Manuel Botella Rodríguez

Laura Borràs Castanyer
 

María Evarista García-Peña Flores

 

Laia Climent
 

María Goicoechea
 

Isabel Clara Moll Soldevila
 

Juan Ráez Padilla

 

 

Internet applied to the teaching of English Literature. Activity proposals for the study of a work by Tennessee Williams.

Manuel Botella Rodríguez

Original title: Internet aplicado a la enseñanza de la literatura inglesa. Propuestas de actividades para el estudio de una obra de Tenneesse Williams.

Paper delivered in: Spanish

University / Research Institution: Universidad de Cádiz (UCA)

Abstract:
 

La asignatura troncal Lengua Inglesa y su Literatura II se imparte en el segundo año de la licenciatura en Humanidades (6 créditos). El objetivo es introducir al alumno en la literatura escrita en inglés y familiarizarlo con los tres géneros literarios más importantes (novela, teatro y poesía). Se recomienda una serie de lecturas obligatorias representativas de dichos géneros. En el caso del teatro, la lectura está representada por Un tranvía llamado deseo de Tennessee Williams. La finalidad de este trabajo es presentar una serie de propuestas prácticas para la utilización de los recursos que ofrece la web y consolidar los conocimientos mínimos sobre el autor, entorno, estilo y obra, aprovechando el atractivo de las tecnologías de la información y la comunicación para motivar el autoaprendizaje por descubrimiento. Con estas actividades se pretende ofrecer una alternativa a la clase magistral, abundante en datos que no son codificados con la rapidez deseada, ya que el alumno tiene el riesgo de convertirse en receptor pasivo de los mismos. Nuestro trabajo consistirá en proponer una serie de actividades organizadas para que éste elabore una introducción al autor y su obra a partir de una serie de direcciones de fácil acceso, previamente estudiadas por el profesor.

 

The core subject English Language and its Literature II (6 credits) is taught in the second year of the degree in Humanities. The aim is to introduce the student to English written literature and familiarize them with the three main literary genres (novel, theatre and poetry). A series of compulsory readings representing these genres are highly recommended. In theatre, the reading is represented by Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire. The purpose of this work is to present a number of practical proposals for the use of the resources offered by the web and to consolidate the minimum knowledge about the author, setting, style and work. We will take advantage of the appeal of information and communication technologies in order to enhance self-learning through disclosure. The aim of these activities is to offer an alternative to the traditional magisterial class, so profuse with regard to data which is not codified as quickly as desired because the student is in danger of becoming merely a passive receiver of such data. Our work will deal with suggesting students a series of organized activities so that they will prepare an introduction to the author and his or her work on the basis of a number of easily accessible addresses previously examined by the teacher. (Translated by the conference organization)

“Tis all in pieces, all coherence gone”: una revolució copernicana en els Estudis literaris promoguda per Internet?

Laura Borràs Castanyer

Title: “Tis all in pieces, all coherence gone”: a copernican revolution in literary Studies promoted by Internet?

Paper delivered in: Catalan

University / Research Institution: Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) / HERMENEIA

Abstract: 
 

El vers de John Donne resulta del tot pertinent per l’anàlisi que li correspon de fer al teòric, al crític i al comparatista en aquest nou i desorientador entorn de la textualitat electrònica generada per Internet i que ens proposem d’abastar en aquesta proposta. En Donne el contingut del vers és una afirmació, una afirmació contundent. Des d’HERMENEIA, un grup d’investigació interuniversitari que té per objecte estudiar la interacció de la literatura amb la tecnologia, voldríem formular-lo amb interrogants perquè ens agradaria poder argumentar l’existència d’una “coherència del fragmentari” o, fins i tot, una “estètica de la fragmentarietat”. Potser és aquesta la millor promesa de futur pels estudis literaris, la investigació i l’ensenyament de la literatura en un futur que, en una universitat virtual com la UOC on s’ensenya teoria de la literatura i literatura comparada per Internet, ja és present. 

 

John Donne’s verse turns out to be absolutely appropriate for the analysis that the theorist, the critic and the comparatist must undertake in this new and disorienting environment of electronic textuality generated by Internet and with which we will deal in this proposal. In Donne’s example, the content of the verse is an affirmation, a convincing affirmation. From HERMENEIA, a interuniversitary research group whose aim is to study literature and technology interaction, we intend to question it because we would like to be able to argue the existence of a “coherence of the fragmentary” or even an “aesthetics of the fragmentary nature”. Maybe this is the best promise for the future of literary studies, the research and the teaching of literature in a future that, in a virtual university like the UOC - where literature theory and comparative literature are taught via Internet - is already a reality. (Translated by the conference organization)

Del papel a la red. Procedimientos de reescritura en la era digital.

