ‘Cultural Translation’ and ‘Peer Editing’. In pairs, students are assigned the task of translating into their L1 and subtitling a trailer or a short video clip extracted from one of the films dealing with our main topic. To this purpose, students first attend a short seminar (one hour) that covers the basics of audiovisual translation and the subtitling software (Subtitle Edit). Support materials are available on the online learning platform. Each student translates and subtitles

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their part of the video clip, reviews their partner’s work providing appropriate feedback, and revises and prepares the definitive version of his/her section based on their partner’s review. Finally, together, they prepare the subtitled version of the complete clip and share it with the rest of the class. Materials: –– Trailer/selected short video clips of films dealing with the topic: Mary Shelley, by Haifaa Al-Mansour (2017), Gothic, by Ken Russell (1986), Rowing with the Wind, by Gonzalo Suárez, (1988) … –– Audiovisual translation seminar and support materials, basic subtitling guidelines, peer-review rubric. –– Open-source subtitling software Subtitle Edit. Approximate time: 75 minutes classroom work, 60–90 minutes autonomous work. The pedagogical task fosters students’ symbolic and intercultural competence. It exposes students to new complex uses of the target language that they need to deal with successfully to solve translation problems, many of which belong to the intercultural sphere. The task ensures that students focus on interpreting and producing meaning in interaction with their partner, doing an activity they find motivating and engaging, as it is very similar to a translator’s real-world professional task. They need to mediate cultural difference, which they do by interpreting discourse: the individual discourses presented in the audiovisual text, their partner’s discourse and their own. Finally, by visiting the ‘third place’ of symbolic dimension (Kramsch, 2011, 354–55), and by applying their intercultural competence, they produce new meaning in the other language. This task also favours emergence of students’ target language and general language competences: they acquire contextualized target language, improve their listening and reading comprehension skills, enhance their written and oral expression, pragmatic awareness, collocation awareness, grammar and so on. Furthermore, students’ professional competence and existential competence improve, as they confront tasks, activities, software and technology which are directly related to their professional field, and the fact that they are capable of dealing with all their responsibilities successfully fosters their motivation, self-confidence, positive

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interdependence, teamwork, autonomous and collaboration skills. Finally, students develop translingual practices, thus cultivating their translation and mediation competences.

3.6 Discussion and Concluding Remarks This pedagogical approach aims to develop specific aspects of translator competence, namely intercultural competence, in FLT integrated in the curriculum of translation and interpreting studies. The fact that this proposal revolves around fostering symbolic and intercultural competence makes it essential to work with authentic texts that are highly subjective and deeply imbued with the culture they represent. Historic and literary audiovisual materials and texts allow students to deepen their knowledge of the target culture/s, their own culture/s, and of the complexity and individuality of human experience, thus fostering their symbolic and intercultural competences. Students find this combination of communicative and collaborative approaches highly enjoyable and motivating, and it encourages them to reflect on their interaction with others and develop language, communicative, symbolic and intercultural key competences. By integrating a collaborative, task-based methodology with plurilingual, pluricultural practices such as translanguaging and cultural translation, we ensure that students strengthen essential translator sub-competences: translation, mediation and intercultural competences; professional and existential competences; target language and general language competences; and key personal traits such as interdependence, empathy, perception of complexity, teamwork skills, critical thinking and so on. The pedagogical task framework, with a modulated degree of academic and professional complexity, offers students the necessary contextualization for their language acquisition process, promotes intercultural communication, enhances their sense of responsibility regarding the target culture/s and their own, and encourages students to nurture and visit the third place of social and cultural interaction, thus enriching their symbolic and intercultural competences.

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This model represents a firm commitment to explore a kind of university-­level FLT syllabus design that aims at competence building and development, as demanded by the Council of Europe (Beacco & Byram, 2007, p. 98). In the specific case of translation and interpreting studies, FLT syllabuses should undoubtedly revolve around cultivating translator competence, and especially symbolic and intercultural sub-­ competences, as they are crucial for professionals in intercultural mediation. Despite progress in the field, current European FLT models still need to adequately integrate the development of intercultural competence in the classroom. Both foreign language education and translator training would highly benefit from an integrative, holistic approach to language teaching. This FLT pedagogical model, designed to be integrated into the curriculum of translation and interpreting studies, seeks to harmonize a collaborative task-based methodology centred on enhancing translator competence, and more specifically symbolic and intercultural competence, with students’ acquisition of target language and communicative competences. The collaborative task-based approach offers students a progression of assignments (pre-task work) that ensures acquisition and development of key competences to be able to complete a professionally relevant pedagogical task. The successive assignments as well as the pedagogical task itself entail dealing with authentic cultural and literary texts and audiovisual documents and are designed paying especial attention to cultivating students’ plurilingual and pluricultural attitudes and practices, such as translanguaging and cultural translation, as well as nurturing their symbolic dimension and intercultural competence. Finally, the pedagogical task is highly motivating and professionally relevant. The task of creating interlingual subtitles ensures language competence and translator competence emergence, and focuses particularly on intercultural communication and mediation, all while offering students a motivating insight into their future work life.

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Romero, L., Torres-Hostench, O., & Sokoli, S. (2011). La subtitulación al servicio del aprendizaje de lenguas: el entorno LVS. Babel, 57(3), 305–323. https://doi.org/10.1075/babel.57.3.04rom Russell, K. (1986). Gothic [film]. Virgin Vision. Scollon, R., & Scollon, S. W. (2001). Discourse and intercultural communication. In Schiffrin et al. (Eds.), The handbook of discourse analysis (pp. 538–547). Blackwell. Shelley, M. (1994a). Frankenstein. Penguin. Shelley, M. (1994b). Author’s Introduction to the standard novels edition (1831). In Frankenstein (pp. 6–9). Penguin. Smith, B.  L., & MacGregor, J.  T. (1992). What is collaborative learning? In A.  Goodsell, M.  Maher, V.  Tinto, B.  Smith, & J.  MacGregor (Eds), Collaborative learning: A sourcebook for higher education (pp. 10–29). National Center on Post-Secondary Teaching, Learning and Assessment. https://files. eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED357705.pdf Sokoli, S. (2006). Learning via subtitling (LvS): A tool for the creation of foreign language learning activities based on film subtitling. In M.  Carol, H. Gerzymisch-Arbogast, & S. Nauert (Eds.), Audiovisual translation scenarios: Proceedings of the Marie curie Euroconferences MuTra (pp. 66–73). Sturge, K. (2009). Cultural translation. In M.  Baker & G.  Saldanha (Eds.), Routledge encyclopaedia of translation studies (pp. 67–70). Routledge. Suárez, G. (1988). Rowing with the wind [film]. Ditirambo Films. Talaván, N. (2006). Using subtitles to enhance foreign language learning. Porta Linguarum, 6, 41–52. Talaván, N. (2010). Subtitles as a task and subtitles as support: Pedagogical applications. In J. Díaz Cintas, A. Matamala, & J. Neves (Eds.), New insights into audiovisual translation and media accessibility (pp. 285–299). Rodopi. Vinall, K. (2016). ‘Got Llorona?’: Teaching for the development of symbolic competence. L2 Journal, 8(1), 1–16. https://escholarship.org/uc/ item/25t4h70v Williams, H., & Thorne, D. (2000). The value of teletext subtitling as a medium for language learning. System, 28, 217–228. Zabalbeascoa, P., Sokoli, S., & Torres, O. (2012). CLIPFLAIR foreign language learning through interactive revoicing and captioning of clips. http://clipflair. net/wp-­content/uploads/2014/06/D2.1conceptualframework.pdf

4 The Making of Future School Mediators: Using Digital Narratives for Mediation Purposes María Victoria Guadamillas Gómez

Introduction Learning a second or a foreign language is a complex process which requires developing a large number of skills such as comprehension and production of both written and oral messages. Nevertheless, the purpose of using a language or communicating in a foreign language goes beyond that. In today’s rapidly changing society, foreign languages are frequently used in various contexts such as in schools, in social and health sectors, for legal assistance or for business. In these contexts, in which cross-­ cultural and cross-language encounters are frequently observed, the role of a linguistic mediator and, in many instances, a cultural mediator is considered essential. As Rudvin and Tomassini (2008) state, the main role of a mediator is “to mediate between the parties without taking sides for one or the other” (p. 260). This mediator can also take a crucial role in introducing literary texts in early school contexts and should be

M. V. Guadamillas Gómez (*) University of Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM), Toledo, Spain e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 L. Escobar, A. Ibáñez Moreno (eds.), Mediating Specialized Knowledge and L2 Abilities, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-87476-6_4

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equipped with linguistic, literary and cultural mediation skills, among others. The competence in linguistic mediation has been comprehensibly ignored in the foreign language classes notwithstanding the regulations that have referred to it in the past few years or some previous studies which have analysed its inclusion in the language curriculum in various settings (Dendrinos, 2006; Karavas, 2008; Trovato, 2016). In fact, the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) (Council of Europe, 2001) did already mention the competence in 2001, but it did not refer to the descriptors, nor define in depth its implications. In 2018, the so-­ called Companion Volume with New Descriptors was published by the Council of Europe, including more detailed descriptors as well as a wide range of activities and tasks which might be useful to develop the competence in linguistic mediation. Recently, the new version of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, teaching, assessment (2020) has been published. The Companion Volume already describes this competence as a skill by which the user or learner creates supports in order to transmit meaning in the target language so that a third party can understand or have access to a written or oral message or to a multimodal piece information. Occasionally, the original message is in the L2 (or foreign language) and needs to be translated to the L1 (or first language); other times, the message is transmitted originally in the L2 and retransmitted in the same language (intralinguistic mediation). Thus, [i]n mediation, the user/learner acts as a social agent who creates bridges and helps to construct or convey meaning, sometimes within the same language, sometimes from one language to another (cross-linguistic mediation). The focus is on the role of language in processes like […], collaborating to construct new meaning, […] and passing on new information in an appropriate form. (Council of Europe, 2018a, p. 103)

Apart from this definition, which was coined by the Council of Europe, simultaneously national and regional regulations for the teaching and assessment of foreign languages in Spain have been updated. Thus, the Royal Decree 1041/2017 (Ministry of Education, 2017) establishes the

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minimum requirements for the foreign language levels which go from B1 to C2 and attaches a precise description of the mediation tasks and activities together with their corresponding evaluation criteria for intermediate and advance levels. These regulations are having a growing impact not only on the teaching plans but also on the design of tests and on the whole teaching and assessment process. Under this regulatory scenario, the Official Language Schools and other foreign language teaching institutions have started to include mediation assessment tasks since 2018–2019, evaluating that competence from a more regulated perspective. Nevertheless, the impact of the CEFR. Companion Volume with New Descriptors (2018a) is still deficient in both the textbooks and the classes of higher and university foreign/second language education in Spain. The previous reality contrasts with the recommendations of the European language authorities and with the relevance that several studies have conferred upon mediation competence. In this regard, some experts have lately reflected upon the concept of mediation and explored mediation tasks (Dendrinos, 2006; Karavas & Delieza, 2009; Trovato, 2014, 2015, 2016). Dendrinos (2006) delves into the concept of mediation, the role of the mediator and the design of mediation activities, considering that the competence incorporates new challenges to foreign language classes and to the design of tests in the higher education Greek context. Furthermore, his contribution presents a series of oral and written tasks whose structure might be useful for different languages and mediation settings. For his part, Karavas’ contribution (2008) shows several tasks to assess oral mediation competence in intermediate and advanced levels in the context of higher education at the University of Athens. Similarly, Giuseppe Trovato’s studies have inquired into the concept of mediation and its implications in different educational contexts. Trovato (2014, 2015, 2016) has pinpointed the signification of the linguistic mediation competence and put it in connection with its didactic application in the foreign language class. Besides, some of his studies address the issue of pedagogic translation as “a form of mediation, which is both linguistic and cultural, since it is a process of linguistic transposition” and make a distinction between the former concept and “specialised translation” (2014, p.137). In the light of that, his study (2014) describes

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a didactic intervention carried out with intermediate Italian foreign language students and proposes some reflections which highlight the importance of including this pedagogic translation competence in the foreign language classes. The latter refers to the Italian context and underlines the need for higher education institutions to opt for new diplomas such as “Linguistic and Cultural Mediation Studies”, so that not only translation but also interpretation can become substantial foreign language skills and make the foreign language teaching process improve overall (2016, p. 58). Moreover, the different contexts in which mediation can be useful are addressed by Companion Volume with New Descriptors (2018a), which not just refers to linguistic mediation but also mentions cultural, social and pedagogic mediation as crucial in most foreign language communicative situations. In this regard, the document underscores that the mediation descriptors have “a broader application, particularly in relation to the teaching and learning of languages across the curriculum, including the language of schooling” (CEFR. Companion Volume, 2018a, p. 47). In the case of pedagogic mediation, aspects such as facilitating access to knowledge, collaboratively co-constructing meaning in school settings or creating the conditions for developing creativity during the previous cognitive processes are considered (CEFR.  Companion Volume, 2018a, pp. 13–14). As it has been discussed, mediation tasks can be of fundamental interest in different social, academic, cultural and pedagogical contexts which may require that pieces of information or specific messages are facilitated in written, oral or multimodal formats. Furthermore, the role of a mediator may be crucial for the school students to understand literary sources. One example of a literary work which, in spite of its multimodal nature, still may need the role of a linguistic and cultural mediator in pedagogic contexts is the picture book. Notwithstanding the fact that the images included in it frequently act as scaffolding mechanisms for foreign and native language learners, their role for non-native speakers may not be sufficient. Thus, this chapter presents a didactic intervention whose main objective is to put into practice and reflect upon the development of the linguistic, pedagogic, intercultural mediation competence with a group of future English teachers.

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Picture Books as a Source Text for the School Mediator In picture books there is a close interrelationship between the image and the texts. Nodelman (2010) highlights that the text in these literary materials could not be fully significant without the presence of the illustrations, since both the text and the illustrations are interconnected. In his study, the author explicitly refers to the binary nature of picture books which contributes to create full meaning, being helpful to involve learners in high cognitive processes and in the development of communicative skills at early literacy stages both in the first and in the foreign language. The same considerations are also supported by Masaki (2010). Regarding the concept of literacy, Kress (2003) understands that this competence, far from being isolated or not related to other cognitive processes, must be redefined and be read in conjunction with other practices such as developing the interpretation of images and understanding screen-­ mediated information at schools. In this regard, European institutions have reconceptualised “literacy” and opted for a wider concept as it is the so-called pluriliteracy which is understood as [t]he ability to identify, understand, express, create or interpret concepts, feelings, facts or opinions in oral or written formats, using visual, audio or digital formats in different disciplines and contexts. (Council Recommendation of 22 May 2018b, p. 198)

The definition above coincides with Kress’ contribution (2003) and converts picture books into a powerful material for the school teachers when acting as mediators because of their multimodal nature. Besides, digital tools are introduced as suitable means to reach “pluri-and multi-­literacies” in learners. More specifically, Alcantud-Díaz  and García Raffi (2019) address the concept of “multiliteracy” as a new form to cope with the reading process which requires a wider and more profound development of linguistic, cultural and literary competences in the foreign language learners. In fact, the authors utilise the concept of “multiliteracies” in order to deal with the creation of digital stories which, apart from developing the aforementioned competences, can contribute to evolve students’ critical skills.

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Focusing on the cultural commitment that can be established between the reader and the literary text, it must be underscored that some picture books which have been published lately, far from being simplistic in their themes, introduce a wide range of them and include references to multiple realities and social contexts (Dolan, 2014). This fact implies that occasionally the complete meaning or some cultural references in them cannot be fully understood without the mediator who, according to the CEFR (2001, p.  87), may “act as intermediary between interlocutors [learners and picture books] who are unable to understand directly”, so that his/her role will be to create a “safe third space”. An example of these challenging themes for early school learners is the refugee crisis. Thus, The Day War Came (2018) deals with this problem, which many kids have confronted recently, having been forced to leave their countries of origin because of war. The illustrations and the text in this picture book transmit the need of developing empathy, intercultural understanding and receptive attitudes at school so that loneliness, fear or suffering, which are being experienced by kids in this situation, may diminish. However, the illustrations and the simple texts can help in the transmission of meaning, this story will require the presence of a mediator, so that the school students may understand its main implications. As we have discussed, the objective of the mediator will be to create this safe space for learners and contribute to the understanding of both the text and the images. However, this is a task that entails that teachers and future teachers, who act as mediators, are able to synthesise, reformulate, rewrite or summarise the main ideas in picture books by means of the foreign language. In this context, future teachers’ digital competence may contribute to present the results of the previous synthesising and summarising processes so that learners may fully understand the texts and find the literary works interesting and motivating at this early school stages (Alcantud-Díaz and García-Raffi, 2019).

Digital Tools’ Functionalities The contemporary understanding of literacy requires that foreign language learners and future teachers are able to use digital tools so that

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these tools can become flexible and structured means of guidance and support for themselves and their learners in the process of developing linguistic and intercultural competences. Digital tools are also an accessible way of presenting information, and many of them tend to provide considerable support in order to organise the main ideas or arguments from different written, oral or multimodal sources. In this regard, some studies have dealt with the development of communicative, narrative and digital competences in foreign language learners writing short stories in digital format (Al-Zoube, 2009; Del-Moral et  al., 2016; Domínguez Romero et al., 2018). Domínguez Romero et al. (2018) reflect upon the creation of multimodal digital narratives in this context and conclude that, apart from being motivating for their learners, are essential in training the students in a multimodal society. More precisely, the experience of Tahriri, Danaye Tous and MovahedFar (2015) refers to the benefits that the digital narratives have in order to improve oral and written comprehension skills or for vocabulary acquisition. These digitally mediated teaching experiences are also found in the studies of Pogorskiy (2015) or Rance-Roney (2008). Pogorskiy (2015) reflects upon how new technologies allow learners to gather data and are useful tools in order to facilitate communication, discussion or exchange information. Another claim made by both authors is the potential of digital tools to personalise learning and teaching contexts, promoting authentic language use and developing numerous language skills at the same time. Moving into the functionalities that the digital tools should be equipped with, Bolaño-García (2017) explores some possible categories of analysis before opting for the use of a specific digital tool in the class, so that the tool is helpful in the process of facilitating understanding. These categories include the informative and instructional nature of the tool, its exploratory, expressive, and communicative qualities, as well as its playful or game-oriented properties. Each category of analysis can benefit the objective of mediation and facilitate the role of a mediator in the school, since his/her main aim in school contexts is making meaning accessible in a motivating way. Therefore, our study will explore how the participants consider that these categories are met in some digital presentation packages/tools such as Storyjumper, Power Point or Pictochart

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when they are used for the purpose of mediation and, in particular, for the creation of digitally mediated short stories based on a picture book. In this regard, it is assumed that the more categories that are met by the tool, the better it achieves the objectives of mediation.

Study Method and Mediation Task Objectives and Method This contribution presents a mediation task and pays attention to the perceptions of the participants regarding the digital tools’ functionalities and usefulness in the process of mediation. In order to do so, Bolaño-­ García’s categories (2017) are evaluated by the participants in a Likert-­ scale. Then, the mediation task itself is being studied through the participants’ responses to the following questions: • As a future teacher, do you think that it is necessary for you to know how to create digitally mediated stories? • As a future teacher, do you believe that the theme that is addressed in the story (Children Refugees) must be included in the foreign languages’ classes at the stages of pre-primary and primary school? The aim of this mediation task itself is to develop the competence in mediation in foreign language trainees by means of the creation of digital short stories based on a picture book. In order to develop the task, the participants need to put into practice skills which are not merely linguistic (competence in linguistic mediation) but also some skills which are more closely related to pedagogic or intercultural mediation, since the story which is being mediated addresses an intercultural issue (refugees) and the concepts of facilitating access to content, co-constructing meaning or fostering their own and their future students’ creativity are also involved.

