Category: GRETA Journal — 2008, Volume 16, Numbers 1-2

El presente artículo no pretende más que compartir una experiencia que viene siendo objeto de ensayoerror y revisión constante desde hace cuatro años. La asignatura de Comentario Literario de Textos Ingleses comienza su andadura en el curso 2004-2005 con la implantación de la experiencia piloto del crédito europeo en la titulación de Filología Inglesa de la Universidad de Cádiz, una de las primeras universidades andaluzas en sumarse a dicha experiencia. En dicha asignatura, de forma general, y partiendo de la evaluación continua (y además de fomentar el hábito y la familiaridad con la lectura en inglés), se persigue que el estudiante aprenda a reconocer posibilidades de comprender, analizar e interpretar la representación de significados culturales en diversas formas de textualidad, subrayando que la experiencia del mundo está siempre de alguna forma mediatizada por textos de diverso tipo.

This article will discuss the development of a teaching unit designed for Initial Secondary Teacher Training (specialising in foreign languages) which not only exemplified the theory of project-based learning (PBL) for the students, but also involved the student-teachers in a hands-on experience, thus fully engaging them in the development of the necessary management skills to be able to implement PBL in their own future classrooms. The unit was designed to help shift student-teachers’ understanding of teaching approaches towards pedagogies that promote autonomous language learning and collaborative problem–solving. In this article, we consider how English language teachers can capitalize on the language learning benefits of project work, first, by examining the characteristics of project-based learning and, then, by presenting a case study designed for future foreign language teachers. Finally, we consider how this can be integrated into EFL training.

The article will show different resources and materials employed in two core modules – Historia de la Lengua Inglesa and Historia y Cultura de los Países de Habla Inglesa–, both third-year annual courses in the Degree in English Studies at the University of Cádiz. In order to provide flexibility and to encourage students’ active participation, an array of practical activities has been devised along the lines of the new Higher Education framework, i.e., the Bologna Process. These practical assignments account for 30% to 40% of the student’s final mark. In order to analyse student responses to this new approach and to assess their performance, a comparison of the annual surveys on teaching practices carried out in the last three academic years is presented.

GRETA Journal — 2008, Volume 16, Numbers 1-2. Editorial. p. 2

Jesús M. Nieto García. GRETA Journal — 2008, Volume 16, Numbers 1-2. Interview. pp. 5–13

In this essay, I consider the use of virtual forums as didactic tools that foster peer-interaction and collaborative learning, and which contribute to a non-hierarchical construction of knowledge in the classroom. Online forums enhance students’ interactive, rhetorical and problem-solving skills –abilities that will be crucial to them in their subsequent professional careers. I also propose several methods to activate and monitor such forums in a positive, time-efficient manner for the lecturer, and which strengthens many of the learning skills put forth by the EHEA (European Higher Education Area).

Antonio Vicente Casas Pedrosa. GRETA Journal — 2008, Volume 16, Numbers 1-2. Article. pp. 85–91