María Evarista García-Peña Flores

Title: From the paper to the net. Rewriting procedures in the digital era.

Paper delivered in: Spanish

University / Research Institution: Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) / HERMENEIA

Abstract: 
 

A partir de la noción de reescritura (Lefevere, 1992), nuestra propuesta consiste en examinar las diversas formas de digitalización de literatura impresa —desde la reproducción de la página en pantalla en PDF, hasta el desarrollo de hipertextos multimedia—, para reflexionar en torno a las transformaciones que implica la traslación al soporte electrónico. Si convenimos con Genette (Seuils, 1987) en que la obra literaria no se presenta nunca como un “texto desnudo”, sino envuelta de un “paratexto” que la completa e impone una determinada interpretación al lector, es forzoso afirmar que la representación electrónica de los textos varía inevitablemente su condición. Las tecnologías digitales hacen posible la incorporación de “paratextos” multimedia, el acceso a las diferentes variantes de un mismo texto, el facsímil del manuscrito original, el aparato crítico, la voz del autor leyendo su propia obra, documentos iconográficos, biográficos, históricos, etc. Procedimientos más simples, como el vínculo electrónico o la fragmentación en unidades de diversa medida para su adaptación a la pantalla cambian necesariamente la experiencia del texto, modifican sus relaciones espaciales y temporales con otros textos (Landow, 1990), condicionan la percepción de las relaciones intertextuales y determinan, en suma, las formas de lectura y recepción. 

 

Starting from the concept of rewriting (Lefevere, 1992), our proposal deals with examining the various ways of digitalization of printed literature –from the reproduction of the page in the screen in PDF to the development of multimedia hypertexts- in order to reflect about the transformation implied by the shift to the electronic medium. If we agree with Genette’s (Seuils, 1987) view that literary work is never presented as a “bare text” but surrounded by a “paratext” that completes it and imposes a specific interpretation to the reader, it is compulsory to affirm that the electronic representation of texts unavoidably vary their condition. Digital technologies allow the inclusion of multimedia ‘paratexts’, the access to the different variants of the same text, the facsimile of the original manuscript, the critical apparatus, the author’s voice reading his or her own work, iconographic, biographical, historical documents etc. Easier procedures like the electronic link or the fragmentation into units of different measure for their adaptation to the screen necessarily change the experience of the text (Landow, 1990), condition the perception of intertextual relations and determine the ways of reading and reception. (Translated by the conference organization)

Revistes literàries catalanes a la xarxa.

Laia Climent

Title: Catalonian literary magazines in the net.

Paper delivered in: Catalan

University / Research Institution: Universitat Jaume I (UJI)

Abstract:
 

La implantació progressiva d'Internet en l'entorn de la comunitat catalanoparlant ha tingut conseqüències rellevants, tant en aspectes sociolingüístics com en els de la transmissió dels coneixements i la reflexió sobre temes culturals i literaris. En l'àmbit de la cultura catalana hom és molt conscient que el nou mitjà té unes virtualitats simbòliques enormes de cara a la visualització del català com a llengua del futur. De fet, la implantació del català a Internet ha arribat a nivells més que acceptables del que seria esperable en el cas d'una llengua minoritzada.Aquesta comunicació se centrarà en la presentació i l'anàlisi d'algunes publicacions periòdiques de tipus electrònic que tenen com a objecte la literatura, bé en la dimensió creadora bé en la de crítica, informació i estudis. La comparació amb les revistes convencionals d'aquesta mateixa temàtica realitzades en suport paper ens mena a reflexionar sobre les peculiaritats imposades per l'adopció del nou mitjà comunicatiu, i molt especialment les particularitats en els mecanismes receptors, unes particularitats que, al seu torn, condicionen tant la percepció social del producte com els seus continguts, o si més no el punt de vista des del qual aquests són inserits en el flux de la comunicació multimediàtica, on el món de la literatura pugna per trobar el seu lloc.