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Participants and Procedure This mediation task is designed using the picture book The Day War Came (2018) as a source literary work for multimodal mediation in the class of communicative skills in English in the Faculty of Education in Toledo. The course is for future English pre-primary and primary school teachers and the number of students who are involved in the study is of 28, 13 of them belong to the bachelor of pre-primary teaching and 15 to the primary teaching bachelor. Twenty-six are females and two of them are males. The course in which the activity and the subsequent study are conducted is part of the specific training in English as a foreign language and the objective of the course is the development of oral and written skills in that language. Equally, the course requires 10% of the evaluation to be devoted to oral presentations or other tasks which help future teachers to develop useful didactic competences for their latter professional performance. In this regard, it must be underscored that the participants have carried out some previous literary adaptations in their first language (Spanish), but it is the first time that they deal with intralinguistic mediation itself in English. The participants’ English level ranges from intermediate to upper-intermediate.

Description of the Activity As it was discussed in the introduction, the task focuses on the picture book The Day War Came (2018). Regarding its main theme, it must be highlighted that it is one of these stories which, far from presenting a plain motif, deals with a complex topic since it is about a young girl fleeing from her place, home and school context so that she can find a better settlement due to war in her country. Fear and loneliness are common feelings which will be experienced by the protagonist during her journey. The school context contributes to generate cohesion and circularity, since this girl is introduced in the comfort of a school before war and will suffer different distressing experiences until she finally finds a new school to attend in a refugee camp. The story may contribute to generate empathy and empathetic attitudes in school students and, most importantly, make

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pupils aware of the need of creating a comfortable school ambience in which all students, also the newcomers, feel equally accepted and appreciated. From this story, different tasks are being proposed to the participants. Firstly, an initial approach to it can be taken through the reading of the cover and the observation of the illustrations in it. Secondly, the participants read the whole picture book and write short summary (between 60 and 80 words), developing their first synthesising task. After that, the students will be asked to get in pairs on in threes and work on the mediation task. They should be respectful with the number of pages and the arrangement of images and texts in the original story and should write an adapted and simpler version of each text fragment or spread accompanying it by a new image. In order to do so, instructions are being given so that the students at this stage may reflect upon the possible comprehension barriers that may occur in their future classroom context (pre-­ primary or primary) in terms of lexis, but also in relation with the main theme and the events in the story. Last but not least, students are encouraged to use one of the aforementioned presentation packages (Power Point, Picktochart or Storyjumper) in order to show their mediated story and by means of combining images and texts. Therefore, the final product is a multimodal story as it was the source text. Once these steps are completed, the participants will be presenting their tales orally, and finally, they will evaluate the potential of the digital tool that they have utilised in order to present their mediated stories. Thus, the stages which are being discussed can be summarised as follows: • Stage 1. Description: comprehension questions and reading. • Stage 2. Synthesising: writing a summary. • Stage 3. Written mediation: summary of each fragment being aware of the storyboard. • Stage 4. Pictorial mediation: search or draw new images which may serve to support and scaffold each fragment. • Stage 5. Storytelling: using Picktochart, PPT or Storyjumpler at this stage.

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• Stage 6. Evaluation and feedback: feedback for the participants regarding their task’s performance in terms of language use followed by the self-assessment of the mediation tools by the students.

Results Participants’ Productions Firstly, the frequency of use of each tool is presented. In this regard, 13 students opt for Storyjumper, 8 students for Power Point and 7 students decided to use Picktochart. Some students draw their own illustrations and others opt for free images for their digital stories. Below we present and comment on two students’ productions that may illustrate the task that has been previously described. In the original text in the picture book, we found the following words in one of spreads: “At first, just like a spattering of hail, a voice of thunder…then all smoke and noise that I didn’t understand” (Davis, 2018 [spread 3]). The words show how this girl feels when war starts while she was at school. In order to digitally mediate this extract, a pair of students opt for the use of PowerPoint and they illustrate the extract by themselves. Regarding the linguistic mediation aspects, it is observed that they omit “a spattering of hail”, probably considering that it might be difficult to understand for non-native students. However, other key terms such as “thunder”, “fire” or “noise” are maintained in the new version: “There was a lot of noise. I think it was a thunder and I see fire. I didn’t understand” (Participants 10 and 11). As for the image, the colour black in the original picture book is substituted by the colours of the fire, red and yellow. It is interesting to observe how the participants stay true to the original image and depict the protagonist with her hands in her ears, illustrating in this way that there is a terrible noise. Furthermore, and even if it can be arguable, the face of the protagonist shows misunderstanding of the situation, an aspect that is introduced in the text in both the original and the mediated story.

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For the second production that is referred in this paragraph, the students use Storyjumper. In this case, a mediated fragment belonging to the end of the story has been selected, precisely, the last spread which refers to how the school children in the refugee camp help the protagonist to find an available chair, so that she can attend to school. This fact transmits the readers how crucial is welcoming newcomers in schools and how, in this particular case, a refugee child finally finds a new place to learn and temporarily forget war thanks to her classmates. The original text says, “Out of every hut a child came, and we walk together on a road lined with chairs. Pushing back the war with every step” (Davies, 2018 [Spread 13]). Regarding the original image, a line of chairs is illustrated, and different children are depicted close to the protagonist showing smiling faces which contrast with other suffering moments that have previously appeared in this picture book. In order to mediate this extract, the corresponding Storyjumper version shows on the left image of the spread a line of children with their chairs, so that all of them have a place at school, and, then, on the right image a road with green trees and grass on both sides is depicted. In the background of the illustration, a monster who is leaving is also observed. Regarding the text, the participants adapted the original version with these simple words: “Now every child has a chair, and they are happy again” and “the monster is far away”. It is interesting to highlight that the students who did this task in Storyjumper are being trained in this case as pre-primary school teachers, which may have influenced their decision of omitting the word “war” and change it by the word “monster”. Furthermore, it must be mentioned that two of the main ideas presented in the original picture book are maintained: smiling children and chairs for all children at school. After commenting these two examples, participants’ perceptions regarding the digital tools utilised and the appropriateness of the task are presented in the following section.

Participants’ Perceptions Following the criteria that Bolaño-García proposes, that is, the informative and instructional nature of the tool, its exploratory, expressive and

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communicative qualities, as well as its playful or game-oriented properties, the evaluation that the students did after using these tools for mediation purposes reveals the results presented below. In what concerns to the motivating potential of each tool, Storyjumper obtains the best punctuation, since 7 out of the 13 students who were using it give it the highest score, that is, 5 in a scale 1–5 and they represent 53.8% of them. This tool also obtains very positive values in the other criteria which are being evaluated. Precisely, 6 out of the 13 users (46.1%) give it the highest score in terms of its instructional, exploratory, communicative and game-oriented properties. In terms of the evaluation of the criterion of “informative”, the participants’ evaluation is relatively worse than for the other criteria, being 5 out of 13 (38.4%) the number of users who attach to it the highest score. Moving into the second tool in terms of users: PowerPoint, it must be highlighted that the students stress its informative potential, 6 out of 8 users give it a 5 in the scale 1–5 (75%). Even though the results attached to this tool are also positive, the fact is that only 2 out of the 8 users (25%) give it the highest score in terms of motivating and game-oriented properties. These results were expectable and coincide with the low number of playful narrative functionalities that PowerPoint may present when compare with Storyjumper. As far as Picktochart is concerned, it should be mentioned that users stress the tool’s potential in terms of communicative and game-oriented properties. Particularly, 5 out of the 7 students who use it (71.4%) concede to these criteria a punctuation of 5. In relation with their motivating and instructional properties, the results are also positive. On the whole, all participants give the criteria punctuation which are comprised between 3 and 5, so that it can be underlined that the three tools are positively or very positively evaluated in terms of these criteria and, thus, the mediation tasks’ purposes can be fully developed as well. To sum up, it must be said that the punctuations obtained for each tool are slightly different depending on the category that is explored. In this regard, PowerPoint outstands by its informative properties, whereas the motivating and game-oriented properties are stressed respectively for Storyjumper and Picktochart following the participants’ views. Thus, some initial considerations of the school mediator before opting for one

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of these tools should be the definition of his/her aims (more playful or informative), the age of the prospective students, the level of difficulty of the task, as well as the proximity of the students to the theme or topic which is intended to be transmitted. As in every teaching situation, the knowledge of the functionalities of the digital tool by the mediator is as well an important aspect to consider. In this respect, we can affirm that Picktochart and PowerPoint can offer similar functionalities; however, the future teachers may be more familiarised with the latter.

 articipants’ Perceptions in Terms of the Mediation P Task and Its Theme By means of the final questionnaire, an attempt was made to get to know participants’ perceptions about the mediation task. Firstly, in order to evaluate the criteria of easiness and utility of the task, the students gave a punctuation score between 1 (not easy/not useful) and 5 (very easy/very useful). Regarding the degree of difficulty, the following results have been obtained: whereas more than half of the respondents (55%) consider that it was easy and gave it a score of 4, only 16% of them believe that it was very easy. This contrasts with the 26% of participants who agree that it was neither easy, nor difficult. As for the utility or versatility of the task in the respondents near future, 57% of the participants expect it to be very useful, followed by 39% who believe that it will be useful. The previous results indicate that the students are satisfied or very satisfied with the mediation task, rating it positively for their future profession as teachers. Similarly, the open answers of the students for these two questions were analysed: As a future teacher, do you think that it is necessary for you to know how to create digitally mediated stories? As a future teacher, do you believe that the theme that is addressed in the story (Children Refugees) must be included in foreign languages classes at the stages of pre-primary and primary school? Thus, it is observed that most of the comments are positive, but there is a negative comment regarding the utility of the task that should be underscored: “I don’t think that it is necessary to learn that because the publishers offer adapted tales and stories for different ages that can be utilised in the class without any

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modification” (Participant 16). As it was highlighted, the other comments made by the 28 participants are positive or very positive. Some of them focus on vocabulary aspects: “many picture books are useful at school, but the vocabulary is not appropriate or incomprehensible for early school students” (Participant 27). In the same vein, some trainees underscore their future pupils’ individual learning styles: “as teachers, we must take into account our students’ needs in order to adapt to the individual necessities of each of them” (Participant 22). In relation with the theme of refugees that is introduced in the story, most participants consider that it should be presented in early school stages either in pre-primary or in primary. There are only two participants who show opposing views on this matter, considering that it should not be introduced in pre-primary or early primary school levels—which coincide with students who are under eight or nine years old. In this regard, one of the trainees answers: “Yes, I would introduce this theme, but when the pupils get older, around fifth or sixth year of Primary; then, they will be able to understand that” (Participant 14). In the same vein, one of the participants states, “I think that it is a difficult topic to deal with in the first language (Spanish), so it would be even more difficult to deal with it in English as a Foreign Language” (Participant 18). On the other hand, in the comments which supported the view of introducing the theme at early school stages, it is observed that the topicality of the issue as well as the need for creating intercultural awareness at school are some of the common reasons for it. Furthermore, some participants focus on the need of developing empathy at school: “Yes, it is a current topic that can create debate. The aspect is not far from the students’ realities and can make them to develop empathy” (Participant 2) or “It is always necessary to introduce this theme, since students need to know war exists and we should help children in need” (Participant 12).

Concluding Remarks The task and its subsequent evaluation have helped to develop the competence in linguistic mediation in a group of intermediate and upper-­ intermediate English learners by means of a picture book which presents

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an intercultural theme. Besides, this contribution has fully described the design of the activity as well as delved into the digital tools that may be useful for that purpose and the views of a group of future teachers regarding the task and its theme. One of the strengths of this study is the integration of multimodal literary sources in the design of a mediation task in the context of teacher training. Equally important is the use of digital tools for this purpose and the creation of digital narratives. Furthermore, the intercultural theme and, precisely, the issue of migration and its possible introduction in pre-primary and primary levels may foster further reflection. As for the results that have been obtained in terms of students’ views, the task has had a favourable acceptance of both the digital tools which were designated for it and the theme introduced by the picture book. Furthermore, the questionnaire has been useful so that the students can reflect upon their own performance in the task and the design of it as future teachers. The previous aspects are of main importance, since they may help to train critical mediators as well as teachers who can contribute in their classes to shape a global, intercultural and more and more digitalised society. The main limitation of the study is that it is based on perceptions and the participants are still involved in their training process and in an initial stage of their mediation competence.

References Alcantayud-Díaz, M., & García-Raffi, J.  V. (2019). Relato digital en ESL. Multiliteracidad a través de los géneros. In M. C. Fernández-Fígares & M. C. Quiles Cabrera (Eds.), Repensando la didáctica de la lengua y la literatura: Paradigmas y líneas emergentes de investigación (pp.  417–428). Visor Libros. Al-Zoube, M. (2009). E-Learning on the cloud. International Arab Journal of eTechnology, 1(2), 58–64. Bolaño-García, M. (2017). Funciones de las herramientas multimedia interactivas para la enseñanza en educación preescolar. Praxis, 13(1), 17–24. https:// doi.org/10.21676/23897856.2063

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Council of Europe. (2001). Common European framework of reference for languages: Learning, teaching, assessment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Council of Europe. (2018a). Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment. Companion Volume with New Descriptors. Strasbourg: Council of Europe. https://rm.coe.int/cefrcompanion-volume-with-new-descriptors-2018/1680787989. Council of Europe. (2018b). Council Recommendation of 22 May 2018 on promoting common values, inclusive education, and the European dimension of teaching. (2018/C 195/01-05) Official Journal of the European Union. Council of Europe. (2020). Common European framework of reference for languages: Learning, teaching, assessment – Companion volume. Council of Europe Publishing, Strasbourg. www.coe.int/lang-­cefr Davies, N. (2018). The day war came. Candlewick. Del-Moral, M. E., Villalustre, L., & Neira, M. R. (2016). Relatos digitales: activando las competencias comunicativa, narrativa y digital en la formación inicial del profesorado. Ocnos, 15(1), 22–41. Dendrinos, B. (2006). Mediation in communication, language teaching and testing. Journal of Applied Linguistics, 22(1), 9–35. Dolan, A. M. (2014). You, me and diversity: Picturebooks for teaching development and intercultural education. Trentham Books. Domínguez Romero, E., Bobkina, J., & Stefanova, S. (Eds.). (2018). Teaching literature and language through multimodal texts. IGI Global. Karavas, K. (Ed.). (2008). The KPG speaking test in English: A handbook. RCEL. Karavas, E., & Delieza, X. (2009). On-site observation of KPG oral examiners: Implications for oral examiner training and evaluation. Apples – Journal of Applied Language Studies, 3(1), 51–77. Retrieved from http://apples.jyu.fi Kress, G. (2003). Literacy in the new media age. Routledge. Masaki, T. (2010). A strawberry? Or the planet? Children’s aesthetic response to the pciturebook strawberries by Susumi Shingu, moving art sculptor. In T. Colomer, B. Kümmerling-Meibauer, & C. Silvia-Díaz (Eds.), New directions in picturebook research (pp. 151–165). Routledge. Ministry of Education. (2017). Royal Decree 1041/2017, 22nd December, por el que se fijan las exigencias mínimas del nivel básico a efectos de certificación, se establece el currículo básico de los niveles Intermedio B1, Intermedio B2, Avanzado C1, y Avanzado C2, de las Enseñanzas de idiomas de régimen especial reguladas por la Ley Orgánica 2/2006, de 3 de mayo, de Educación, y se establecen las equivalencias entre las Enseñanzas de idiomas

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de régimen especial reguladas en diversos planes de estudios y las de este real decreto. Boletín Oficial del Estado núm. 311, páginas 127773 a 127838. Nodelman, P. (2010). Words claimed: Picturebook narratives and the project of children’s literature. In T. Colomer, B. Kümmerling-Meibauer, & C. Silvia-­ Díaz (Eds.), New directions in picturebook research (pp. 29–44). Routledge. Pogorskiy, E. (2015). Using personalisation to improve the effectiveness of global educational projects. E-learning and Digital Media, 12(1), 57–67. https://doi.org/10.1177/2F2042753014558378 Rance-Roney, J. (2008). Digital storytelling for language and culture learning. Essential Teacher, 5(1), 29–31. Rudvin, M., & Tomassini, E. (2008). Migration, ideology and the interpreter-­ mediator. In C. Valeron & A. Martin (Eds.), Crossing borders in community interpreting (pp. 245–266). John Benjamins Publishing. Tahriri, A., Tous, M. D., & MovahedFar, S. (2015). The impact of digital storytelling on EFL learners’ oracy skills and motivation. International Journal of Applied Linguistics and English Literature, 4(3), 144–153. Trovato, G. (2014). Las estrategias de la mediación lingüística para fomentar el aprendizaje de las destrezas orales bilingües (español-italiano). Dialogía. Revista de lingüística, literatura y cultura, 8(1), 162–180. Trovato, G. (2015). La mediación lingüística y cultural: algunas observaciones acerca de su complejidad conceptual y su colocación en el contexto universitario italiano. Tejuelo, 21(1), 65–83. Trovato, G. (2016). Lengua española y traducción: integración de contenidos lingüísticos y traductológicos en un marco didáctico. Ogigia. Revista Electrónica de Estudios Hispánicos, 19(1), 57–66.

5 CLILing EMI for Effective Mediation in the L2 in Pre-service Teacher Education: A Case Study at a Spanish University Magdalena Custodio-Espinar and Alfonso López-Hernández

Introduction The Autonomous Community of Madrid (Spain) is at the forefront of Europe in bilingual (English) provision in primary and secondary education, with over 50% of students following a Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) program (Comunidad de Madrid, 2020). This educational scenario places significant pressure on the provision of pre-service teacher education, especially in the specific profiles of English language specialist and CLIL subject teachers, and according to several studies (Cabezuelo Gutiérrez & Fernández Fernández, 2014; De la Maya Retamar & Luengo González, 2015; Custodio Espinar & García Ramos, 2020; Gutiérrez Gamboa & Custodio Espinar, 2021; López-Hernández,

M. Custodio-Espinar (*) • A. López-Hernández Comillas Pontifical University, Madrid, Spain e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 L. Escobar, A. Ibáñez Moreno (eds.), Mediating Specialized Knowledge and L2 Abilities, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-87476-6_5

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2021), it is not clear that higher education programs are effectively responding to this need. To do so, recommendations include offering EMI (English as Medium of Instruction) teacher training programs and courses at both the bachelors and master’s levels (Pérez-Cañado, 2018). This chapter discusses an innovation project that was devised in order reap the full benefits of EMI instruction in the training of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) and CLIL teachers at Comillas Pontifical University (Madrid, Spain).

Theoretical Framework EMI in Higher Education in Spain In accordance with recommendations by the  European Commission, Spanish universities have adapted to the European Higher Education Area by increasing the provision of foreign language medium instruction programs, mainly in English (Dafouz & Smit, 2020). Moreover, the creation of EMI programs has been particularly extensive in the Autonomous Community of Madrid (Jeffrey et  al., 2019). Overall, this policy has resulted in the need to mediate language input and production in a mixed-language ability environment in order to guarantee successful content learning in EMI scenarios. EMI is defined as “the use of the English language to teach academic subjects (other than English itself ) in countries or jurisdictions where the first language of the majority of the population is not English” (Macaro et al., 2018, p. 37). If compared to other approaches aimed specifically at improving the language proficiency level of students as they learn content, such as CLIL, EMI is clearly less demanding and more likely to be developed at a wider variety of university settings (Pérez-Cañado, 2020). According to Pérez-Cañado, there are three main reasons that explain this success: strategic reasons related to the internalization of universities after the Bologna Process; pedagogical reasons based on the need to prepare students for international mobility programs; and, lastly, pragmatic

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reasons which envisage English as a lingua franca in the scientific and academic world (2020, p. 2). However, this malleability has resulted in a heterogeneous implementation of EMI in which the lack of lecturer linguistic or methodological accreditation has led to research on the training needs of the existing EMI programs. In this sense, Nieto Moreno de Diezmas and Fernández Barrera (2021) suggest a comprehensive teacher training plan to ensure both language and pedagogical competencies, a solid in-service teacher program able to cater for the actual needs of already or potential EMI lecturers, and a Language/Multilingual Policy Plan which should include a specific protocol for EMI that regulates EMI teachers’ recruitment and commitment (pp. 58–59).

EMI, ESP and CLIL Teaching disciplinary content in a foreign language in higher education can occur in different ways and with a range of purposes, as summarized in Fig. 5.1. On the one end of the spectrum, English for Specific Purposes (ESP) focuses on “the language, skills, and genres appropriate to the specific activities the learners need to carry out in English” (Paltridge & Starfield, 2013, p. 2). The same linguistic focus is also true of English for Academic Purposes (EAP), where the “content” is academic study and research in English. On the other end of the spectrum, EMI implies no specific

Fig. 5.1  Content taught in English: the language/content continuum. (Adapted from “EAP, EMI or CLIL?” by J. Airei, in The Routledge handbook of English for academic purposes, 2016, p. 73. Routledge)

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choice of methodology, is generally associated with higher education and does not see language improvement as a primary learning outcome (Dearden & Macaro, 2016; Pecorari & Malmström, 2018; Airey, 2016). While the terms EMI and CLIL are sometimes used interchangeably to refer to courses or programs taught in English, CLIL—also known as Integration of Content and Language in Higher Education (ICLHE) in its tertiary education version—critically regards students’ language improvement as a primary outcome, albeit to different degrees (Greere & Räsänen, 2008) (Fig. 5.2). Indeed, CLIL has been used as an umbrella term to describe a dual focused educational approach which explicitly targets both the learning of academic subjects and the development of language skills (Coyle et al., 2010). For effective CLIL there must be a true integration of content and language, rather than students being “expected to develop their proficiency either as a requirement for participation in CLIL or by mere exposure to the foreign language” (Arnó-Macià & Mancho-Barés, 2015, p. 72). This is the reason why, arguably, most bilingual courses in higher education are cases of EMI, not CLIL (Airey, 2016). However, as Pérez-­ Cañado argues, in monolingual settings such as Spain, EMI could benefit from “CLIL-izing” EMI, that is, ensuring that a strong language focus is present in EMI programs (Pérez-Cañado, 2020).

Fig. 5.2  Varieties from non-CLIL to CLIL in L2/FL-mediated higher education in Europe. (Adapted from “Report on the LANQUA Subproject on Content and Language Integrated Learning: Redefining CLIL—Towards Multilingual Competence” by Greere & Räsänen, 2008, p. 6)

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How then can this dual focus be effectively achieved in university instruction? Different approaches have been suggested, most of which involve the collaboration of EAP/ESP instructors and disciplinary specialists (Airey, 2016). The most common one is offering ESP/EAP language courses as a way of supporting the language skills and genres required by the EMI content courses. Indeed, as Arnó-Macià and ManchoBarés (2015) put it, “ESP courses provide an opportunity for awarenessraising and for the development of the necessary academic literacies to cope with the demands of CLIL”. A more ambitious alternative, both organizationally and financially, is team teaching, with content and language teachers simultaneously present in the classroom (Custodio-­ Espinar et al., in press). Finally, content teachers can be made responsible for both content and language outcomes. This latter option is only realistic if it goes hand in hand with effective teacher training that includes an overt language focus (Pérez-Cañado, 2020) or else with the assistance of language specialists in the process of integrating academic and disciplinary literacies in the learning outcomes of EMI courses (Taillefer, 2013; Airey et al., 2017). In the Spanish context, a number of proposals of the above “CLIL-­ izing” EMI have been documented. To cite but a few of them, Arnó-­Macià and Mancho-Barés (2015) describe different ways in which ESP courses can support EMI courses. Woźniak (2017), in turn, analyzed the double role of ESP lecturers as language teachers and support figures, called CLIL tutors, in the planning and delivery of EMI courses in a variety of degrees. As to team teaching, although there are very few documented experiences (Lasagabaster, 2018), an interesting case is offered by a teacher training college that employed language assistants to provide language support in CLIL classes (Fernández Fernández et al., 2018). All in all, there have been many attempts to introduce CLIL in higher education and the consolidation of CLIL as a good methodology to foster the implementation of bilingual programs is a reality (Pedraza-­Rodríguez, 2021).

Linguistic Mediation in EMI Instruction As we shall argue throughout this chapter, the concept of linguistic mediation, as developed by the Council of Europe (2018) in the updated

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Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment. Companion Volume with new Descriptors, can provide valuable clues regarding the kind of language support which may be provided in EMI courses. While the concept of linguistic mediation appeared in the original CEFR (Council of Europe, 2001), the publication of the Companion Volume has significantly contributed to raising awareness of it (Piccardo et  al., 2019; Fernández Álvarez & García Hernández, 2021). The concept of mediation has, of course, been approached from different perspectives and disciplines, and has often been connected with commercial and political practices and, in particular, conflict resolution (Stathopoulou, 2015; Fernández Álvarez & García Hernández, 2021). In addition to the latter, mediation in educational settings has also been conceptualized in relation to student advocacy and, in what interests us most, Vygotskyan understandings of mediation as taking place in the “zone of proximal development” whenever an expert— teacher or peer—effectively scaffolds learning of new contents (Fernández Álvarez & García Hernández, 2021). Focusing on classroom settings, the work of Strathopoulou foreshadowed the Companion Volume, concluding that mediation “can serve various functions […], and it can have a beneficial effect not only in the building of relationships between students, but also on facilitating the learning process” (2015, pp. 214–215). The CEFR Companion Volume provides both a general scale for mediation tasks (Council of Europe, 2018, p. 105) and specific scales for three groups of mediating activities: Mediating a text, Mediating concepts and Mediating communication (Council of Europe, 2018, p. 106). Table 5.1 describes a series of mediation tasks based on the Council of Europe (2018). These types of activities are related with a type of learning that “takes place when individuals interact in the social and material world, participating in the knowledge practices of a community and being supported by other members of that community” (Dafouz et al., 2010, p. 13, based on Lave & Wenger, 1991). Furthermore, the CEFR also identifies a number of mediation strategies to explain new concepts and to simplify texts, defined as “the techniques employed to clarify meaning and facilitate understanding” (Council of Europe, 2018, p.  126). They may apply to many of the

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Table 5.1  Mediation activities in the CEFR Companion Volume Mediating area Mediation activities Relaying specific information in speech/writing Explaining data (e.g., in graphs, diagrams, charts, etc.) in speech/writing Processing text in speech/writing text Translating a written text in speech/writing Note taking (lectures, seminars, meetings, etc.) Expressing a personal response to creative texts (including literature) Analysis and criticism of creative texts (including literature) Collaborating in a group: Facilitating collaborative interaction with peers and collaborating to construct meaning concepts Leading group work: managing interaction and encouraging conceptual talk Facilitating pluricultural space Communication Acting as an intermediary in informal situations Facilitating communication in delicate situations and disagreements Adapted from Council of Europe (2018, p. 106)

activities above and include strategies to explain a new concept (linking to previous knowledge, adapting language, breaking down complicated information) as well as strategies to simplify a text (amplifying a dense text and streamlining a text). Crucially, the concept of linguistic mediation presented in the Companion Volume goes beyond inter-linguistic mediation by also including intra-linguistic mediation, where only one language is used (Council of Europe, 2018, p. 103). This is highly helpful in EMI/CLIL classrooms, in which teacher-student mediation will be chiefly intra-­ linguistic, although group work may also provide opportunities for inter-­linguistic mediation.

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 LILing EMI Courses in Pre-service Teacher C Education at Comillas Pontifical University Critical Context Analysis In the Autonomous Community of Madrid, which provides the setting of this proposal, the nature and goals of the pre-service teacher education have been significantly affected by the rapid expansion of bilingual education programs and, in particular, the community’s CLIL program for public and semi-private schools (Comunidad de Madrid, 2020). In fact, as of the 2020–2021 school year, over 50% of primary education students in public and publicly funded schools are following this program (Comunidad de Madrid, 2020), and many other private and semi-private schools offer comparable CLIL or English reinforcement programs. As a result, a majority of primary education students in the region are learning not only English but also other subjects (e.g., natural science, social science and music or physical education) through English. Therefore, it is fair to say that most prospective teachers can expect to be in close contact with English upon beginning their careers: whether as EFL specialist teachers, CLIL subject teachers or instructors of subjects that are taught in Spanish in the context of a CLIL program. Understandably, initial teacher education in the Madrid Community needs to be responsive to this training need. In addition to the content and pedagogical knowledge required to plan and deliver lessons effectively, prospective EFL and CLIL teachers are in dire need of opportunities to develop their discourse skills in English (Richards, 2017), which will enable them to communicate fluently in the classroom and, more important, use English as the language of instruction. Indeed, in a country where average English language competence has been found to be lower than in many European regions (English First, 2020), studies have found that a perceived low level of English negatively affects EFL teachers’ self-efficacy (Fernández-Viciana & Fernández-Costales, 2017). Besides, their ability to effectively teach classes that require a high level of interaction in the foreign language is also affected (Amengual-­Pizarro, 2013).

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Moreover, a language improvement component should also offer opportunities for developing the specialized language skills and functions required by the teaching profession (Young et al., 2014; Richards, 2017). Some sort of ESP, then, is desirable in the design of EFL and CLIL teachers’ initial education. In the case of CLIL teachers, research has identified a number of key competences that CLIL practitioners must possess. According to Pérez-Cañado (2018), the CLIL teacher profile comprises linguistic and pedagogical competences, but also scientific, organizational, interpersonal and collaborative, and reflective and developmental. From the very nature and purposes of the CLIL approach, CLIL teacher educators need to liaise with both language pedagogy and disciplinary pedagogy trainers when designing effective teacher training. Leaving aside trainees’ prospective careers, the push for internationalization in Spanish universities also helps to explain the enhanced role of English in undergraduate degrees in general and initial teacher education in particular. Indeed, international mobility of students and faculty is highly valued in rankings of higher education institutions and, at least in a European context, proficiency in oral and written English is required to access most foreign exchange opportunities. At Comillas Pontifical University, all undergraduate degrees include the Diploma in Communicative Skills and Foreign Language Studies, which guarantees that all students will study at least 30 European Credit  Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) credits in English, with at least 18 of them devoted to language improvement (general English or ESP). The aim of this mandatory component is to ensure that all Comillas’ graduates will have achieved a level of English of CEFR B2 or higher, and will have the necessary skills to • communicate fluently and correctly in English for personal, academic and professional purposes, • study in English abroad, as exchange students, • face the challenges of their careers • (Comillas Pontifical University, n.d.-b).

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Table 5.2  Overview of the English-taught courses in the education degrees at Comillas Year Semester Course title (ECTS credits)

Type of course

1 2 3

1–2 1–2 2

General English EAP/ESP Language pedagogy (EFL)

4

1

4

2

English for Education I (12) English for Education II (6) Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL 1) (6) Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL 2) (6) Content and language

Language pedagogy (EFL) CLIL pedagogy Integrated learning (CLIL) (5)

Adapted from Comillas Pontifical University (n.d.-a)

J ustification. EFL and CLIL in Comillas’ Education Degrees In order to meet the training demands outlined above, Comillas’ Education degrees have included a mandatory education in both Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) and CLIL.  As to the former, Comillas is the only university in the Madrid Autonomous Community in which all student teachers must take the EFL specialist track or mención (30 ECTS credits), which is a necessary qualification to teach the subject, English, in primary and infant education. The design of such specialist tracks varies widely across institutions (López-Hernández, 2021), but in Comillas there is a balance between language improvement and language pedagogy courses. In addition to the EFL track, which also leads to students obtaining the university’s Diploma, all trainees take a 5 ECTS credit course devoted to CLIL in the fourth year of their degrees. Table 5.2 summarizes the credit load devoted to English and CLIL in the infant and primary education teacher training degrees. As can be seen in Table 5.2, Comillas’ model of EMI offers a progression in the focus on disciplinary (education) literacy in English: from a linguistic focus in years 1 and 2, to a smaller—albeit non-residual— attention to language competence in years 3 and 4. Such a design follows Khalyapina et al. (2017) in their suggestion of moving from ESP, in lower years of a degree, to CLIL in higher years and, eventually, EMI in graduate English-taught programs.

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Despite the strong emphasis on English in these degrees, it is worth noting that EMI in the education degrees does not extend to disciplines beyond language improvement, language pedagogy and CLIL. Indeed, Comillas offers no EMI program or stream as the ones taught in other universities and colleges in the region.

Innovation Proposal The innovation proposal that will be described in detail below is targeted at the design and implementation of the three EMI courses (total: 17 ECTS credits) that are taught in years 3 and 4 of the Primary and Infant education degrees. It is based on the needs analysis described above and seeks to maximize the benefits of the limited EMI coursework that results from not offering a more extensive bilingual degree or stream. Taken as a whole, TEFL 1, TEFL 2 and CLIL present a case study of a “CLIL-ed” form of EMI course design and instruction, in which effective scaffolding of the learning process takes the predominant form of intra-­ linguistic mediation of disciplinary content in L2 rather than L1 through CLILing EMI.

Target Group The target group of this innovation proposal is third- and fourth-year students of the Education degrees at Comillas, studying single bachelor’s degrees in Infant Education and Primary Education, or Joint Degrees in Infant and Primary Education and Primary and Infant Education. The order affects the main focus of the internships, as well as the order of the modules. Since academic year 2018–2019, a total of 181 student teachers (9 male, 172 female) have taken at least two of these redesigned courses. Critically for this proposal, students’ language ability upon entering their respective degrees was very heterogeneous, ranging from CEFR A2—the minimum requirement—to C1 levels. In the TEFL and CLIL

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courses, trainees attend classes in two groups based on their language ability; however, instructors can expect a diversity of language competences in their classrooms.

Objectives This proposal aims at applying CLIL methodological principles to three EMI courses with the aim of enabling Comillas’ teacher trainees to acquire the content knowledge, skills and disciplinary literacies of foreign language pedagogy and CLIL, while consolidating their general and specific English language skills. Other objectives are 1. To develop a collaborative teaching framework based on co-teaching with a threefold aim: to attend to diversity in L2 mixed-ability groups, improve students’ learning experience and provide them with a model of collaboration in the EFL and CLIL classrooms. 2. To provide ample occasions for mediating activities, mainly intra-­ linguistic, that serve to scaffold student learning in a mixed L2 ability classroom. Such strategies center around the promotion of student-­ centered methodologies and metacognitive development, and include formative assessment tools and the design of microteaching scenarios likely to boost our students’ understanding of the theoretical components of these courses. 3. To offer a successful model of EMI teacher education combining co-­ teaching and CLIL expertise.

Methodology, Activities and Resources The implementation of this proposal has involved the adaptation of materials through scaffolding techniques, the adjustment of instruction to the pace and English level of students by distributing them in small groups and implementing co-teaching or team-teaching education, the modification of the teacher’s roles according to type of co-teaching (team teaching, station teaching and parallel teaching) and the revision of the evaluation system in the EMI courses. The main strategies of CLILing

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Table 5.3  Overview of the strategies and resources for intra-linguistic (English) mediation in the TEFL courses CLILing strategies for EMI

CEFR mediation activities and strategies

Conducting microteaching with peers Teacher-led review of lesson plans and microteachings

Managing interaction Encouraging conceptual talk Collaborating to construct meaning Facilitating communication in delicate situations and disagreements Portfolio essay writing Relaying specific information Processing text Group work: Video analysis, jigsaw reading of Processing text Relaying specific information articles and book chapters, note-taking on Explaining data analogic or digital documents Managing interaction KWL (know, want to know, learnt) charts, shared online encouraging conceptual talk documents, Padlet Co-teaching model: Station acting as an Facilitating communication intermediary teaching, parallel teaching

EMI used for effective mediation in the L2 are microteaching, formative assessment, co-teaching and scaffolding. Tables 5.3 and 5.4 describe some of the activities and tools implemented and their relationship with the CEFR mediation categories.

 LILing Strategies for EMI CEFR Mediation Activities C and Strategies The student activities outlined above have involved individual, pair and group work that is both collaborative, all members working together to complete the task, and cooperative, each member or group working on one aspect of the task to achieve the final product.

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Table 5.4  Overview of the CLIL strategies for intra-linguistic (English) mediation in the CLIL course CLILing strategies for EMI

CEFR mediation activities and strategies

Formative assessment tools: rubrics, exit slips, checklists

Collaborating to construct meaning Facilitating collaborative interaction with peers Acting as an intermediary Facilitating communication Facilitating communication in delicate situations and disagreements Facilitating pluricultural space Adapting language

Co-teaching model: team teaching, parallel teaching Verbal and written feedback on individual and shared tasks

Reception scaffolding (RS): Adapted teacher talk RS: Multimodal input (interactive PPTs, videos, digital board, images, authentic materials, highlighted words and sentences, worksheets) RS: Brain storming, activations tasks, metacognition activities (sharing learning goals, instructions, KWL charts) Transformation scaffolding: Jigsaw readings, bingos, visual organizers and mind maps

Production scaffolding: Group work on shared Google docs, Padlet and so on to develop questions and answers, textbook analysis, production scaffolding design, ICT tools description and applications Production scaffolding: Writing

Relaying specific information Explaining data Processing text Streamlining a text Linking to previous knowledge

Breaking down complicated information Facilitating collaborative interaction with peers Collaborating to construct meaning Collaborating to construct meaning Managing interaction

Encouraging conceptual talk models and frames (i.e., CLIL lesson plan template)

Data Collection and Temporalization This is the description of the main activities carried to collect the data (Table 5.5).

Table 5.5  Innovation project schedule Course

Data collection

Date

TEFL 1 and 2

Portfolio essays describing what students have learned from lesson planning + microteaching Students entrance levels (CEFR) Grades in CLIL and TEFL Exit slips Questionnaire to assess co-teaching in CLIL classes Academic performance students English level Focus group interviews

2018–2021

TEFL 1, 2 and CLIL TEFL 1, 2 and CLIL CLIL

TEFL 1, 2 and CLIL

2018–2021 2018–2021 2018–2019

2018–2019

Table 5.6  Mediation in EMI assessment checklist Objective Criterion 1.

2.

3.

Descriptor

1.1 number of courses taught through co-teaching 1.2 number of co-teachers 1.3 number of L2 mixed ability students reporting positive learning experiences through co-teaching 1.4 number of students who include co-teaching in their TFGs (end-of-degree dissertations) 2.1 number of language The L2 scaffolding strategies mediation offered strategies in 2.2 number of active the EMI methodologies content implemented courses are 2.3 number of formative CLIL-based assessment tools used 2.4 number of cognitive scaffolding strategies offered The CLILing EMI 3.1 number of actions to disseminate the innovation innovation inside Comillas proposal is 3.2 number of conference disseminated participations inside and 3.3 number of publications outside Comillas

The collaborative teaching framework is a reference for teaching EMI courses in the education degrees at Comillas

Level of achievement Low Low Low Low

Medium Medium Medium Medium

High High High High

Low Low Low Low

Medium Medium Medium Medium

High High High High

Low Medium High Low Medium High Low Medium High

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Table 5.7  Comparison of English-leveled groups and their academic performance per course and degree Degree/English Course level

2018–2019 means

2019–2020 means

2020–2021 means

Average

TEFL 2 Primary Infant Prim B2 Prim C1 Infant B2 Infant C1 CLIL Primary Infant Prim B2 Prim C1 Infant B2 Infant C1

7.83 7.58 7.02 9.02 7.49 7.66 8.28 7.49 8.08 8.48 7.52 7.44

8.03 7.41 7.49 8.46 7.17 7.61 7.88 7.21 7.49 8.20 6.54 7.66

8.12 7.56 7.68 8.46 7.38 7.72 8.52 8.32 8.40 8.60 8.32 8.31

7.99 7.52 7.40 8.65 7.35 7.66 8.23 7.67 7.99 8.43 7.46 7.80

Table 5.8  Student positive and negative responses to exit slips (online questionnaire) in TEFL 2 station teaching

Category

Code

Methodology Microteaching Interactive instruction Practical tasks/group work Feedback/examples Review activities Review previous knowledge Interaction in online classes Resources Digital resources Offline resources Class PPT presentations Personal qualities, rapport Instructor Preparation Support Repetition Organization Time management Pace Teachers’ coordination Course organization Class atmosphere Transference Relevant to future practice

N of occurrences in Primary

N of occurrences in Infant

(+)

(+)

(−)

8 7 4 4 3

3

(−)

14 3 4 9 3 2 3 2

4 1 2

2 3 1 4

3 1

3

3 2 2 1

2 4 5

2 1

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Table 5.9  Student positive and negative responses to exit slips (online questionnaire) in CLIL team teaching and parallel teaching N of occurrences 2019–2020

N of occurrences 2020–2021 (+)

Category

Code

(+)

Methodology

Co-teaching Interactive instruction Practical tasks/group work Feedback/examples Review previous knowledge Lesson plan Interaction in online classes Load of work/activities Digital resources Offline resources Class PPT presentations Personal rapport As a model Support Time management Load of content Pace Overlap with other courses Course organization Class atmosphere Attendance issues Relevant to future practice

10 3 8 9 2 3

Resources

Instructor

Organization

Transference

(−)

(−)

6 14 3 1 2 1 5

5 1

2

4 3 18

7 2

5 1 8

3 9 5 2 9 2 3 1

7 3 3 2

1

5

8

2

Evaluation A checklist has been designed in order to evaluate the innovation proposal (Table 5.6).