 

The continuous introduction of Internet in the setting of the Catalan-speaking community has had important consequences, both in the sociolinguistic aspect and in the transmission of knowledge and in the reflection about cultural and literary topics. In the Catalonian cultural environment everybody is aware of the huge symbolic potentialities of this new medium with a view to Catalan as a language for the future. In fact, the incorporation of Catalan to Internet has achieved better than the merely acceptable levels which would be expected from a minority language. This paper will be focused on the presentation and analysis of some periodic publications of an electronic nature which have literature, whether in its creative dimension or in the critical one, information and studies as object. The comparison with conventional magazines dealing with this same topic and made in electronic medium makes us reflect about the peculiarities imposed for the adoption of reception mechanisms. These particularities, in their environment, determine both the social perception of the product and its contents and even the point of view from which these are inserted in the flux of multimedia communication, where the literary world fights for finding its place. (Translated by the conference organization)

Reading Ciborgs

María Goicoechea

Paper delivered in: English

University / Research Institution: Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM)

Abstract:
 

This paper explores the reading cyborg we have inadvertently become. Through the analysis of both digital literature and print literature associated with cyberculture (Moulthrop’s Victory’s Garden, and Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow), this paper studies the emergence of a new reading community of literary cyborgs at the crossroads between digital and print media. These literary cyborgs, the ideal readers of the texts analyzed, help us circumscribe a community of readers whose localization has been rendered problematic by the new virtual space. From a reader-oriented perspective, we will expose the different ways in which Information Technology has contaminated the literary text as to require from the reader a new literary competence. This literary competence is characterized by the integrated use of old and new media, literature and technology, and has an important function in helping the reader overcome information overload.

Cibermapa dels estudis literaris: una guia per al caos.

Isabel Clara Moll Soldevila

Title: Cybermap of literary studies: a guide for chaos.

Paper delivered in: Catalan

University / Research Institution: Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC)

Abstract:
 

La introducció de la tecnologia en qualsevol de les esferes del coneixement ha produït dos efectes que, en certa manera, poden arribar a ser contradictoris. Per una banda, l’ésser humà disposa immediatament d’una quantitat d’informació i de coneixement impensable en el passat, però de l’altra també s’exposa al perill de la dispersió, la inexactitud o la desorientació davant d’aquesta informació, presentada moltes vegades de manera caòtica. Els estudis literaris i humanístics han estat permeables a la implantació i al creixent ús d’internet i, és per això que, actualment, a la xarxa, trobem una quantitat també molt considerable de material literari que interpreta i adapta les facilitats tecnològiques de maneres molt diferents. Davant d’aquesta varietat qualitativa o d’aquesta heterogeneïtat de continguts, ens trobem amb la necessitat de crear filtres o intermediaris capaços, d’una banda, de seleccionar i classificar allò que és rellevant en l’àmbit dels estudis literaris, però també de descriure models i possibilitats de presència a la xarxa. Des del grup d’investigació Hermeneia (UOC), la descripció dels diferents camins de relació entre internet i l’estudi de la literatura –i que nosaltres anomenem cibermapa– ens sembla una base indispensable per observar el canvi de paradigma al qual estem assistint, i el primer pas per arribar a un ús òptim de les possibilitats que ens posa a l’abast aquest mitjà. 

 

Technology introduction in any area of knowledge has resulted in two effects that, in a way, can become contradictory. On the one hand, human beings can rely immediately on an amount of information and knowledge which would have been unthinkable in the past. However, on the other hand, they run the risk of dispersion, inaccuracy or disorientation when dealing with this information which is presented, many times, in a chaotic way. Literary and humanistic studies have been permeable to the introduction and increasing use of Internet and, due to this fact, nowadays in the net we find an important amount of literary material that interprets and adapts technological facilities in very different ways. Taking into account this qualitative variety or this content heterogeneity, we face the need for creating filters or intermediaries able to, on the one hand, select and classify those relevant issues in the area of literary studies and, on the other hand, describe models and present possibilities in the net. For the Hermeneia research group (UOC Universitat Oberta de Catalunya), the description of the different ways of relation between Internet and literary study –what we call cybermap- is a fundamental basis for observing the change of paradigm we are witnessing and is the first step in order to achieve an optimum use of the possibilities this medium offers us. (Translated by the conference organization)

Internet como recurso de investigación literaria: bibliografía electrónica sobre Seamus Heaney. 

Juan Ráez Padilla

Title: Internet as resource for literary research: electronic bibliography about Seamus Heaney. 