Results Firstly, the relationship between the English level, degree and the academic performance of students in the “CLILed EMI” courses is compared in Table 5.7.

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Table 5.10  Differences in the learning experience and the perceived “effectiveness of two instructors” after the CLIL module (paired samples) Null hypothesis (means are Posttest Pretest Difference Student equal) mean mean in means t Sig. 42.16 H2.2 Differences in the degree of collaborative competence in D2 between pre- and posttest 5.04 H3 Differences in the perceived “Effectiveness of two instructors together” between pre- and posttests

37.47

4.67

4.03

4.30

0.741

2.92

Statistical decision and conclusion

0.000 H0 is rejected. Differences in favor of posttest. The CLIL module significantly improves the scoring in dimension 2 0.007 H0 is rejected. Differences in favor of posttest. The CLIL module significantly improves the degree of perceived “effectiveness of two instructors together”

Note: From Custodio-Espinar et al. (in press)

Secondly, Tables 5.8 and 5.9 show the most frequent student responses to the exit slips (online questionnaires) this academic year (2020–2021) in two of the “CLILed EMI” courses from the positive and negative point of view. The total number of responses in TEFL 2 was 26 in the Primary group and 37 in the Infant group. In CLIL, the results reflect student opinions in 2019–2020 and 2020–2021 in the Primary group (N = 35) and the Infant group (N = 26) together (Table 5.9). As part of this innovation proposal, a quantitative study was carried out in the academic year 2018–2019 to measure the impact of co-­teaching on 85 students’ collaborative competence (dimension 1), learning experience (dimension 2) and transferability (dimension 3) in their academic

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Table 5.11  Focus groups’ student responses on “CLILed EMI” courses Course

Activity

TEFL 2

Microteaching F1P1: Microteachings are Great. P7: Perhaps it was too much It feels like a real class. work for the F2P6: P6: I really like it. time available Before it, we had the question, … especially “can I teach English?” we the materials realized that we could do preparation more than we thought we could Peer FG3P5: Peer assessment is great FG1P3: Peer assessment was assessment … you get a lot of information not so effective, from your classmates because often we had too little time to do it FG2P7: Perhaps it Lesson FG2P5: Lesson planning makes was too much planning you think about things—Why you propose what you propose work for the time available … especially the materials preparation Co-teaching F1P3: … more chances of us understanding the contents. It’s definitely more dynamic. FG2P4: With two teachers, you are able to better observe the students: How they are feeling, whether they are understanding things FGP6: Two teachers explaining in two different ways gets to more students FG4P14: I loved the experience. You can see that there is a lot of work behind it. FG4P13: The teachers have complementary styles. It’s a great model that we can learn from for our future careers. It’s great to see that it’s actually possible. Small errors are not a big problem

CLIL

Strengths

Weaknesses

(continued)

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Table 5.11 (continued) Course

Activity

Strengths

Weaknesses

Teacher support

FG1P2: When we’re doing tasks, it’s easier for one of the teachers to come and support you F1P3: It’s definitely more dynamic

FG1P2: Classes were too intense … I couldn’t even breathe … F3P8: Each teacher can provide you with different points of view and can support you in different ways

FG focus group, P participant

performance and future teaching practice (Custodio-Espinar et  al., in press). The sample consisted of students from the single and joint degrees in Primary (N = 43) and Infant Education (N = 42). Table 5.10 shows the differences in dimension 2 and in the perceived effectiveness of two instructors due to the team-taught CLIL course. Finally, some of the most relevant ideas explained by students in the focus groups conducted so far are grouped according to their positive or negative evaluation toward the CLILing EMI strategies developed in class (Table 5.11).

Discussion and Concluding Remarks The first significant result concerns the academic performance of students with different levels of language ability. As can be seen in Table 5.6, students in the higher-level group consistently obtain higher scores, with only one exception (2020–2021 CLIL). When examining the averages across the three years, however, it is noteworthy that scores are only noticeably higher in the case of primary degree students in the TEFL course (8.65 vs. 7.40). In the case of Infant degree students in TEFL, and both Infant and Primary degree students in CLIL, differences are under 0.5 points. In general, these scores seem to suggest that the use of

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mediation activities and strategies outlined in this chapter have succeeded in scaffolding students’ learning in the two courses, especially the lower language-level (B2) ones, as suggested by Fernández Álvarez and García Hernández (2021). The unusually higher performance of primary C1 students in comparison to their B2 counterparts in TEFL, and not in CLIL, could have a number of explanations. Firstly, students with a higher level of general English are arguably better equipped with the classroom management and presentation skills that are required to succeed when conducting microteachings, which account for a very large part of the final grade. Moreover, it has been found that the primary degree students have significantly higher entry levels of English than their infant peers. As a result, the average language competence in the primary C1 group is very high, with many students at a high C1 or low C2 effective levels. In turn, this added mastery of the target language appears to have a stronger influence on final grades than in the infant degree C1 group, where average language competence is lower. When looking at CLIL, the language effect in the two primary groups’ scores is somewhat equalized. Clearly, in this course the cognitive challenges outweigh the linguistic ones, and it appears that the different input and output scaffolding strategies have proven to be effective, especially among the linguistically weaker students. This finding is in line with Arnó-Macià and Mancho-Barés (2015), Woźniak (2017) and Pedraza-Rodríguez (2021), and reinforces the idea of the benefits of CLILing EMI in higher education (Pérez-Cañado, 2020). As for the choice of instructional methodologies and resources, student responses appear to validate the main tenets of this proposal. As can be seen in Table  5.8, respondents highly valued the student-focused, interactive instruction, the abundance of tasks and group work, and the critical use of formative assessment strategies in both courses. From their feedback, it seems that they consider that many of the CLIL-inspired or CLIL-compatible strategies they were exposed to effectively supported their learning in a challenging EMI setting. In particular, they value instructional practices that highly capitalize on mediation activities such as collaborating to construct meaning—with both instructors and peers—encouraging conceptual talk or processing text, and on strategies to explain new concepts and simplify text.

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Interestingly, the choice of co-teaching model had a significant impact on students’ perceptions of its effectiveness. In both exit slips (Table 5.9) and focus groups (Table  5.11), respondents saw team teaching (two teachers simultaneously in class) as a powerful strategy and highlighted the value of two instructors offering complementary support, as reflected in the CEFR-mediating activities, facilitating communication, and the strategy of using redundancy and paraphrasing to amplify a dense text. This view is further supported by the results of the quantitative study conducted in 2019 (Table 5.10) (Custodio-Espinar et al., in press), which also found that the EMI team teachers, by acting as role models, are boosting students’ collaborative competence. This belief is also reflected in the comments of several of the focus groups participants (Table 5.11). Although employing a somewhat different co-teaching model, these results are comparable to the ones obtained by Fernández Fernández et al. (2018). On the other hand, students taking a parallel or station co-taught course, while not criticizing the models per se, barely mentioned them in their responses (Table 5.8). In this respect, it will be necessary to carefully examine students’ reflective portfolio writing in TEFL, as well as conducting dedicated focus groups, in order to obtain a more accurate student assessment of the station-teaching model. In both team-teaching and station-teaching scenarios, however, trainees consistently valued instructor support of their learning, especially in what regards mediation activities such as facilitating communication, encouraging conceptual talk, and strategies such as adapting language, breaking down complicated information and streamlining text (reception scaffolding). As for the suggestions of improvement that emerge from the data, it is clear from both the exit slips (Tables 5.8 and 5.9) and focus group comments (Table 5.11) that the combination of team teaching and task-based instruction can lead to what students perceive as an excessive workload and a demanding pace of content presentation (CLIL). In the case of TEFL, there are also concerns related to the coordination of the station teachers; in particular, the design of support materials such as Powerpoint presentations, the methodology of online instruction or the continuity between the content taught by each co-teacher. Overall, in spite of the necessary improvements and the distorting effect of the pandemic, which

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has led to the use of different types of instruction (fully on-site, fully on-­ line, blended on-site/online), it can be stated that the design of the courses presented in this proposal offers an effective case of “CLIL-ed” EMI, by including many CLIL methodological principles and strategies. Moreover, student performance and grades in these courses confirm that Comillas’ teacher trainees are acquiring the content knowledge, skills and disciplinary literacies of EFL and CLIL regardless of their English level. However, it is still necessary to explore to what extent they have consolidated their general and specific English language skills by accrediting their proficiency in standardized tests. In conclusion, it is evident that throughout this collaborative design and implementation of EMI courses, a strong sense of co-teaching has arisen in the instructors, who have developed and co-taught a learner-­ centered, CLIL-based approach to EMI that is likely to attend the needs of mixed language-ability groups and to improve students’ learning experience. Indeed, the mediation activities and strategies presented and analyzed have demonstrated to be effective and sustainable in higher education. Thus, it is recommended that attention to the role of instructors and peers as mediators of content learning and language development be a part of EMI course design. All in all, delving into the training needs of EMI lecturers at university signaled by Nieto Moreno de Diezmas and Fernández Barrera (2021), this type of “CLILed” EMI implemented at Comillas can be considered a successful model of linguistic mediation in pre-service teacher education.

References Airey, J. (2016). EAP, EMI or CLIL? In K.  Hyland & P.  Shaw (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of English for academic purposes (pp. 71–83). Routledge. Airey, J., Lauridsen, K. M., Räsänen, A., Salö, L., & Schwach, V. (2017). The expansion of English-medium instruction in the Nordic countries: Can topdown university language policies encourage bottom-up disciplinary literacy goals? Higher Education, 73, 561–576. Amengual-Pizarro, M. (2013). Primary education degrees in Spain: do they fulfil the linguistic and pedagogic needs of future teachers? Vigo International

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De La Maya Retamar, G., & Luengo González, R. (2015). Teacher training programs and development of plurilingual competence. In D.  Marsh, M. L. Pérez Cañado, & J. Ráez Padilla (Eds.), CLIL in action: Voices from the classroom (pp. 114–129). Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Dearden, J., & Macaro, E. (2016). Higher education teachers’ attitudes towards English: A three country comparison. Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, 6(3), 3–34. English First. (2020). EF English proficiency index. http://www.ef.com/epi Fernández Álvarez, M., & García Hernández, S. (2021). Teachers’ perceptions of linguistic mediation in the curriculum for advanced English in Madrid secondary schools. Language Teaching Research. https://doi. org/10.1177/13621688211005602 Fernández Fernández, R., Benito Cox, C., & Crichlow, J. (2018). Feeling, doing, thinking: The role of the language assistants at CU Cardenal Cisneros. In M.  E. Gómez-Parra & R.  Johnstone (Eds.), Nuevas perspectivas en educación bilingüe: investigación e innovación (pp.  267–271). Universidad de Granada. Fernández-Viciana, A., & Fernández-Costales, A. (2017). El pensamiento de los futuros maestros de inglés en Educación Primaria: creencias sobre su autoeficacia docente. Bellaterra Journal of Teaching & Learning Language & Literature, 10(1), 42–60. https://doi.org/10.5565/rev/jtl3.684 Greere, A., & Räsänen, A. (2008). Report on the LANQUA Subproject on Content and Language Integrated Learning: Redefining CLIL—Towards Multilingual Competence. http://www.unifg.it/sites/default/files/ allegatiparagrafo/20-­01-­2014/lanqua_subproject_on_clil.pdf Gutiérrez Gamboa, M., & Custodio Espinar, M. (2021). CLIL teacher’s initial education: A study of undergraduate and postgraduate student teachers. Encuentro, 29, 104119. Jeffrey, S., Rodríguez Melchor, D., & Walsh, A. (2019). Linguistic requirements for students and staff on EMI undergraduate degrees at universities in the Community of Madrid. European Journal of Language Policy, 11, 95–107. https://doi.org/10.3828/ejlp.2019.6 Khalyapina, L., Popova, N., & Kogan, M. (2017). Professionally-oriented content and language integrated learning (CLIL) course in higher education perspective. In Proceedings of 10th Annual International Conference of Education, Research and Innovation (ICERI 2017). Seville (pp. 1103–1112).

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Lasagabaster, D. (2018). Fostering team teaching: Mapping out a research agenda for English-medium instruction at university level. Language Teaching, 51(3), 400416. López-Hernández, A. (2021). Initial teacher education of primary English and CLIL teachers: An analysis of the training curricula in the universities of the Madrid autonomous community (Spain). International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research, 20(3), 132–150. https://doi.org/10.26803/ ijlter.20.3.9 Macaro, E., Curle, S., Pun, J., Jiangshan, A., & Dearden, J. (2018). A systematic review of English medium instruction in higher education. Language Teaching, 51(1), 36–76. Nieto Moreno de Diezmas, E., & Fernández Barrera, A. (2021). Main challenges of EMI at the UCLM: Teachers’ perceptions on language proficiency, training and incentives. Alicante Journal of English Studies, 34, 39–61. https:// doi.org/10.14198/raei.2021.34.02 Paltridge, B., & Starfield, S. (2013). Introduction. In B. Paltridge & S. Starfield (Eds.), The handbook of English for specific purposes (pp. 1–4). Wiley Blackwell. Pecorari, D., & Malmström, H. (2018). At the crossroads of TESOL and English medium instruction. TESOL Quarterly, 52(3), 497–515. Pedraza-Rodríguez, J. A. (2021). Consolidación como buena práctica docente: la metodología AICLE en el desarrollo de la docencia en el grado de turismo de la Universidad de Córdoba. Revista de Innovación y Buenas Prácticas Docentes, 10(1), 15–28. Pérez-Cañado, M. L. (2018). Innovations and challenges in CLIL teacher training. Theory Into Practice, 57(3), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1080/0040584 1.2018.1492238 Pérez-Cañado, M. L. (2020). Addressing the research gap in teacher training for EMI: An evidence-based teacher education proposal in monolingual contexts. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 48. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. jeap.2020.100927 Piccardo, E., North, B., & Goodier, T. (2019). Broadening the scope of language education: Mediation, plurilingualism, and collaborative learning: The CEFR companion volume. Journal of e-Learning and Knowledge Society, 15(1). Richards, J. C. (2017). Teaching English through English: Proficiency, pedagogy and performance. RELC Journal, 48(1), 7–30. https://doi. org/10.1177/0033688217690059 Stathopoulou, M. (2015). Cross-language mediation in foreign language teaching and testing. Multilingual Matters.

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Part II ESP Instruction Practices in International Context

6 Positive Psychology and L2 Motivation in ESP Imelda Katherine Brady

Introduction For the purpose of exploring studies related to the psychological dimension of learning English for specific purposes (ESP), we are assuming in this chapter a very broad definition of ‘specific purposes’ and taking in contexts of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) as well as some instances of English as a Medium of Instruction within undergraduate courses at third-level institutions aimed at vocational or professional training of adults for specific professions. Although much empirical research in this field is carried out with learners of ESP within vocational and professional courses, in many cases the choice of sample appears incidental and the specific nature of their L2 learning is not highlighted as a sampling strategy or a variable. For instance, in the field of L2 motivation, which has enjoyed a boom in recent years, thanks largely to the work of Zoltan Dörnyei and colleagues (e.g. Csizér & Dörnyei, 2005a, 2005b; Dörnyei

I. K. Brady (*) Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED), Madrid, Spain e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 L. Escobar, A. Ibáñez Moreno (eds.), Mediating Specialized Knowledge and L2 Abilities, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-87476-6_6

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et  al., 2006; Dörnyei & Ushioda, 2009a), and it was featured in Boo et al.’s (2015) meta-analysis of motivation research. They compiled a database of more than 400 studies and their conclusion was that [t]he data (…) reveal that the largest participant group is made up of college/university students. This is not surprising because, for many researchers, they constitute the most easily accessible convenience sample which is, at the same time, usually linked to the least strict research ethics requirements. (Boo et al., 2015, p. 151)

However, an ESP component of these studies was not highlighted at all among the studies analysed, which would appear to support the view that ESP is not a common learning context in L2 motivation studies. This is paradoxical, given that there is a tendency within studies that have centred on third-level L2 students to assume that adult learners are more motivated given the volitional and directed aspect of their studies and the specificity of a professional or vocational English language component. For instance, Kormos and Csizér (2008) reached this conclusion on the motivated behaviour of their college student cohort, yet the claim was not empirically supported in their data. Thus, in this chapter as we look at empirical studies on emotional and affective variables in ESP, as well as the emerging trend of studies in Positive Psychology (PosPsy) and Second Language Acquisition (SLA). We believe a broad focus on ESP and EAP facilitates a better picture of what has been achieved and what remains to be explored. Positive Psychology may be defined as the empirical study of how people thrive and flourish. In other words, it is the study of the ordinary human strengths and virtues that make life good (Csikszentmihalyi & Nakamura, 2011; Snyder & López, 2009; Peterson, 2006; Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000, in MacIntyre & Mercer, 2014). In this sense, PosPsy is gradually becoming quite a popular focal point for research in the field of language learning and teaching. The tenets of this recent turn in mainstream psychology stem from the humanistic approach of the 1970s, bearing, however, a strong emphasis on empirical research to support arguments in favour of a focus on the growth of the individual that humanistic psychologists lacked. Emotion

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and cognition argued to be two sides of the same coin (e.g. Dewaele, 2011; Dörnyei, 2005; Oxford, 2016b), along with affect, with regard to language learning, has long been considered to be of equal importance to knowledge- and competence-building in language acquisition (e.g. see Arnold, 1999’ Dewaele, 2008, 2011). Anxiety is one of the most widely examined emotions with regard to language acquisition and L2 learning and use in formal and informal contexts (see Dewaele, 2008 for an overview) and Horwitz et al. (1986) was one of the first SLA-related publications on the subject. Positive Psychology, or PosPsy, diverts from a current tendency in mainstream psychology to centre on negative emotions that bring about actions of avoidance or destruction and looks to identify and nurture human strengths or virtues which Frederickson (2001, 2003, 2004), in distinguishing the functionality of positive and negative emotions, claims encourage constructive actions such as broadening the individual’s attention leading to a tendency to create and build. Negative emotions, such as anxiety, can encourage a person to avoid the source of her apprehension, whereas positive feelings such as joy and comfort are conducive to growth and expansion. Whereas research has until now attempted to find way to eliminate sources of debilitating anxiety in the L2 learning contexts, PosPsy is looking to find how a strengths-based approach might contribute to controlling feelings of L2 use or learning anxiety. For instance, MacIntyre et  al. (2015) debate the potential of courage as a shield to thwart anxiety. Gregersen et al. (2016) analyse the effects of feelings of gratitude, altruism, music, exercise, pets and laughter. These authors encourage empirical research to test their hypotheses. With regard to identifying the human characteristics, strengths are selected that seem applicable to foreign language learning contexts. MacIntyre and Mercer (2014) indicate that there exists a values in action (VIA) inventory (Peterson & Seligman, 2004) of 24 character strengths, classified into six categories, that are common to all cultures. The categories include values such as creativity, curiosity, love of learning, kindness, bravery, perseverance, leadership, self-regulation, gratitude and hope (see below for a complete list). From the VIA inventory Seligman’s (2011), PERMA evolved. PERMA stands for Positive emotions, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning in life and Accomplishment. Although PERMA

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did receive some attention in the field of language learning (e.g. see Oxford & Cuéllar’s (2014) analysis of Mexican learners of Chinese), the subsequent work of Oxford (e.g. 2016) is generally being taken as the go-to-model to in applying PosPsy to L2 learning contexts. It is precisely from the perceptions gleaned in Oxford & Cuéllar’s (2014) study that certain lacunas emerged in the PERMA model. Thus, Rebecca Oxford (2016) developed what she describes as a non-­ hierarchical, organic and holistic list of human strengths known under the acronym of EMPHATICS. These are as follows: 1. E: emotion and empathy. Emotion and cognition are inseparable—a double-sided coin. MacIntyre (2002) believes emotion is a primary energiser for human behaviour. Emotion accompanies every aspect of learning—from providing anticipatory feelings of success, helping regulate goal-setting behaviour, helping us judge our achievements through feelings of pride or disappointment. Empathy is the ability to perceive the other’s feeling and also implies compassion, sympathy and caring. 2. M: meaning and motivation. Meaning implies purpose and goal-­ directed behaviour. Meaning “enables people to interpret and organise their experience” (Oxford, 2016, p. 18), thus aiding self-regulation of action. Without meaning we lose our sense of direction. Meaning can be many different things to different individuals at different moments in time. These can be achievements; experiences with goodness, truth, beauty or culture; love for others; positive attitudes, among other things. Purpose is a prerequisite to motivated behaviour. Oxford (2016) sees meaning and motivation as inextricably linked. At a later stage of this chapter, we revisit the concept of motivation and discuss its role in general and specific language learning. 3. P: perseverance, including resilience, hope and optimism. Oxford (2016b, p. 28) states that “Perseverance refers to an ongoing effort to accomplish something valuable despite problems, opposition, difficulties, or failure”. Resilience is the ability to recover or spring back after traumatic or stressful events. Hope and optimism are highlighted as inspirational emotions (for some) or ways of thinking (for others) and are linked to realistic perceptions of ability.