Paper delivered in: Spanish

University / Research Institution: Universidad de Jaén (UJA)

Abstract:
 

El objetivo del presente artículo es ofrecer al lector un ejemplo práctico de la utilidad de Internet como recurso de investigación literaria. En este sentido, presentamos una selección bibliográfica de fuentes en formato electrónico que nos han resultado especialmente útiles en nuestra investigación sobre el poeta irlandés Seamus Heaney (bio-bibliografías, poemas, entrevistas, análisis crítico-interpretativo, páginas web multi-enlace y grabaciones audio / video). Esta selección intentará dar buena cuenta de la diversidad de fuentes disponibles en la Red, así como de su aplicabilidad al estudio literario. No obviaremos, sin embargo, las limitaciones de estas fuentes en una labor de investigación seria y concienzuda, por lo que finalmente haremos un pequeño balance sobre cuál es, a tenor de nuestra propia experiencia, la funcionalidad de este tipo de información electrónica en el ámbito de la crítica literaria. 

 

This paper endeavours to offer the reader a practical example about the usefulness of Internet as a resource for literary research. In this sense, we present a bibliographical selection of electronic material which has been particularly valuable in our research work about the Irish poet Seamus Heaney (bio-bibliographies, poems, interviews, critical-interpretative analysis, multi-link web pages and audio/video recordings). This selection will show the variety of on-line sources, as well as their applicability to literary studies. Nonetheless, we will also point out the limitations of this kind of electronic sources in thorough research work and will make a brief final summary about the functionality of Internet material in literary criticism, according to our own experience.

Susana Álvarez and María del Rosario de Felipe Boto

Iria González Liaño and Eugenia Orizales Lage

Pilar González Rodríguez and Carmen Lario de Oñate

Raquel Vitoria López

Alicia Bolaños Medina

Salvador Climent, Joaquim Moré and Antoni Oliver

Joseba Abitua, Inés Jacob, Josuka Díaz and Fernando Quintana

Vicent Montalt i Resurrecció

David Shea

Heather Fulford and Joaquín Granell Zafra

Mª Cándida Muñoz Medrano
 

 
 

Internet como principal herramienta de trabajo en la enseñanza de la traducción especializada.

Susana Álvarez and María del Rosario de Felipe Boto

Title: Internet as the main working tool in the teaching of specialized translation.

Paper delivered in: Spanish

University/ Research Institution: Universidad de Valladolid (UVA)

Abstract:
 

Todo lo que rodea al mundo de Internet despierta gran interés entre los estudiantes y los profesores en general. Como docentes, hemos encontrado en este medio un filón de oro no sólo para favorecer el aprendizaje de los alumnos, sino también para motivarles en su trabajo diario. Por lo tanto, Internet constituye, hoy por hoy, un recurso didáctico inagotable y lleno de posibilidades.
Con este artículo nos proponemos mostrar las utilidades que ofrece la red en la elaboración de las que consideramos son las tres fases que se llevan a cabo en la preparación de la asignatura de Traducción Especializada: programación, desarrollo y evaluación.

 

Everything concerning Internet and its world generates a great interest among students and teachers in general. As teachers, we have found in this field a gold-mine, not just in order to enhance learners’ learning, but also in order to motivate them in their everyday work. Therefore, nowadays Internet can be said to be an endless didactic resource full of possibilities.
With this article our aim is to show the facilities offered by the net in the elaboration of what we consider to be the three stages undertaken in the preparation of the subject known as Specialized Translation: scheduling,development and assessment. (Translated by the conference organization)

Internet como herramienta de trabajo para el traductor.

Iria González Liaño and Eugenia Orizales Lage

Title: Internet as a working tool for the translator.

Paper delivered in: Spanish

University / Research Institution: Universidade de Vigo (UVIGO)

Abstract:
 

Antes de la aparición de Internet, los profesionales de la traducción veían limitado su trabajo a una ardua labor de documentación, principalmente en soporte papel, que no siempre estaba a su alcance. Gracias al momento actual de auténtica revolución tecnológica de la información, el traductor se encuentra ante todo un abanico de posibilidades que le ofrece Internet, desde eficaces herramientas de traducción, que agilizan la tarea de documentación y reescritura, hasta la oportunidad de poder trabajar on-line o actualizar sus conocimientos gracias a la multitud de recursos y servicios que nos brinda la red de redes.
Desde nuestra experiencia como traductoras e investigadoras en activo, pretendemos con esta ponencia mostrar y hacer una valoración de todos aquellos recursos y enlaces prácticos que se pueden encontrar con sólo hacer click en la página web correspondiente, con el fin de facilitar la tarea a los cibertraductores en esta aldea global. 