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4. A: agency and autonomy. Agency refers to the proactive, volitional act to produce or affect outcomes. The agentic person is the origin of his or her actions, has high aspirations and good problem-solving skills, enjoys well-being, and learns from failures (Oxford, 2016). 5. T: time. Oxford draws on Zimbardo and Boyd’s (2015) five-factor time model with a distinction between how we perceive past, present and future time from in terms of negative and positive memories as well as whether we perceive present time from hedonistic and fatalistic perspectives. Future Time Perspective (FTP) means we see our current selves as better than past selves yet not as developed as future selves might become. Betts (2013) is cited in Oxford (2016) in indicating that “FTP involves actively looking for future opportunities, setting goals, considering future consequences of current behaviour using goals as behaviour guides, and employing the present period to plan for the future”. 6. H: hardiness and habits of mind. Hardiness is a psychosocial construct that includes cognitive, emotional and behavioural qualities thought to moderate the impact of hardship and anxiety on mental and physical health (Kobasa el al., 1981; Hiver, 2016, p. 170). Three sub-dimensions of hardiness are commitment, control and challenge. Habits of mind are based on Costa and Kallick’s (2008) taxonomy of characteristics and attitudes of successful business people. There are 16 in total including persistence, striving for accuracy, listening with understanding and empathy and humour. 7. I: intelligences. Gardner’s (1992, 2011) multiple intelligences are drawn on here as well as Sternberg’s (1985) triad of practical, analytical and creative intelligences, which may concur in one individual. Oxford (2016a) details the benefits of each type of intelligence for language learning 8. C: character strengths. These are the 24 strengths of the VIA inventory categorised under six virtues (Peterson & Seligman, 2011): in this system there are 6 virtues and 24 character strengths related to those virtues:

(a) The virtue of wisdom and knowledge: encompass creativity, curiosity, love of learning, open-mindedness and perspective.

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(b) The virtue of courage: authenticity, bravery, persistence and zest. (c) The virtue of humanity: kindness, love and social intelligence. (d) In the virtue of justice: fairness, leadership and teamwork. (e) The virtue of temperance: forgiveness/mercy, modesty/humility, prudence and self-regulation (f ) The virtue of transcendence: appreciation of beauty and excellence, gratitude, hope, humour and religiousness/spirituality. 9. S: self-factors (self-efficacy, self-concept, self-esteem and self-­ verification). Self-efficacy is highlighted here as the most prominent self-concept with regard to language learning: self-efficacy theory, developed by Albert Bandura (1977), concerns people’s perceptions of their own competence or capabilities to carry out activities. According to this theory of human behaviour and motivation, “what people think, believe, and feel affects how they behave” (Bandura, 1986, p. 25). The construct is based on capabilities in terms of performance, how well we believe we will do a task, not on our psychological make­up or who we are as people and the concept is task-specific or multidimensional, meaning that our beliefs on how well we will do on particular tasks is not generalisable over a diverse range of learning activities. Maddux (2011) believes that self-efficacy is a stronger predictor of learning success than motivation, intention and degrees of effort and persistence. The 2016 volume on Positive Psychology in language learning and teaching contains a series of theoretical pieces and empirical studies on some of the variables discussed in the previous section. For instance, Hiver (2016) examined the development of hope and resilience among 19 novice state school teachers. He investigated “why some teachers seem to be more successful than others in meeting the rigorous demands of their first year of teaching” (p, 169). He assessed how hope emerged in these teachers’ cognitive processes in dealing with the different moments of stress and disappointment. As we mentioned earlier, Gregersen et al. (2016) explore the potential of exercises in PosPsy to build social capital for language learners. Czimmermann and Piniel (2016) develop a study to examine experiences of flow in Hungarian learners of English. Dewaele

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and MacIntyre (2014) look at the relationship between learning enjoyment and classroom anxiety in their sample of language learners reaching the conclusion that both emotions can coexist and are not mutually exclusive. Research on perseverance and intentional pursuit of goals has led to a focus on the concept of grit as a personality trait, which has been the element of focus in recent studies with university students. According to Hiver (2016, p.  170) grit “foregrounds long-term determination to achieve higher-order goals”. Teimori, Plonsky and Tabandeh, (2020, p. 7) state, [a]s asserted by Duckworth et  al. (2007), “[g]rit entails working strenuously toward challenges, maintaining effort and interest over years despite failure, adversity, and plateaus in progress” (pp.  1087–1088). The US Department of Education has recently emphasized grit, tenacity, and perseverance as significant determiners of students’ success in the twenty-first century. (Shechtman et al., 2013)

Significantly for adult ESP learning contexts, studies on personality variables in which grit was identified as a significant talent were carried out on high-achievers in diverse professions (Teimouri et  al., 2020). Other studies worth consulting on grit and language achievement largely on adult learners in Asian contexts in adult learner are Kramer et  al. (2017), Robins (2019), Wei et al. (2019) and Yamashita (2018). At a theoretical level, Palanac (2019) studies the role of Positive Psychology in what he calls “mastery of the academic L2 self ”. His study involved looking theoretically at how EAP learners L2 identities and proficiency evolve from the perspective of Lave and Wenger’s (1991) communities of practice. Palanac contemplates how concepts such as learned optimism, playfulness, creativity, positive vicarious experiences and mindful learning can be used strategically to aid the learner on his or her journey towards resilience and a strong sense of self-efficacy in the academic L2 domain. This interesting article offers plenty of scope for future empirical work to put these hypotheses to the test. Another theoretical piece (Lake, 2013) links PosPsy to current L2 motivation theories (see following section) and explores the relationships between global

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self-concept, motivational variables, such as intended effort, persistence and self-efficacy, and the L2 ideal-ought self. Oxford (2016b) urges researchers to carry out empirical research on elements and diverse combination of the EMPATHICS models. She recommends the Dynamic Systems Approach (DMS), a strand of complexity theory and emergentism “specifically developed to describe development in complex dynamic systems that consist of multiple parts and in which the multiple interferences between the components own trajectories result in non-linear, emergent changes in the overall system behaviour” (Dörnyei & Ushioda, 2011, p. 89). A dynamic systems theory (DST) post-structuralist approach to language acquisition argues against the linearity in language learning processes that most cognitive and socio-linguistic theories to date have followed. The structuralist approach has led to an excess of dichotomous concepts, whereas DTS is essentially a mathematical concept that denotes the complexity and unpredictable change over time in relationships between two simple systems. Applying this concept to an individual within an intricate network of cognitive and psycholinguistic internal systems, and social and educational external systems could prove to be the flexible approach that would enable us to explore attitudes and beliefs in L2 acquisition with the language learner in her interaction with her complex and dynamic environment. A focus on individual trajectories in language learning eliminates the neutralisation caused by attempting to interpret cause-effect patterns among isolated dependent-independent variables and across large samples, therefore rendering individual variation and merging of variables at given points in time impossible to detect. Thus, DST researchers encourage us not to look for simple linear cause-­ effect relationships between variables but to devise ways of exploring these intricate networks with a particular respect for context. In this vein, Oxford (2016b) claims, “The theory of complex systems, which positive psychology seems to ignore, suggests that any language learning system is deeply contextualized and has many intricately interacting, evolving components”. MacIntyre (2014, p. 9) echoes Oxford, noting that “PosPsy itself would profit from greater attention to the roles of context and culture in the psychology of the learner, criticism that has been offered by other authors as well”. Thus PosPsy studies within the language learning

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domain and perhaps even more so in specific vocational and professional learning contexts need to bear in mind: The close ties between language and culture suggest that interventions in SLA that are based on PosPsy must also take cultural similarities and differences into account, pay close attention to definitions and measurement of concepts while considering also the cultural dimensions that impact research and teaching. (MacIntyre, 2016, p. 16)

For keynote articles of these new paradigms in L2 motivation, see De Bot et al. (2007), Dörnyei and Ushioda (2009b) and Ellis and Larsen-­ Freeman (2006). A more recent publication by Dörnyei et  al. (2015) details empirical research carried out in DMS and language learning.

L 2 Motivation, Flow and Directed Motivational Currents The study of human attitudes and behaviour related to second and foreign language learning boomed after the advent of Gardner’s (1985) socio-educational model of L2 motivation developed in bilingual Canada. Possibly the most recognised variables of his model is the somewhat mislabelled ‘dichotomy’ of integrative and instrumental motives and to this day this still comes into play in posing a rationale for language learning. L2 motivation research in European ESP settings based on Gardner’s socio-cultural model has tended to highlight instrumental orientations over integrative motives, especially for adult learners (e.g. Gómez-­ Martínez, 2000, 2001; Fuertes-Olivera & Gómez-Martı́nez, 2004; Lasagabaster, 2003; Lasagabaster et al., 2014). Thus, early ESP motivation studies tended to point to instrumentality as a strong motivator in contexts where learners would require the L2 as a tool for a future profession (e.g. Fuertes-Olivera & Gómez-Martı́nez, 2004) and in contexts where an immediate English-speaking community is not available to ‘integrate’ with. This view, reflected in early work on L2 motivation, was common:

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For most students enrolled in English courses outside an English speaking country, the distinction between ‘integrative’ and ‘instrumental’ seems to be irrelevant, since they do not experience in their daily lives the difficulties immigrants face when confronting the dilemma of having to migrate to a different country.1 (Fuertes-Olivera & Gómez-Martı́nez, 2004)

Apple et al. (2012) explored integrative motivation, among other variables in students of English for Science and Technology (S&T) in Japan to corroborate the results in Kimura et al. (2001), who discovered that S&T students appeared much less motivated to learn English than undergraduates in different lines of study. These authors indicate that extrinsic motivation to get good grades and enter university is strong and has been proven a predictor of L2 achievement (e.g. Yashima, 2002); however, once this objective has been obtained, L2 learning motivation appears to dwindle. Apple et al. (2012) constitute a good example of cultural variation in L2 motivation studies given that within this context L2 anxiety tends to be high, L2 performance self-efficacy low and attributed to poor teaching methodologies: Studies suggest that the longer students remain at school learning a language the more likely they experience learned helplessness in their L2 classes due to a cycle of poor performance and foreign language anxiety (Gardner, 1992; Sick, 2007). (In Apple et al., 2012, p. 56)

We return to Apple et al.’s study in later sections of this chapter as an example of an ESP-centred study exploring the more recent motivational construct of the L2 Motivational Self System (L2MSS; Dörnyei, 2009). In a study on attitudes and beliefs of students of Business English (Trinder, 2013), the claim is that: [t]he large majority of students choose a degree in this subject not out of interest or aptitude, but as a means to an end, i.e., as a spring board for any number of different careers (Hartel & Vittori, 2010). Conversely, this mainly instrumental motivation itself can be considered an important shared affective variable that may also mould this population’s rationale for FL learning. (Trinder, 2013, p. 2)

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Assumptions of this type can be misleading as if students have chosen a degree without identifying closely or strongly with the competences to be developed for that profession. Too often practitioners assume a degree of motivation in a third-level student population that may not actually exist. For instance, students in Brady’s (2019) university sample confessed to opting for a particular degree for their parents’ sake more than personal choice.

Flow Intrinsic motivation and extreme enjoyment of the learning process and is the cornerstone of another PosPsy concept of flow (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990, 2013) Again, in ESP motivation studies, intrinsic motivation has been proven a stronger predictor of L2 achievement than its extrinsic counterpart. For instance, Guillén et  al. (2013) studied optimism and intrinsic motivation in their cohort of students of Translation and Interpretation and students of the Primary Teaching Degree. They discovered that students with higher marks showed higher levels of intrinsic enjoyment and optimism, whereas lower marks were associated with pessimism. Flow is becoming a focus of interest in identifying extreme enjoyment and engagement on a task: “A learner’s experience of flow combines complete immersion in a task accompanied by intrinsic motivation, confidence, and perceived timelessness” (Csíkszentmihályi, 2008). MacIntyre et al. (2016) cite a study by Egbert (2004) as one of the most prominent on L2 learning and flow, which examined 13 learners of Spanish in a fieldwork study conducted over several weeks. Participants described similar types of experiences while in flow, and Egbert argued that elements of language task design contributed significantly to the likelihood of entering a flow state. Dewaele and MacIntyre (2014) developed a new multi-item scale to measure both flow (including feeling absorbed, fulfilled and happy) and anti-flow (including feeling distracted, frustrated and disengaged) in language learning. In their online survey, they found respondents reporting more instances of flow than anti-flow. Although these sample studies are not ESP based, they point to the

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benefits of exploring flow in learners of English for vocational or professional purposes in order to identify tasks or skills that foster experiences of flow.

Directed Motivational Currents Another lively, and practical, avenue of research within the Dynamic System Theory (DST) approach has been taken by Dörnyei (e.g. Dörnyei et al., 2014, 2015, for overviews) in the form of Directed Motivational Currents (DMCs). A DMC can be likened to the idea of an individual being carried along like as if by tidal wave, impulse at different stages of a path by a highly desired goal or vision. Dörnyei et  al. (2014, p.  9) describe a DMC as an “intense motivational drive which is capable of stimulating and supporting long-term behaviour, such as learning a foreign/second language (L2)”. Dörnyei and colleagues (e.g. Doiz et  al., 2014) see potential for manipulation of DMCs at different levels and timescales of learning promoting the ideal of boosting an individual’s motivation at given points in the learning trajectory. García-Pinar (2020) is a qualitative ESP case study that draws on the results of interviews and post-intervention open questionnaires to explore the existence of core characteristics of DMCs among four engineering undergraduates during the process of preparing their classroom group presentation as part of their course of Technical English. A multimodal intervention, designed by the researcher, generated DMC-like experiences, thereby developing and enhancing the construction of learners’ visions as competent speakers of the L2 and promoting their perceived linguistic self-confidence. García-Pinar’s results confirmed that DMCs can function at the group level, engaging students fully in tasks that are personally, academically and professionally meaningful to them. Ibrahim (2016) sought first to understand better the “affective aspects of experiencing DMCs (…) and second, to investigate the mechanism by which positive emotionality can impact learning behaviour in the context of a DMC experience”. He followed what he describes as a ‘phenomenological methodology’ (investigating a phenomenon as lived and experienced) through narratives and subjective data obtained from seven

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subjects. Having analysed their narratives in detail, he observed that although subjects reported varying degrees of enjoyment, it was progress that emerged as the dominant factor and the participant’s “actively sought affirmative feedback signalling progress” (Ibrahim, 2016, p. 271). Also noted as factors of interest were the participants’ perceptions of effortlessness in their learning and a sense of change in their perceptions and skills.

L2 Motivational Self System Dörnyei (2009) L2 Motivational Self System is a tripartite model composed of the ideal L2 self, the ought-to L2 self and the L2 learning experience. The ideal L2 self encapsulates the ideas or visions one may have of oneself using the foreign language in the future. The ideal L2 self-­ construct further facilitates the incorporation of positive instrumental motives that the learner has internalised—getting a good job, becoming a more knowledgeable person and so on—that, as we mentioned before, had mistakenly become dichotomous and not fully compatible with the integrative motive. The L2 ought-to self, on the other hand, represents extrinsic influences on the self and incorporates social pressures and obligations or duties related to knowledge of the L2 imposed by external social groups or entities—for instance, the L2 ideals that parents, teachers and significant others have for their loved ones. Another facet of the L2 ought self comes from the fear of what one may become in life without L2 competence. Dörnyei here draws a parallel between the ought self and negative instrumental motivation—the preventative focus of avoidance of negative outcomes, for example, failing to live up to expectations or getting low exam marks. In this regard, Apple et al. (2012) analyse students’ lack of commitment to L2 learning in science students in Japan and their proposal is to work on these students’ conceptions of real-world professional need for English by bringing working professionals to the classroom and thus enhancing learners’ conception of the need for English in the future work and their sense of self-efficacy and bringing self-regulatory learning measures into play. Apple et  al.’s (2012) proposal could help towards the development of a responsible ought L2 self. In his words,

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[i]f technical college students find the pursuit of an Ought-to L2 Self compelling, learning about real-life experiences of Japanese S&E specialists who use English in the workplace could potentially increase motivation. Reflecting upon this new knowledge through active discussion might help reinforce awareness and kindled interests. (Apple et al., 2012, p. 5)

Many studies have found difficulties in identifying an ought L2 self in their samples, especially in Western cultures (e.g. Kormos & Csizér, 2008; Brady, 2019). The L2 learning experience involves “situation specific motives related to the immediate learning environment and experience” (Dörnyei, 2005, p. 106). This third cornerstone of Dörnyei’s L2 Self System is conceptualised “at a different level from the two self guides” (2009, p. 29) and is specific to foreign language learning contexts. The experiential angle of L2 learning presents a dimension with no precedent in mainstream psychology research on the self—and this has caused issues in its interpretation in empirical work (Dörnyei, 2019). It was originally part of the L2MSS as a vague umbrella term to cover the learning experience, past and present, which involves all formal learning aspects from the teacher to the learner group; methodology and materials; and even, the experience of success, which in itself is a complex psychological construct. More recently, Dörnyei (2019) has addressed conceptual lacunas in the L2 Learning Experience dimension of the L2MSS. He points to the lack of direct theoretical connection with L2 ideal and ought-self concepts and no solid theoretical basis for the idea of ‘experience’. He suggests that the experiential dimension of the L2MSS concept be conceptualised as engagement, a term that has emerged from PosPsy: Engagement in educational psychology is understood as active participation and involvement in certain behaviours (cf. Fredricks et al., 2004), and student engagement—which refers to engagement in school-related activities and academic tasks—has recently been hailed as “the holy grail of learning” and “one of the hottest research topics in the field of educational psychology”. (Sinatra et al., 2015, p. 1; Dörnyei, 2019, p. 24)

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Thus, engagement implies meaningful learning and active involvement in learning, which, within foreign language learning, is deemed essential for acquisition. Linking elements of PosPsy to the L2 Motivational Self System we have, for instance, Lake (2013) who examines the concept of self more in detail and attempts to establish a “hierarchical model that could be used to relate positive self constructs and motivation for the L2 field” (p.230). He employed the concepts of interest, curiosity, passion and mastery goal orientation as future orientated motivators and satisfaction and enjoyment as past-based motivators at different levels in his construct: at a global, positive self-concept level; a L2-specific self level and a positive L2 self-efficacy/proficiency level. Falout (2016) takes a very in-­ depth look at the role of past selves in from a PosPsy lens. It is useful to think of antecedent conditions as the emotional baggage of learning. Every time learners walk into the classroom they are already carrying a set of predispositions toward potentially motivating and demotivating experiences. (Falout, 2016, p. 230)

Falout’s (2016) explains how past selves help form beliefs about language learning. He explains that as we narrate our experiences to ourselves and others we are constantly assembling and reassembling our realities. Based on to what extent we blame ourselves for failures or attribute to external elements such as time or lack of resources, we will form subjective and quite long-lasting impressions about our abilities. Falout details ways in which teachers can work with students past selves and help modify any misplaced blame that might hinder one’s capacity to engage fully in L2 learning. Altalib (2019) addressed a concern expressed earlier in this chapter about assumptions that ESP students are assumed to be more motivated than students of English for General Purposes (EGP), given that their L2 needs are targeted in the course design. This last point is arguable because even courses for professional communication can be badly designed and not cater for individual differences. However, Altalib provides empirical evidence that the over 2000 ESP students in his sample showed more developed ideal L2 selves than the 2000 EGP students he contrasted findings with. Moreover, significant statistical differences were found in

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the comparisons between the medicine, applied medicine and health-care majors and the engineering majors namely that the medicine, applied medicine and health-care majors had higher and statistically significant levels of the ideal L2 selves than the engineering majors did. Differences were not found in the ought L2 selves of his ESP versus EGB sample.

Conclusion and Future Lines of Research Positive Psychology, a view on the potential of human strengths and virtues to help the individual grow and flourish, is emerging as a very strong new wave in the exploration of psychological aspects of SLA. This chapter has presented the origins of its application to language learning contexts, summarised the theoretical work of Oxford (2016) and colleagues, such as MacIntyre and Mercer (2014), and echoed the requests for empirical research to explore the roles and dynamics of the quite extensive range of strengths and virtues within L2 learning attitudes and behaviours. The PosPsy approach could prove very promising for research in contextualised learning of ESP—an area that has been dealt with rather randomly as regards the psychological aspects of foreign language learning. The particular focus of ESP and its (supposed) adaptation to the needs of the learner makes the field very suitable for examining learner variables, such as those detailed here. Even if the course being taken is compulsory for whatever reason, at some stage of the individual’s trajectory, a choice was made to aim for a particular profession and this can give the researcher greater insight than a learner of general English. Altalib’s (2019, p. 4) question can be the perfect challenge for future empirical work on generating L2 selves within a professional context: As mentioned above, creating an environment where learners can envision their desired future selves is crucial to generating an ideal L2 self. In other words, can an ESP course be an environment that plays a fundamental role in generating learners’ ideal L2 selves? ESP courses are based and designed on learners’ future professional selves, hopes, aspirations and majors. This, in turn, may indicate that ESP learners are likely to exhibit a stronger

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capacity for imagery as the nature of the course relates to what they would like to become.

We have seen that Directed Motivational Currents (DMCs) are an interesting concept for analysis of fluctuations in a learner’s L2 learning path and levels of engagement. Likewise, Csikszentmihalyi’s (1990) concept of flow has been discussed as a way of understanding truly motivated behaviour. In terms of approaches to explorations of L2, a non-linear, non-static Dynamic Systems is being hailed as a much more flexible, holistic way to explore more effectively the wealth of variables encompassed under the parasol of Positive Psychology.

References Altalib, A. (2019). L2 motivation in ESP and EGP courses: An investigation of L2 motivational selves among learners of English in Saudi Arabia. Australian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 2(1), 1–16. Apple, M., Falout, J., & Hill, G. (2012, September 19–21). The L2 motivational selves of technical college students. In H.  Terai (Ed.), Proceedings of the international symposium on advances in technology education 2012. Kitakyushu. http://www.academia.edu/1968503/ The_L2_motivational_selves_of_technical_college_students Arnold, J. (Ed.). (1999). Affect in language learning. Ernst Klett Sprachen. Bandura, A. (1977). Social learning theory. Prentice-Hall. Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Prentice-Hall. Betts, M. J. (2013). Future time perspective: Examination of multiple conceptualizations and work-related correlates. Thesis. Georgia Institute of Technology. https://smartech.gatech.edu/bitstream/handle/1853/47569/betts_ matthew_j_201305_mast.pdf Boo, Z., Dörnyei, Z., & Ryan, S. (2015). L2 motivation research 2005–2014: Understanding a publication surge and a changing landscape. System, 55, 145–157. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2015.10.006 Brady, I.  K. (2019). A multidimensional view of L2 motivation in Southeast Spain: Through the ‘ideal selves’ looking glass. Porta Linguarum: revista internacional de didáctica de las lenguas extranjeras, 31, 37–52.

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Costa, A. L., & Kallick, B. (Eds.). (2008). Learning and leading with habits of mind: 16 essential characteristics for success. ASCD. Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The psychology of optimal experience (Vol. 1990). Harper & Row. Csíkszentmihályi, M. (2008). Flow: The psychology of optimal experience (2nd ed.). New York: Harper. Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2013). Flow: The psychology of happiness. Random House. Csikszentmihalyi, M., & Nakamura, J. (2011). Positive psychology: Where did it come from, where is it going. Designing positive psychology: Taking stock and moving forward, 3–8. Csizér, K., & Dörnyei, Z. (2005a). Language learners’ motivational profiles and their motivated learning behaviour. Language Learning, 55(4), 613–659. Csizér, K., & Dörnyei, Z. (2005b). The internal structure of language learning motivation and its relationship with language choice and learning effort. The Modern Language Journal, 89(1), 19–36. Czimmermann, E., & Piniel, K. (2016). Advanced language learners’ experiences of flow in the Hungarian EFL classroom. In P.  D. MacIntyre, T. Gregersen, & S. Mercer (Eds.), Positive psychology in SLA (pp. 193–214). Bristol: Multilingual Matters. De Bot, K., Lowie, W., & Verspoor, M. (2007). A dynamic systems theory approach to second language acquisition. Bilingualism Language and Cognition, 10(1), 7–21. Dewaele, J. (2011). Reflections on the emotional and psychological aspects of foreign language learning and use. Anglistik: International Journal of English Studies, 22(1), 23–42. Dewaele, J. M. (2008). Dynamic emotion concepts of L2 learners and L2 users: A second language acquisition perspective. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 11(2), 173–175. Dewaele, J. M., & MacIntyre, P. D. (2014). The two faces of Janus? Anxiety and enjoyment in the foreign language classroom. Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, 4(2), 237–274. Dörnyei, Z. (2005). The psychology of the language learner: Individual differences in second language acquisition. Lawrence Erlbaum. Dörnyei, Z. (2009). The L2 motivational self system. In Z.  Dörnyei & E. Ushioda (Eds.), Motivation, language identity and the L2 self (pp. 9–42). Multilingual Matters. Dörnyei, Z. (2019). Towards a better understanding of the L2 Learning Experience, the Cinderella of the L2 Motivational Self System. Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, 9(1), 19–30.

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7 Using English-Learning Apps Inside Tourism and Business Classes: Analysis and Critical Review Yolanda Joy Calvo Benzies

Introduction As Pfanner (2015, p. 57) points out, nowadays “every aspect of our lives is interwoven with modern technology: business, education, health care… In fact, without technology life would be unthinkable (…). Tablets, iPhones, social networks (…) are almost part of their DNA!” One area which “has undergone a dramatic change in the last 30 years” (Kakoulli & Papadima, 2020, p.  17), thanks to the introduction and development of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs from now onwards), is the language learning and teaching field. According to Botella and Galindo (2017), the language classroom “has turned into a tech revolution” to the extent that language lessons “cannot be conceived without the help of technology anymore” (Botella and Galindo 2017, pp. 89–90) since “students communicate so much through technology” (Kirovska, 2019, p.  38). Consequently, teachers need to “develop the

Y. J. Calvo Benzies (*) University of the Balearic Islands (UIB), Palma de Mallorca, Spain e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 L. Escobar, A. Ibáñez Moreno (eds.), Mediating Specialized Knowledge and L2 Abilities, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-87476-6_7

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ability to use digital resources effectively” and “integrate them in their teaching methods in order to promote language use, and to encourage cooperative learning” (Botella & Galindo, 2017, p.  89). Moreover, as Stannard (2015, p. 59) suggests, “in the future our students will need to update their knowledge constantly, and they won’t always have a teacher to consult. So, it is vital that they become more independent and more able to evaluate their own progress and development.” There are currently hundreds of different technological resources teachers can use with their students; however, “the rapid evolution of mobile devices is opening up a whole world of new learning experiences with technology” (Rahimi & Shabab, 2014, p. 1469). This is commonly known as mobile learning, that is, the use of “small mobile devices such as mobile phones, PDAs, tablets, Pocket, iPod and any device that has some form or wireless connectivity” (Alhawiti, 2015, p. 273). Some teachers are still reluctant to using mobile phones inside the classroom because they feel students will become distracted (Erasmus, 2016), they could use them for “lecture-unrelated activities” and it is difficult for the teacher to control what the students are actually doing while using their mobile phone (Gehlen & Weinberger, 2012, pp. 103–104), but the truth is there are more advantages than disadvantages and “once you give the students control over their phones, the level of trust you establish more often than not removes many of the problems” (Erasmus, 2016, p. 56). Hence, it is highly recommended that teachers gradually introduce the use of mobile phones in the classroom on some occasions since they are a “constant part of the average student’s personal, social and educational life” (Coughlan, 2015, p. 55). Another reason for using mobile phones inside our language classes and/or to encourage our students to use them outside their face-to-face lessons to continue practising the foreign language is that “students’ needs in today’s global economy are focused not only on the skills to read, write, listen, and speak English fluently, but also on the ability to communicate in a way which will be recognised and appreciated by their future counterparts in the international working environment” (Medrea & Rus, 2012, p. 1166). This is especially relevant for English for Specific Purposes (ESP from now onwards) learners who have “specific language needs” (Kakoulli & Papadima, 2020, p. 18) and ICTs have become “a

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source of authentic materials, opening a window to the world and exposing the learners in real life language use in their specific disciplines” (Kakoulli & Papadima, 2020, p. 18). Consequently, the use of ICTs in ESP classes “has revolutionized the ways ESP materials developers and course designers produce learning materials for ESP instruction” (Butler, 2009, as cited in Dashtesani & Stojkovic, 2015, p. 436). This chapter will focus on one technological resource that can be found on smartphones, that is, applications (apps from now onwards); more specifically, some apps which can be used with English for Tourism and Business English students will be critically reviewed. As Rosell (2017, p.  244) explains, “the availability of apps has provided affordances for educational activity in terms of what can be done, where and when, with a single device.” In other words, students nowadays can find many ways of practising English outside the classroom, thanks to hundreds of downloadable apps from places like Play Store. For this reason, we believe the use of apps should be exploited in ESP settings, both inside and outside the classroom.

Mobile Apps in the ESP Classroom In the last decade, several studies on the use of mobile apps within different ESP disciplines such as Tourism, Engineering, Physiotherapy, Business or Sports have been carried out (see Table 7.1). Broadly speaking, most of the aforementioned studies can be classified into one of the Table 7.1  Recent studies on mobile learning within different ESP disciplines Business English

Medical English

English for Sports

Batsila et al. (2017), Alhawiti (2015), Wang and Hsu (2020)

Petterson Botella (2018) and Galindo (2017)

Technical English

English for Tourism

English for Computing

Ali et al. (2015), Ali and Izuddin (2016), Batsila et al. (2017), Wadood (2019)

Batsila et al. (2017), Klimova (2019)

Batsila et al. (2017)

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following thematic areas: (a) the improvement of students’ skills; (b) teachers’ and/or students’ views and (c) critical analysis or revision of apps. To begin with, Alhawiti (2015) and Klimova (2019) tested students’ learning of certain lexical items. In both studies, some ESP learners did not use the app (control group) whilst others did (experimental group). Alhawiti (2015) encouraged some students studying Business Administration to use the app Whatsapp outside the classroom to learn and practise vocabulary. The control group was given a paper-based list of fifty words with their corresponding definition. The students belonging to the experimental group were sent two words each day via Whatsapp as well as some activities to practise them. In the end, the results of the participants who had been using Whatsapp in the final exam outperformed those of the students who had been given the materials on paper and who had memorised the words and their corresponding definition. Klimova (2019), after conducting a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis to identify the needs of a group of students studying the subject Management of Tourism in English, designed an app called Angliˇctina (English) TODAY to help these ESP students remember difficult words for them and offer them extra practice. In this case, both the control and the experimental groups were taught the same words and expressions in class; however, the experimental group participants were encouraged to use the app designed outside their classes to further practise these items via different activities. Once again, the latter participants obtained better results and grades than those in the control group. Some studies analyse students’ views after using certain apps (Ali et al., 2015; Batsila et  al., 2017; Petterson, 2018; Klimova, 2019; Wang & Hsu, 2020). The participants in all these studies were ESP students at university level except for Batsila et al. (2017) who focused on ESP learners studying Accounting, Refrigeration, Tourism or Electronics at highschool level. Among their results, they found that students believe learning English with mobiles is easy, innovative, interesting and a useful method; furthermore, they affirmed that using apps outside the classroom helps them improve their vocabulary, reading, listening and speaking skills. In Ali et  al. (2015), Petterson (2018), Klimova (2019), and Wang and Hsu (2020), the subjects used a particular app and then filled

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out an opinion-based questionnaire. To begin with, the students who participated in Ali et al.’s (2015) study affirmed that using the app called Vocblast motivated them, and they would like other teachers to use apps in their subjects. Similarly, Klimova (2019), as aforementioned, designed an app to help students learn difficult words in English. At the end of her study, she found that the students “felt that the mobile app had a positive impact on their study behaviour and would welcome such apps in their other courses offered by the faculty” (p.  7). Pettersson (2018, p.  81) encouraged her Physiotherapy students to use a preliminary version of “a human anatomy application” called 3D4 Medical Essential Anatomy; students rated this app as being useful and stated that they would not mind buying it in the future. Finally, Wang and Hsu (2020) created the app English Messenger: Business Situational Conversation for Beginners for their Business English university students. Their main objective was for students to spend more time practising English outside the classroom. The app was divided into five topics: (a) job hunting, (b) office life, (c) attending a meeting, (d) business management and (e) making deals. They also designed activities for “conversation, vocabulary, tests, and business tips” (p. 112). After one week of using the app, the undergraduate students in Engineering, Electronic Engineering and Computer Science rated the app as being user-friendly; they enjoyed using it, “were satisfied with the learning content” and believed it “was suitable and convenient for learning business English” (p. 113). The studies included in Ali and Izuddin (2016), Batsila et al. (2017) and Wadood (2019), on the other hand, focus on the teachers’ perspectives. Firstly, Ali and Izzudin (2016) report the opinions of four Technical English ESP teachers regarding the app Vocblast. In general terms, they believed it was useful and motivated students; in addition, they pointed out that it could be used to help students indirectly improve their vocabulary or as supplementary material. In similar lines, some high-­school teachers were also interviewed in Batsila et al.’s (2017) study; nevertheless, they were asked to describe the main reasons why they use mobile learning and apps in their classes. Some of the reasons they mentioned were a) the fact that their students tend to have different levels of English and these technological resources offer them a more individualised and personalised type of learning and b) “to experiment and try new ideas and

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methods” (p. 22). Wadood (2019) studied the eLearning tools sixty ESP university teachers teaching Technical English use in class. They found that all the teachers use online dictionaries, interactive whiteboards and e-books, but none of them mentioned YouTube videos nor podcasts and only 25% of them acknowledged using apps designed for the classroom (such as Edmodo, Moodle, Wordable …). Finally, the only study found which critically analyses some mobile apps, in this case, on sports, is discussed in Botella and Galindo (2017). These scholars chose some apps used by native English speakers, a few language-based ones for the learning of grammar and vocabulary and some applications available for TV channels or sport journals. Afterwards, they suggest some activities which can be done in the classroom. Despite the usefulness of the previously described studies, to the best of my knowledge most of them focus on one app and hardly any comparative-­based studies have been carried out in which several apps designed for similar ESP purposes are analysed, reviewed and compared. Moreover, not much research has been done on the use of apps addressed to Tourism and Business English ESP students. This chapter therefore aims to be a contribution to the field in the sense that a group of English for Tourism and Business English apps will be analysed according not only to their format but also to their content.

Methodology Context Students enrolled in the BA’s in Tourism or Double Degree in Tourism and Business Administration at the University of the Balearic Islands must take and pass three instrumental ESP subjects: English 1, 2 and 3. The contents developed in English 1 are those related to customer service and tourist information; English 2 revolves around oral presentations, more specifically promotional presentations; finally, English 3 covers business meetings, job interviews and complaints. Special emphasis is put on spoken and communicative skills in all three subjects.

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Research Materials A quick search on Play Store revealed there are many apps available on travelling, English for Tourism and/or Business English. However, a more thorough selection was necessary as not all the apps available offer materials compatible with the contents dealt with in the aforementioned ESP subjects at the Universty of the Balearic Islands (UIB). In the end, seventeen apps were selected for this study (see Table 7.2 for the whole list). They were classified into different groups according to the topics developed and hence, whether they would be useful for English 1, 2 and/or 3. Finally, each app was ascribed a code which will be used from now onwards to refer to the different apps.

Table 7.2  List of apps analysed, number ascribed to each of them and reference to the subjects they are useful for Subjects they can be used in Name of app

Code

English 1

At a hotel Travel (I love travel) Learn English travel Presentation skills by MicroMob Solutions Presentation skills by red apps 15 English interview Interview English speaking HR Interview Guide 2020 Convo interview Learn English business 250 ways to say it in business English Business letter writing Letter templates Public speaking skills Business English listening English for meetings Business English words

1 2 3 4

X X X

5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17

English 2

English 3

X X X

X X

X X

X X

X X X X X X X X

X X X

X X X

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Data Analysis Before deciding the specific criteria to include in our analysis, several previously designed rubrics to evaluate apps (namely Burden et al., 2017; Prieto, 2015; Vincent, 2011; Walker, 2010) were consulted. Despite the usefulness of these materials, none of them fulfilled 100% the objectives of this study. Moreover, in the end, we decided not to use a rubric as such but rather a more general descriptive method. Therefore, a new classification was created although it should be mentioned that, although no previously designed rubric was used, some of the aspects to be analysed here have been adapted from the classifications designed by the previously mentioned scholars. In our analysis, some distinctions were made between (a) aspects related to format and (b) content-based issues. Regarding format, the following criteria were taken into consideration: (a) type of menu and general design, (b) the presence of adverts, (c) the inclusion or not of music, (d) personalisation or customisation, (e) the recording of one’s progress, (f ) intuitiveness (if it is easy to use or rather chaotic) and (g) price (whether the app is completely free or if some contents are blocked and must be paid for). On the other hand, the aspects considered when analysing the app’s content were: (a) title transparency, (b) topics addressed, (c) emphasised receptive and/or productive skills, (d) the presence of theoretical explanations, information and/or practical activities to put into context the contents learnt, (e) the type of activities present, (f ) presence of native and/or native speakers and sound quality, (g) authenticity, (h) feedback given and (i) presence of a help section.