 

Before Internet appeared, translation professionals had their work limited to a tough documentary work, mainly written, which was not always within their power.Thanks to the current moment of authentic technological revolution of the information, the translator encounters many possibilities offered by Internet, ranging from effective translation tools able to speed up documentation and rewriting tasks, to the opportunity of being able to work on-line or update their knowledge thanks to the great deal of resources and services offered by the network of networks.
On the basis of our experience as active translators and researchers, our aim in this lecture is to show and appraise those resources and practical links which can be found by simply making click in the correct web page with the purpose of facilitating the work to the cybertranslators in this global village. (Translated by the conference organization)

Anglicismos y diccionarios on line.

Pilar González Rodríguez and Carmen Lario de Oñate

Title: Anglicisms and on line Dictionaries.

Paper delivered in: Spanish

University / Research Institution: Universidad de Cádiz (UCA)

Abstract:
 

El objetivo de esta comunicación es presentar un estudio comparativo de la presencia de anglicismos de carácter específico en la prensa económica-empresarial española y francesa y su traducción con diccionarios on line.
El corpus está constituido por términos que aparecen en artículos económicos y empresariales publicados en prensa francesa y española. Una vez constituido el hábeas en ambas lenguas, se estudian   las coincidencias que se puedan dar y los campos léxicos donde la frecuencia de la realización de estos anglicismos es mayor.
La siguiente etapa del estudio consiste en analizar si esos mismos anglicismos son recogidos en determinados diccionarios terminológicos on line. Por lo tanto, la finalidad última de esta comunicación es la de comprobar si Internet puede ser una herramienta útil y recomendable para la comprensión de los préstamos, anglicismos en este caso, pertenecientes a una de las ramas de las lenguas de especialidad: la relativa a la empresa y la economía.

 

The aim of this paper is to present a comparative study of the presence of anglicisms in Spanish and French economic-business press and their translation through on line dictionaries.
The corpus is made up of terms which appear in economic and business articles published in Spanish and French press. Once the corpus has been compiled in both languages, coincidences likely to occur are studied, as well as the lexical fields in which the realisation frequence is more significative.
The next stage in the study deals with analysing if these same anglicisms are picked up in a series of particular terminological on line dictionaries. Therefore, the final purpose of this paper is to check if Internet can constitute a useful and advisable tool in order to better understand loanwords, in this specific case anglicisms which belong to one of the branches of speciality languages: the one concerning business and economy. (Translated by the conference organization)

El vocabulario metafórico de Internet y su traducción al español.

Raquel Vitoria López

Title: The metaphorical vocabulary of the Internet and its translation into Spanish

Paper delivered in: Spanish

University / Research Institution: Universidad de Alicante (UA)

Absract:
 

Aunque contamos con algunos estudios dedicados al inglés técnico (Posteguillo y otros, 2001) y a la pragmática en Internet (Yus, 2001), existen pocas obras dedicadas a la traducción del vocabulario de Internet. Este léxico contiene un gran número de palabras tomadas de la lengua común que han adquirido nuevos significados en este nuevo ámbito a través de un proceso metafórico. Como señala Gutiérrez Rodilla (1998), este método de formación de palabras resulta muy útil para los anglohablantes, ya que las unidades léxicas que se especializan les suelen resultar más expresivas y fáciles de entender. Sin embargo, este tipo de vocabulario presenta algunos problemas cuando se traduce al español, debido principalmente a su carácter polisémico. Además, como reconoce Belda Medina (2000), existen casos en los que no es posible mantener la metáfora en las dos lenguas, mientras que en otros la palabra traducida se rechaza por razones semánticas, debiéndose recurrir al anglicismo. En esta comunicación pretendemos analizar aquellas palabras que, perteneciendo al léxico general, han adquirido un significado especializado en la terminología de Internet. También comentamos las dificultades que presenta la traducción al español de este vocabulario. Los ejemplos examinados están tomados de diccionarios y glosarios en formato impreso y electrónico, así como de revistas de informática en español.