Results and Discussion Format-Based Analysis To begin with, we encountered a general tendency for bright colours such as orange, yellow and green to be used in the main menu of most of the apps (for instance, in numbers 4, 5, 6 or 16). Moreover, most of the

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menus show a list of different contents or topics for one to choose from, with the exception of apps 3 and 10 in which the menu opens side-ways and apps 1 and 4 in which pictures rather than lists of topics appear on the main screen. Fourteen out of the seventeen apps analysed contain adverts inside them. More specifically, in numbers 7 and 15, the adverts appear as a whole screen when changing from one section to another. In these cases, the users must wait around five seconds before they can close the advert and return to what they were doing. Furthermore, in seven apps (numbers 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 12, 13), the adverts which appear are quite small in size and are placed at the top or the bottom of the screen; such adverts do not interfere with the main functions of the app unless the user clicks on top of them. Finally, in the remaining five apps (1, 2, 4, 14, 16), both whole screen and small screen adverts are included (Table 7.3). None of the apps analysed in this study included any type of music, not even on the main menu (Table 7.4). Concerning personalisation, only apps numbers 15 and 17 allow the users to change some of the settings. More particularly, in the former, one can change both the pitch and the speed of the speaker. App 17 offers the users the chance to select words from different lists; these lists are stored in a section called testing and once the student is ready, they are tested on them. Therefore, this feature was considered as a way of personalising the app since it allows users to work at their own pace and only choose the words they want to focus on at a particular moment (Table 7.5). In this study, progress refers to those occasions in which the application saves the activities one has done, shows the topics that have been completed and so on. As Table 7.6 shows, progress is only recorded in four of the apps analysed (numbers 3, 7, 10 and 11). Apps 3 and 10 provide the users with information regarding the number of times they have opened a certain unit and done the activities suggested; in addition, reference is made to the player’s score in the activities from that unit. In app Table 7.3  Presence and types of adverts in the apps analysed

Total

Yes Whole screen 2

Small part of the screen 7

Whole and small screen 5

No 3

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Table 7.4  Presence of music in the apps analysed Yes 0

Total

No 17

Table 7.5  Personalisation functions in the apps analysed

Total

Yes Pitch and speed 1

Words to be tested on 1

No 15

2

number 7, a tick appears on all the questions one has consulted at least once; moreover, a list of the topics users have already looked at appears within the function called history; finally, the sections we have already gone through are marked in green in app number 11. On the other hand, the way app number 17 shows one’s progress is rather negative since, as mentioned above, in this app users can select a list of words they would like to be tested on. Unfortunately, once they have been tested on these words and decide to press the All done button, these words do not only disappear from the testing section but they do not return to the content pages they were extracted from; in other words, if a student decides to examine themselves on their learning of, for example, “reject,” “takeover,” “income,” “profitable,” “turnover” and “decline,” once they pass the test, if they press the aforesaid button, these words are removed from the app, giving them no chance to revise or include them in tests with other words. Most of the apps under analysis are very intuitive and easy to use; they contain different sections on the main menu, and one simply must select one and is directly taken to the corresponding theoretical contents, practical information, activities and so on. Apps numbers 3, 4, 7, 10 and 17 can be rated as being quite intuitive. They are all still easy to use, but the way to access some of the contents is not completely straightforward. For instance, in apps 3 and 10, there is a button in the left-hand corner to open the menu, but until you press it there is no visual or written clue to indicate that the main menu can be accessed this way and in app 17 there is no explanation as to what the Check to Learn options refer to nor how to access the place where the words we have selected have been stored,

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Table 7.6  Individual progress in the apps analysed Yes 4

Total

No 12

To a certain extent 1

Table 7.7  Degree of intuitiveness of the apps analysed Total

Very intuitive

Quite intuitive

Somewhat chaotic

10

5

2

one has to try pressing different buttons and find it out for themselves. Moreover, some of the topics in app number 3 appear in orange and others in grey. Our first intuition was that the grey items were blocked and had to be paid for as this is the case in other apps; nevertheless, while trying out the other topics, we accidentally pressed one of the grey ones and discovered they were all unblocked. Finally, the structure and organisation of apps numbers 5 and 15 is chaotic and confusing sometimes. In app number 5, there are many hyperlinks within the theoretical explanation texts. On some occasions when we press on one of them, it takes us to a totally different subsection and it is difficult to find our way back, having to close the app and manually return to the page we were reading before. The problem in app number 15 is like the one described for apps 3 and 10, but with more examples, that is, there are three buttons to access different types of activities. Once again, none of them indicate in any way that there are tasks behind them; moreover, two of them are in the top right-hand corner whereas another one is in the bottom right-hand corner, under the lists of words and definitions. Finally, next to the latter button, there is another button which reorders the words; nevertheless, the way the app does this reordering seems totally at random as it is not done alphabetically, it just places the words in the list in different positions (Table 7.7). The last format-based criterion taken into consideration in our typology is price. As can be inferred from Table 7.8, most of the apps offer completely free contents; the only exception is app number 15 in which only ten units are unblocked to start with; if one would like to unblock the next ten units, they have to pay €0.99. In addition, apps 9 and 13 offer the opportunity to remove adverts for €5.49 and €3.99, respectively,

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Table 7.8  Analysis of the apps according to their price Total

Completely free

Partially free

16

1

Table 7.9  Transparency within the title Total

Transparent

Non-transparent

15

2

and app number 9 also allows players to use the app offline, without using an Internet connection if they pay €10.99.

Content-Based Analysis To begin with, almost all the apps’ titles can be considered transparent, since one can guess their content just by looking at the name. Only two exceptions were found: (a) firstly, in app number 2, most of the contents inside do not have to do with travelling; for instance, within the conversation section, we can find a text called “New Sheets” and another one called “Serving your Country.” Moreover, hardly any of the titles of the short stories the app offers resembles the topic of travelling (“A Soft, Wet Frog,” “He Eats a Candy Bar,” “Where’s the Itch?” or “Two Boys and a Baseball,” for instance) and (b) secondly, we would expect the contents of app number 6 to revolve around job interviews; instead, one finds a whole list of sections and subsections such as “Advance English Listening,” “English Audiobooks” or “English Speaking”; in fact, only one small section is actually devoted to job interviews (Table 7.9). For reasons of space, we cannot include here the whole list of topics each app contains as some of them are quite exhaustive.1 Consequently, only the topics which could be useful for the students studying Tourism or Tourism and Business Administration at the University of the Balearic Islands will be considered. Broadly speaking, for English 1: apps 1, 3, 6, 10 and 11 contain useful materials for learning telephone language,  For instance, in app number 1, one can access materials on the following topics: “calling to get a reservation,” “checking into the hotel,” “requesting a wake-up call” and so on. 1

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staying at a hotel and/or making reservations; app number 3 includes sections on airports, car rental and restaurants (the latter topic can also be found in app 6), and numbers 12 and 13 could help our students to learn how to write inquiry and/or confirmation letters. For English 2: several apps (4, 5, 10, 14 and 15) deal with presentations and public speaking. In general terms, these apps tend to include a list of tips and/or facts about presenting something. Furthermore, apps 15 and 17 contain sections on marketing and/or advertising. For English 3: apps 6, 7, 8 and 9 can help students prepare for their job interview exam; in addition, numbers 10, 11, 12, 14 and 16 contain useful vocabulary for business meetings, 12 and 13 include sections on writing cover letters and CVs or resumes and 15 and 17 on negotiations. Finally, app number 11 contains useful vocabulary for interrupting people, agreeing and disagreeing and reaching a compromise within a meeting. Moving on now to the criterion of skills and language areas, ten of the apps only emphasise perceptive skills (namely, numbers 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, 12 and 14), whereas in the remaining seven, we can find sections, explanations and/or activities which aim to help students develop both perceptive and productive skills in English (Table 7.10). More specifically, students can practise their reading skills in all the apps under revision; furthermore, in over half of them, we can find resources to practise listening skills (apps 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 9, 10, 15, 16 and 17). Finally, examples of sections, activities and so on in which the app users can emphasise their speaking and writing skills were only encountered in apps 3, 9, 10 and 17 (Table 7.11). Apps number 4, 5 and 14 are entirely based on theoretical notions; they do not give the users any chance to put into practise what they have learnt. In contrast, number 1, 2, 3, 6, 8, 10, 11, 13 and 16 only include practical-based sections without any previous theoretical explanations. Finally, apps 7, 9, 12, 15 and 17 contain both theoretical and practical Table 7.10  Emphasis of receptive and/or productive skills Total

Only receptive

Only productive

Both

10

0

7

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Table 7.11  Language skills emphasised in the different apps Total

Reading

Listening

Writing

Speaking

17

10

4

4

Table 7.12  Classification of apps according to the criterion theoretical versus practical Total

Only theoretical

Only practical

Both

3

9

5

Table 7.13  Types of theoretical and practical sections encountered in the apps Theoretical explanations Total 6

Practical Definitions explanations

Practical examples

Activities

1

9

6

3

sections. Regarding the format of the different theoretical sections registered (see Tables 7.12. and 7.13), apps 4, 5, 6, 7, 10 and 14 contain theoretical explanations and in app 17, definitions are offered. On the other hand, apps 6, 7 and 10 contain practical explanations and 1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 11, 12, 13 and 16 include practical explanations. Finally, numbers 3, 9, 10, 15, 16 and 17 include some activities. Almost half of the apps do not contain a single activity, that is, they were just based on explanations or lists/texts with vocabulary that one should read at their own pace. Examples of the following types of tasks were found in the remaining apps: Listen and read: in apps 1, 2, 9 and 10 one can listen to different speakers reading out dialogues and in 3 and 16 to isolated sentences being read out aloud. Listen, read and choose: the user has to choose the written sentence which is being read out aloud. This type of task was found in apps 3 and 10. Read and choose: apps 9 and 17 contain activities in which one should read some words, sentences or definitions and choose the correct answer. They are different from the previous type of task because there is no option of listening to the sentences, words or definitions being read out aloud.

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Read and write: in app number 17 some examples of activities in which one has to read some definitions and spell out the word were found. Multiple-choice activities were registered in apps 9, 15 and 17. Memorising part of a dialogue: in apps 3 and 10, we can find several dialogues with two speakers. One can first listen to the whole dialogue being read out aloud as many times as they want. Once they have memorised the answers of one of the speakers, the written form disappears and they now become one of the participants in the dialogue, having to interact with the other speaker. Recording oneself: here we can distinguish two sub-types: (a) firstly, in app number 9, one can record themselves answering certain job interview questions in their own words, and (b) in app 17, the users can record themselves reading aloud some written words the app provides them with. Writing: in app 13, users have the opportunity of writing full letters with the help of templates. They can save these letters and afterwards download them. Moreover, some examples in which one can write their own sentences and the apps afterwards read them out aloud were encountered in app 17. Listen and write: found in apps 15, 16 and 17. In the first two, one listens to whole sentences and afterwards must write them out whereas in number 17, they have to spell out words instead. Most of the people who participate in the apps are native English speakers (in apps 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 9, 10, 15, 16 and 17), most commonly speakers of the American variety. App number 17 provides students with the American and British way of pronouncing words although there are no signs indicating these varieties. In general terms, the sound quality is adequate in all the apps, and the speakers sound natural except for app number 15 since the sound of the people speaking is robot-like (the same happens occasionally within some functions of app 16). Finally, as Table 7.14 shows, only one speaker intervenes in app 15, two speakers Table 7.14  Number of speakers included in each app analysed

Total

Yes One 1

Two 1

More than two 8

No 7

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participate in the dialogues within app 1 and one can find more than two speakers in apps 2, 3, 6, 7, 9, 10, 16 and 17. In broad terms, both the topics described above and the language used can be considered authentic-like, that is, most of the apps contain vocabulary that our students will most-likely use in their professional lives outside the classroom. Once again, for reasons of space, we cannot outline the whole list of authentic situations and language found in each app; hence, we will give a few examples of the type of material found. Therefore, for instance, apps 10, 11 and 16 contain different sub-sections within business meetings (such as scheduling, starting, cancelling, concluding or finishing, interrupting people, convincing, reaching a compromise or voting), each with useful vocabulary. In similar lines, some of the apps analysed include suitable materials for our English 3 students, and, more particularly, for their job interview exam. To exemplify, apps 6, 7, 8 and 9 contain useful vocabulary for talking about and describing oneself and numbers 6, 7 and 8 include some valuable expressions on discussing one’s strengths and weaknesses. Besides, apps 6 and 8 and 6 and 7 offer users some interesting vocabulary for discussing their short- and long-term goals and for explaining the reasons why they believe the company should hire them, respectively. Apps 6 and 9 can help our students prepare questions related to the reasons why they chose to study a particular university major and numbers 6 and 7 contain interesting material for describing the transferable skills and competences one acquired at university level. Finally, app number 9 could help our learners prepare for a possible question on their attitudes towards working under pressure. Feedback is only given in four of the apps analysed. More specifically, within the quiz section in app number 9, if a student marks an option incorrectly, it appears in red and the correct answer is highlighted in green; app number 10 gives the users a score after doing some multiple-­ choice activities. Nevertheless, neither of these apps give explanations on why the answer chosen by the student is wrong and another one is correct. Users take tests in app 17 and after completing them, they get their results and are instructed to repeat certain questions that they answered wrong the first time. Finally, in app 15, if the player chooses the right word or definition, the application reads it out aloud, whereas a written

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7  Using English-Learning Apps Inside Tourism and Business…  Table 7.15  Inclusion of feedback in the apps analysed

Table 7.16  Inclusion of help sections in the apps reviewed

Total

Total

Yes

No

4

13

Yes

No

3

14

message appears if we select the wrong answer (once again, this message gives away the right answer) (Table 7.15). Finally, only apps 4, 9 and 16 contain a help or support section. The sections called help and support in app 4 and support in app 16 provide the users with instructions on how the app works. Finally, in app 9 we can find a help section that takes us directly to an external email address for the users to send questions or comments to the creators (Table 7.16).

 onclusions, Teaching Implications and Topics C for Future Research It is believed that this study has contributed to the field of teaching and learning English for Tourism and Business English. The format and content of several apps addressed to students with these academic profiles have been analysed and reviewed in detail. The results obtained are in many cases quite positive. For example, (a) most apps were easy to use, without the need of explanations, (b) the sound quality of the speakers is clear and natural-like, (c) there are quite a lot of apps which could help students improve their reading and listening skills, and (d) many instances of authentic topics, situations and language which will be useful for our students in the subjects English 1, 2 and 3 and in their future professional lives were registered. On the other hand, some of the aspects analysed need to be improved. For instance, (a) none of the apps contained any type of music. Although having to listen to songs may be distracting at certain moments within an app, on other occasions, it may motivate the students if they recognise the songs being played or simply discover new

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songs they like; (b) some apps did not contain any practical activities and the format of the tasks that were found was quite repetitive, (c) many apps do not offer students the opportunity to combine theoretical notions and then practical examples, (d) hardly any of the apps saves one’s progress and (e) little attention is paid to the skills of writing and speaking. Hence, broadly speaking, there continues to be a lack of apps which offer Tourism and Business English students materials to develop both their written and spoken skills whilst first being taught some theoretical notions and concepts and afterwards completing activities to put into practise these contents. For this reason, one important aspect for future research would be to design apps adapted to these ESP learners’ needs. Moreover, as mentioned in Sect. “Mobile Apps in the ESP Classroom,” although quite a few studies have been conducted on ESP students’ and teachers’ views on the use of certain apps or on mobile learning in general, scarce studies focus on Tourism and Business English learners; therefore, it would be interesting to conduct an opinion-based study with our students. In addition, we could incorporate some activities in class in which the student must use one or more of the app(s) analysed here. Finally, before ending this chapter, we would like to mention that although error-identification was not the focus of this study, we did find some lexical and/or grammatical mistakes in some of the apps. In some cases, these mistakes may be simply typos, but in future studies, it would be interesting to analyse the language used in the apps in more detail to ensure it is adequate both at a grammatical and at a lexical level for our students. Acknowledgements  For generous financial support, I am grateful to the Spanish Ministry for Science, Innovation and Universities (grant PGC2018-093622-B-I00) and to the Regional Government of Galicia (Directorate General for Universities; grant ED431B 2018/05). These grants are hereby gratefully acknowledged.

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8 ESP for Tourism: Does It Meet Employers’ Needs and Prepare Students for the Workplace? Gloria Chamorro, María Vázquez-Amador, and María del Carmen Garrido-Hornos

Introduction Tourism—defined as “a social, cultural and economic phenomenon which entails the movement of people to countries or places outside their usual environment for personal or business/professional purposes” (UNWTO, 1998)—represents a convergence activity among different disciplines. Economy, marketing, business, history, geography, art, and

G. Chamorro (*) University of Kent, Canterbury, UK e-mail: [email protected] M. Vázquez-Amador Cádiz University, Cadiz, Spain e-mail: [email protected] M. d. C. Garrido-Hornos University of Valladolid, Valladolid, Spain e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021 L. Escobar, A. Ibáñez Moreno (eds.), Mediating Specialized Knowledge and L2 Abilities, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-87476-6_8

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foreign languages join together in a complex frame of interdisciplinarity. It is precisely this diversity what provides tourism students with a wide range of possibilities within the labour market. The tourism industry is a vibrant and dynamic sector that requires adapting to the professional requirements of companies, meeting the needs of our society, and, unavoidably, adjusting to the effects of globalisation and the constantly increasing level of product innovation. In a country like Spain—which, prior to the emergence of the COVID-19 sanitary crisis, remained the second-world tourist destination, only preceded by France and followed by the USA (UNWTO, 2019)—university studies in tourism are perfectly justified, since they qualify the student both academically and professionally for one of the major economic engines of this nation. In fact, there is an evident necessity to properly equip future professionals seeking entry in the service sector (Blue & Harun, 2003). The degree in tourism in Spain appeared as a response to the particular social and economic demands of the industry. Among many other things, companies in this sector seek graduates who are linguistically competent in foreign languages to cope with the internationalisation in the field, as tourism is international in nature (Davies, 2000), so tourism practitioners operating in foreign languages will need to overcome the barriers of nationalities and cultures (Cronin, 2000). The transcendence of the international issuing market to the tourist destinations in Spain explains the inclusion of a reasonable number of European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) in English in tourism degrees in this country. These English modules pursue the mastery of the language from a communicative perspective to ensure students’ effective linguistic exchanges—oral and written. The analysis of the specific needs in the use of this language is vital: its specificity and its positioning in the sector of services explain its inclusion into the English for Specific Purposes (ESP) field. English for Tourism (EfT) is a “natural” dimension of the language which contemplates specialised knowledge (Blanco-Calvo & Garrido-Hornos, 2013): it stands as a functional variety of General English or, in other words, as a branch of the language which shows some of its overall features but, additionally, adopts terminology of its own and specific linguistic, pragmatic, and functional characteristics. ESP in general and ESP for tourism in particular entail

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developing new types of literacy and communicative skills to prepare students to handle specific professional contexts and practices (Hyland, 2002).

English for Specific Purposes Considering the prominence of English as an international language (Prachanant, 2012; Szabóné, 2009), universities are currently offering ESP courses to meet the specific needs of students from fields such as science, technology, medicine, engineering, business, and politics (Crystal, 2003; Javid, 2015; Kachru & Nelson, 2006; Lauder, 2008; Suprina & Rahayu, 2017). The effectiveness of this variety of English not only implies an increase in the level of exposure to the language, but it also entails the use of authentic materials in a clearly defined learning context to address the learner’s real needs (Buzarna-Tihenea & Nadrag, 2017). Analysing those needs when designing courses and syllabi is imperative to teach the learner how to communicate successfully in specific disciplines and contexts. A substantial amount of research has been devoted to the distinction between General English and ESP, the definition of the latter, and its historical background and features (Brindley, 1989; Buzarna-Tihenea & Nadrag, 2017; Dudley-Evans & St John, 1998; Finney, 2002; Hutchinson & Waters, 1987; Munby, 1978; Robinson, 1991). Broadly speaking, ESP refers to the teaching and learning of English for students whose objective is to use this language in a specific discipline or for work-related purposes (Ahmed, 2014; Buzarna-Tihenea & Nadrag, 2017). ESP has some absolute characteristics: it has to meet the specific needs of the learners; it uses the methodology and activities of the discipline it serves; and it focuses on the language (grammar, vocabulary, and register), skills, discourse, and so on, appropriate to these activities. ESP also presents some variable characteristics: it may be designed for specific disciplines; it may use a different methodology from that of General English; and it is normally designed for adult learners who are intermediate or advanced students in tertiary education or in an expert work environment, so it assumes some prior knowledge of the language system (Dudley-Evans & St John, 1998). ESP focuses on specific, purposeful uses of the language for particular ends. Hutchinson and Waters (1987) highlight the idea that the language

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learner is studying a language for a practical reason, and, due to this, the curriculum designer uses needs analysis to determine the features of the target language. Eventually, the language instructor adapts content and method to teach those features (Huckin, 2003). As a matter of fact, one of the main tasks of the ESP practitioner is precisely the analysis of the present and target situation to establish the “what” and the “how” of a course (Javid, 2015). For Piyanapa (2004), it is a means to detect what the student needs and a tool to decide the type of ESP instruction they require. Need analysis—defined as “the process of determining the needs for which a learner or group of learners requires a language and arranging the needs according to priorities” (Richards et al., 1992, p. 242)—should be conceived, therefore, as the starting point or first stage in ESP course development (Flowerdew, 2012; Prachanant, 2012), curriculum renewal, syllabus design, materials development, and methodology updating (Bocanegra-Valle, 2016). Since needs analysis entails an awareness of the goal environment, it should mirror the requirements, desires, and needs of the learner in a particular area (Fadel & Elyas, 2015), or, what is the same, the necessities (demands of the target situation), wants (learners’ view on their needs), and lacks (the gap—if any—between the learner’s language proficiency and the target situation language needs) (Hutchinson & Waters, 1987). Needs analysis brings together various sources that provide different perspectives: the students, the language-teaching establishments, and the user institutions (Moattarian & Tahririan, 2014). Their view can help to develop a successful ESP course (Chostelidou, 2010), as course design involves interpreting the needs analysis data to determine the content based on the communicative needs that learners will face in the workplace (Basturkmen, 2003) and produce learning experiences that enable them to perform as expected (Barrantes-Montero, 2009). In short: a curriculum for ESP students should include learning tasks and activities that enable them to use what they learned to execute their jobs more effectively (William & Brunton, 2009) and meet the expectations of their future employers.

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ESP for Tourism Tourism is one of the most powerful contributors to the national economy of many countries, attracting domestic and foreign tourists and providing innumerable and very varied work opportunities (Rahayu, 2020). It stands as the world’s largest and fastest growing activity which necessarily implies cross-cultural communication between individuals from diverse linguistic backgrounds (Baum, 2006; Blue & Harun, 2003). The ability to master another language is, accordingly, essential in the development of this sector (Sindik & Božinović, 2013). As a matter of fact, several studies on the specific needs of this industry have shown that a considerable level of competence in a foreign language is a primary concern and an essential operating skill (Davies, 2000; Goodenough & Page, 1993; Hagen, 1992; Metcalfe, 1991). Tourism programmes in Europe predominantly include foreign language subjects in their courses (Leslie & Russell, 2006), among which English is promoted. The internationalisation of scientific, technical, and economic activities in general has favoured the demand for specialised English (Hutchinson & Waters, 1987; Rahayu, 2020), and the tourism and hospitality industry is no exception: the function of English as a vehicle for communication is crucial for professionals in this sector to guarantee quality and satisfaction. English is a “tool to make a guest feel at home” (Torres & Kline, 2013), since “making people feel welcome is indeed an art, and a key to success” (Blue & Harun, 2003, p. 78). Hijirida (1980) even affirms that English proficiency is in fact one of the major criteria when hiring tourism employees, as low linguistic competence in this language may entail a problem in attracting potential clients and satisfying their needs. Language becomes necessary for empathy, courtesy, and politeness, but, above all, for routine negotiations between tourists and employees (Prachanant, 2012; Wijayati & Khafidhoh, 2021). Practitioners in the tourism sector need to acquire adequate language skills in order to deal with costumers and visitors and provide service excellence to meet the workplace requirements (Bobanović & Gržinić, 2011; Rahayu, 2020). Consequently, the learning objectives of ESP for tourism are often work-oriented: presenting tourism products for

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promotional and advertising purposes, communicating in commercial exchanges, identifying sociocultural differences with international customers, understanding and producing tourism-related texts, and so on. EfT in higher education has been regarded as a contemporary area of business English (Choi, 2005; Wijayati & Khafidhoh, 2021); it has been defined as a branch of ESP (Kusumawati, 2018; Mahendra, 2020; Prachanant, 2012; Sholikhi, 2020) which combines the formal dimension of the language with the vocabulary, expressions, tasks, and linguistic functions typical of the hospitality and tourism industry both in pre- and in-service situations (Blue & Harun, 2003; Wijayati & Khafidhoh, 2021). Therefore, it seems clear that EfT lessons should focus on occupational activities and specific communication skills to bridge classroom use and workplace communication (Fuentes, 2004). In other words, it should cover the language required to understand and interact with members of different cultures in different tourist settings: hotels, travel agencies, and so on (Afzali & Fakharzadeh, 2009; Ghany & Latif, 2012). Tasks should be designed to develop the students’ communication skills and self-confidence to perform successfully in their future working environment, so recreating real-life situations will be beneficial for future job prospects and requirements (Buzarna-Tihenea & Nadrag, 2017). A considerable body of investigation has analysed the use of specific English for diverse occupational purposes (Arnó-Macià et  al., 2020; Moattarian & Tahririan, 2014; Nurpahmi, 2017; Ozturk & Bal-Gezegin, 2019; Paniya, 2008; Rahayu, 2020; Suprina & Rahayu, 2017), but, despite the fact that English is the most used language in the hotel industry, the main features of the language of hospitality have not been extensively researched (Blue & Harun, 2003). Similarly, there are not many studies on EfT that have dealt with issues such as testing the effectiveness of courses (Ghany & Latif, 2012) or the relevance of English language preparation at school for the industry needs (Rahayu, 2020). The next sections will discuss the most relevant studies on these issues from the perspective of students and employers.

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EfT and Students’ Needs From a student-centred perspective, several researchers have focused on their needs and perceptions. Moattarian and Tahririan (2014) examined the language needs of Iranian students of tourism management specifically, based on their wants, lacks, and necessities. Using a survey and semi-structured interviews with learners, teachers, subject-specific instructors, and experts in the field, these authors concluded that differently from other ESP courses (in which the integration of skills is not essential), listening, speaking, reading, and writing should all be emphasised in ESP for tourism management to fulfil the specific needs of their students. Furthermore, it was found that the real objectives of this specific tourism programme had not been correctly identified up to that moment, which led to students not being satisfied with the instruction they were receiving and demanding a proper revision of the materials and methods employed. Ghany and Latif (2012) also investigated the adequacy of the English language preparation of tourism and hospitality students in Egypt and discovered that students’ views on their preparation and language needs differed from those of their teachers: while students felt oral communication skills needed to be emphasised, teachers focused on reading, writing, vocabulary, and grammar. The authors concluded that the language preparation students received was inadequate and suggested a reshape in the English language instruction of these programmes to help learners be optimally prepared for the workplace. A similar finding was reported by Bury and Oka (2017), who investigated Japanese students’ perceptions of the importance of English in the tourism industry and found that confidence and communicative competence—particularly regarding the skills of listening and speaking—were crucial for participants, but reading and writing were also perceived as important. Other scholars have focused specifically on the effectiveness of courses and materials. Buzarna-Tihenea and Nadrag (2017) explored effective teaching methods and techniques for EfT, and found that speaking and listening skills are key to any English language learner willing to work in the tourism sector and that a communicative and interactive teaching style and active participation in the EfT classroom favours their

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development to a large extent. Yasmin et al. (2016) explored the specific language needs of students in the hotel industry in Pakistan and evaluated whether the existing materials matched them. They came to the conclusion that teaching materials should be revised, as they were not specific enough to meet the language needs of the students (in particular with regards to the vocabulary and grammatical structures required for the hotel industry), and needed to include communicative activities related to oral skills that covered functions such as greeting guests and responding to their inquiries. In a related study, García-Laborda (2005) investigated whether travel and tourism textbooks at the time covered the instructional elements and skills perceived as the most important ones by students. He analysed 10 books and surveyed 70 university students and concluded that most textbooks address students’ needs only partially.

EfT and Employers’ Needs A few studies have focused on the needs and expectations of tourism practitioners and employers (e.g. Martin & Davies, 2006; Stapa & Jais, 2005; Tipmontree, 2007). Rahayu (2020) gathered data from teachers, students, and workers from the tourism industry to assess whether the English taught at two different higher education institutions in Jakarta met the workplace needs. The results showed that the different sources involved in the study had different views on the matter, but all of them emphasised the importance of including speaking skills in the syllabus. Similarly, Noor (2008) investigated whether students’ language skills correlate with the needs of the hospitality industry and found discrepancies between the responses of the students and those of the employers, especially on listening and speaking activities, which were more important for employees than for students. However, both groups of respondents agreed that students should have more communication activities and less writing activities. It was also revealed that students were placed in different departments depending on their communication skills (i.e. those with better communication skills were assigned to the front office while the rest were assigned to the kitchen or housekeeping).

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Adorján (2013) carried out a needs analysis collecting data from potential employers and found that learning materials used at Hungarian universities lacked certain key elements mentioned by the employers, as they did not enable students to familiarise themselves with a real working environment or explore local culture and customs or intercultural aspects. She also concluded that although both oral and written tasks would be performed in their future jobs, speaking does not get enough attention. Prachanant (2012) also surveyed the needs of different tourism employees in Thailand and, in line with the studies previously mentioned, concluded that the most important skill was speaking, followed by listening, reading, and writing. His study also revealed that the most commonly employed functions in English were information giving, service providing, and help offering, and the most frequently faced problems were the use of inaccurate vocabulary, inappropriate expressions, or incorrect grammar, and the inability to understand different accents. Suprina and Rahayu (2017) performed a need analysis to specifically assess the English language needs of travel agents in Jakarta through questionnaires, observations, and interviews. Their results revealed employees’ difficulties dealing with (1) grammar and appropriate expressions, (2) vocabulary, (3) translation, (4) speaking, (5) pronunciation, (6) listening, (7) writing, and (8) reading, and confirmed that English language skills were used in their everyday work. Al-Khatib (2005) also focused on travel agents in Jordan and examined their communication needs to check if the material and skills taught to students suited those needs. He concluded that the teaching and learning materials should be more focused on their specific field of work and, unlike most of the studies previously mentioned, found that the most used skill for travel agents is writing (80%), followed by listening (63%), reading (61%), and speaking (61%). The studies in this section clearly show that the tourism industry regards English language competence as essential and, as Blue and Harun (2003) suggest, only those with good oral and written communication skills tend to be recruited for tourism and hospitality positions. Most of the studies reviewed agreed on the necessity for specificity in the field and the development of oral skills for communicative interaction. Therefore, teaching strategies different from the ones used in the traditional language classroom are required (Buzarna-Tihenea & Nadrag, 2017) and

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instructors are expected to make use of materials that will enable this specific instructional process (Wijayati & Khafidhoh, 2021).

Aims of the Study The present study aims to contribute to the literature presented in the previous section by investigating employers’ experiences with interns or recently graduated tourism students to find out whether the content and skills included on the ESP syllabi of tourism undergraduate degrees in Spain actually meet employers’ needs and prepare students for the workplace. The study addresses the following research questions: 1. What is the general use and importance of English by companies in the tourism industry in Spain? Does this differ between types of companies? 2. What are the main functions that interns or recently graduated tourism students need to perform in English in the workplace? Does this differ between types of companies? 3. How prepared are interns or recently graduated tourism students to perform those functions in English in the workplace? Does this differ between types of companies? 4. Does EfT in Spain meet the needs of employers? Does this differ between types of companies?

Methodology Data Collection An online survey was conducted with tourism employers to explore the research questions mentioned in the previous section. To develop the questionnaire, the researchers looked at the offer of every university in Spain to see which ones had an undergraduate degree in tourism. It was revealed that out of the 84 Spanish universities (51 state, 33 private), only 30 of them did not have an undergraduate degree in tourism. From the

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remaining 54 universities, the researchers reviewed the syllabi of the ESP modules offered at these institutions, as this information is publicly available on the website of each university. The information collected was included into an Excel spreadsheet, which was later collated and analysed. It was found that the great majority of universities offer 24 ECTS in English, generally split across 4 modules, or 18 ECTS, generally split across 3 modules. With regard to the content of the ESP modules, which was the relevant information for the purpose of the study and the questionnaire, we were able to narrow it down to 22 work-related language functions that were consistently presented and emphasised across all the tourism programmes. These functions were as follows: 1. Welcoming and greeting clients/suppliers and introducing themselves/others 2. Socialising and making small talk with clients/suppliers 3. Handling telephone calls 4. Asking clients about their preferences and making suggestions 5. Answering questions and solving problems from clients/suppliers 6. Offering products and services 7. Giving directions and practical information 8. Describing products, attractions, tourist destinations, and so on 9. Talking about prices, fees, payments, and so on 10. Making presentations and tours 11. Making bookings 12. Doing marketing, advertising, publicity, promotions, and so on 13. Negotiating products and services 14. Attending and participating in meetings 15. Communicating formally and politely 16. Apologising and dealing with complaints 17. Using specific vocabulary 18. Reading emails and letters 19. Reading reports and other documents 20. Reading instructions, manuals, and so on 21. Writing emails and letters 22. Writing reports and other documents

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With the information gathered and collated, we created a questionnaire that included questions about the respondents (i.e. the employers), the general use of English in their company, the frequency in which the 22 work-related functions above were conducted by tourism graduates in their business, and how prepared tourism graduates were to perform those 22 functions. The final questionnaire included a total of 13 questions distributed as follows (see also Results): • One multiple-answer question • Five open-ended questions, with two of them being short-answer questions for the name and location of the company and another one being optional to allow participants to add further information to a previous question • Seven multiple-choice questions, with three of these questions including the rating of a number of sub-questions (two of them required rating the 22 functions above and the other one 4 different ratings) The questionnaire was then converted into an online survey using Google Forms and sent by email to over 1000 companies throughout Spain that belong to the tourism industry, including accommodation businesses, cultural and active tourism companies, tourist information centres, and travel and event organisation agencies. Unfortunately, due to the situation with COVID-19  in Spain at the time of data collection, many of these companies were closed and were not able to participate, and others had considerably reduced their staff due to the limited number of tourists. In addition, other companies reported not hiring interns or recently graduated tourism students, so they were excluded from participation. We received a total of 145 responses, but had to exclude 6 of them. Five of them were excluded because the information they provided was incomplete. The sixth one was excluded because it was the only company that belonged to the transportation category and actually reported that English was not frequently used in their business, so it would not have been representative to make comparisons or draw generalisations. The final sample consisted of 139 employers from different companies throughout Spain: 67 accommodation businesses, 29 cultural and active

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tourism companies, 21 tourist information centres, and 22 travel and event organisation agencies. The higher number of responses from accommodation businesses was not surprising as this type of company is the one that receives the largest amount of tourism students.

Data Analysis The information derived from the questionnaire provided three different types of data, so different analyses had to be used to suit the different data types. Multiple-choice items, which were the great majority, involved a 5-point Likert scale where respondents had to select one answer out of the five alternatives. For these questions, we were interested in analysing the ratings given by each different type of company as well as any significant differences between them. To compare the means of the four independent groups (i.e. the four types of companies) and determine any statistically significant differences on the ordinal dependent variable (i.e. the ratings), Kruskal-Wallis H tests (χ2) were used. For the multiple-­ answer question, where participants were allowed to select more than one option, the frequency in which each of the responses was selected by each type of company was analysed. Finally, the data from the three open-­ ended questions that asked participants to provide their own answers were treated as qualitative data and the most frequent responses as well as anything else of interest are reported.

Results  eneral Use and Importance of English G in Tourism Companies The first section of the survey was aimed at answering Research Question 1 and finding out about the general use and importance of English by the different types of companies in our sample. The first question asked respondents to rate the frequency in which English is used in their company on a scale from 1 (Not used) to 5 (Constantly used). As Table 8.1

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shows, the use of English in all types of companies is very frequent, with all mean ratings above 4. The comparative analysis conducted revealed that there was no statistically significant difference in the ratings between the different companies (χ2 (3) = 4.961, p = 0.175). An interesting observation was that none of the 139 companies in the sample selected the lowest rating of 1, which suggests that English is used to some extent in all of them, and the highest rating of 5 was the most frequent one (see Fig. 8.1). The second item was the multiple-answer question, which asked employers who interns or recently graduated tourism students normally interact with in the workplace. Four options were provided: Clients/ Visitors, Providers/other businesses, Supervisors/colleagues, and Other. As Fig. 8.2 illustrates, the frequency pattern is very similar for all types of companies except for travel/event organisation ones, where students interact mostly with Providers/other businesses. None of the respondents selected the option Other. The next question asked respondents to rate the frequency in which interns or recently graduated tourism students have to use each language skill (Speaking, Listening, Writing, and Reading) in their company on a scale from 1 (Not used) to 5 (Constantly used). As Table  8.2 reveals, Speaking and Listening were rated as the most frequently used skills by all types of companies except for travel/event organisation ones, where Writing and Reading are more frequently used. Comparative analyses revealed that differences were only significant for one of the skills, Writing, which was rated as significantly less frequent by tourist information than by travel/event organisation (p = 0.14) and accommodation (p = 0.46) companies (χ2 (3) = 7.942, p = 0.047). The final question in this section asked employers about the importance for students to speak English in order for them to be hired on a scale from 1 (Not important) to 5 (Extremely important). Once again, the ratings provided were very high (see Table 8.3), with no company selecting the lowest rating of 1 (see Fig.  8.3), and no significant differences being revealed between the ratings of the different types of companies (χ2 (3) = 2.649, p = 0.449). In addition, 66 out of the 139 employers (distributed equally across the different types of companies) reported conducting an interview in English before hiring students.

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 ain Functions Performed in English M in Tourism Companies The second section of the questionnaire was aimed at answering Research Questions 2 and 4 and finding out about the frequency in which the language functions extracted from the syllabi reviewed (see Data Collection) are actually carried out in English by interns or recently graduated tourism students in the workplace in order to find out whether EfT in Spain meets the needs of employers. The first question asked respondents to rate the frequency in which these 22 functions are performed by graduates on a scale from 1 (Never) to 5 (Constantly). The mean ratings of each function by each type of company are given in Table 8.4, and they reveal that not all the functions included in the ESP syllabi are frequently carried out by students in the workplace. Accommodation companies reported that only 15 out of the 22 functions are frequently performed (i.e. mean over 3.5). These functions are given below in order of frequency: 1. Welcoming and greeting clients/suppliers and introducing themselves/others 2. Giving directions and practical information 3. Making bookings 4. Reading emails and letters 5. Describing products, attractions, tourist destinations, and so on 6. Handling telephone calls 7. Communicating formally and politely 8. Answering questions and solving problems from clients/suppliers 9. Offering products and services 10. Talking about prices, fees, payments, and so on 11. Asking clients about their preferences and making suggestions 12. Writing emails and letters 13. Using specific vocabulary 14. Socialising and making small talk with clients/suppliers 15. Apologising and dealing with complaints

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The same functions were rated as frequent by tourist information centres, with the exception of Making bookings and Apologising and dealing with complaints. These 13 functions are given below in order of frequency: 1. Giving directions and practical information 2. Describing products, attractions, tourist destinations, and so on 3. Answering questions and solving problems from clients/suppliers 4. Welcoming and greeting clients/suppliers and introducing themselves/others 5. Using specific vocabulary 6. Talking about prices, fees, payments, and so on 7. Asking clients about their preferences and making suggestions 8. Offering products and services 9. Reading emails and letters 10. Communicating formally and politely 11. Writing emails and letters 12. Handling telephone calls 13. Socialising and making small talk with clients/suppliers Similarly, cultural/active tourism companies rated as frequent the same functions as tourist information centres, except for Handling telephone calls. These 12 functions are given below in order of frequency: 1. Using specific vocabulary 2. Communicating formally and politely 3. Welcoming and greeting clients/suppliers, and introducing themselves/others 4. Answering questions and solving problems from clients/suppliers 5. Socialising and making small talk with clients/suppliers 6. Giving directions and practical information 7. Talking about prices, fees, payments, and so on 8. Offering products and services 9. Asking clients about their preferences and making suggestions 10. Describing products, attractions, tourist destinations, and so on 11. Writing emails and letters 12. Reading emails and letters

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Interestingly, the functions that these three types of companies rated as the least frequent ones were the same ones: (1) Attending and participating in meetings, (2) Negotiating products and services, (3) Writing reports and other documents, (4) Reading instructions, manuals, and so on, and (5) Doing marketing, advertising, publicity, promotions, and so on. On the other hand, only eight functions were rated as frequent by travel/event organisation companies, with some of them not being considered frequent by any of the other types of companies (i.e. Reading reports and other documents, and Writing reports and other documents). These functions are given below in order of frequency: 1 . Writing emails and letters 2. Reading emails and letters 3. Reading reports and other documents 4. Using specific vocabulary 5. Socialising and making small talk with clients/suppliers 6. Handling telephone calls 7. Communicating formally and politely 8. Writing reports and other documents In addition, the functions rated as the least frequent ones by this type of company are mostly different from the ones in the other three types of companies: (1) Giving directions and practical information, (2) Negotiating products and services, (3) Apologising and dealing with complaints, (4) Attending and participating in meetings, and (5) Making presentations and tours. Surprisingly, only 5 out of the 22 functions are considered frequent by all types of companies: (1) Socialising and making small talk with clients/suppliers, (2) Communicating formally and politely, (3) Using specific vocabulary, (4) Reading emails and letters, and (5) Writing emails and letters. Furthermore, the comparative analyses performed revealed significant group differences for 11 out of the 22 functions: (1) Welcoming and greeting clients/suppliers and introducing themselves/others (p