 

Although some research has been made concerning technical English (Posteguillo et al., 2001) and pragmatics on the Internet (Yus, 2001), there are few works related to the translation of Internet vocabulary. The terminology  used on the Internet contains a great number of words taken from everyday life which have acquired new nuances of meaning in this new field through a process of metaphorization. As Gutiérrez Rodilla (1998) points out, this method of creating new vocabulary is very productive for English-speakers, since words taken from the general lexis that are specialized tend to be more expressive and easily assimilated. Nevertheless, this kind of vocabulary presents some problems when translated into Spanish, due mainly to its polisemic nature. Besides, as Belda Medina (2000) recognises, there are cases in which it is not possible to maintain the metaphor in both languages, while in others the word translated is rejected for semantic reasons, being it necessary to resort to anglicisms. In this paper we intend to analyse those words that, belonging to the general lexicon, have adopted a specialized meaning in the Internet terminology. We also comment on the difficulties that arise in the translation of this vocabulary into Spanish. The corpus examined is taken from printed and on-line glossaries and dictionaries, as well as computer magazines in Spanish.

Dificultades y estrategias de la localización de sistios web comerciales del inglés al español.

Alicia Bolaños Medina

Title: Difficulties and strategies of the finding of commercial web sites from English to Spanish.

Paper delivered in: Spanish

University / Research Institution: Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC)

Abstract:
 

La localización de sitios web comerciales constituye hoy en día una de las actividades de mayor demanda del sector profesional de la traducción. Tras realizar un análisis pretraductológico de los rasgos que cartacterizan este género textual (Shepherd y Watters, 1999; Schmid-Isler, 2000), identificaremos las principales dificultades que presenta a la hora de su traslación del inglés al español, a partir de un corpus de traducciones de sitios web comerciales de programas informáticos realizadas por los alumnos de último año de licenciatura en el marco de la asignatura Traducción Científica y Técnica de la FTI de la Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. Por último, propondremos una serie de estrategias válidas para superar dichas dificultades. 

 

The localization of commercial web sites is nowadays one of the most demanded activities in the translation professional sector. After conducting a pretranslating analysis of the features that characterise this textual genre (Shepherd and Watters, 1999; Schmid-Isler, 2000), we will identify the main difficulties which arise in its translation from English to Spanish. With this aim, we will start from a corpus of translations in commercial web sites of computer programs made by the students of the last year of the degree within the subject Scientific and Technical Translation in the Translation School at Las Palmas de Gran Canaria University. Finally, we will suggest a series of useful strategies in order to overcome these difficulties. (Translated by the conference organization)

The INTERLINGUA project: the construction of an automatic setting for the translation of e-mails.

Salvador Climent, Joaquim Moré and Antoni Oliver

Paper delivered in: Spanish

University / Research Institution: Interdisciplinary Internet institute (IN3) /Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC)

Abstract: 
 

By this paper, we present the INTERLINGUA Project2: its design and current work. The goal of the project is achieving fully-automatic (no pre-edition, no post-edition) translation of emails in the virtual campus of the Open University of Catalonia (UOC). The problem of unsupervised machine translation of emails is discussed. Then we describe the strategy designed to build the system, including a multiple-level evaluation process and the building of several automatic pre-edition, post-edition and unknown-word extraction modules. Last, the work carried on so far on building such decision-taking modules is presented.

Categorización textual y flujo documental en la gestión de contenidos multilingües para entornos web.

Joseba Abitua, Inés Jacob, Josuka Díaz and Fernando Quintana

Title: Textual categorization and documentary flux in the managment of multilingual contents for web environments.

Paper delivered in: Spanish

University / Research Institution: Universidad de Deusto. Grupo DELi

Abstract:
 

Uno de los principales problemas que afecta al mantenimiento de portales web multilingües de grandes instituciones y empresas es la gestión eficaz de los contenidos que se publican simultáneamente en más de un idioma. En la actualidad no existe una plataforma que permita el control  global del flujo de versiones de los textos, que va desde el momento en que se redactan hasta el de su publicación, pasando por las fases de revisión, traducción, localización y  validación. En esta comunicación presentaremos un modelo de categorización textual dentro de una cadena de control de flujo de información en un sistema de gestión de contenidos multilingües para entornos web,  SareBi. 
SareBi está integrado en la plataforma para desarrollo de entornos web ZOPE (www.zope.org) y hace uso de los productos Localizer (www.j-david.net/localizer) y gettext (www.gnu.org). Los textos se almacenan como objetos Zope, pero el sistema permite la exportación en dos formatos estándar XML. El primero está basado en TEI (www.tei-c.org) cuando se desea el volcado para fines documentales. El segundo es TMX (www.lisa.org/tmx) para su aprovechamiento desde memorias de traducción. El formato utilizado en la cadena de publicación multilingüe es XLIFF (www.opentag.com/xliff.htm). El sistema de categorización textual constituye un eslabón clave en la gestión del flujo de trabajo.

 

One of the main problems affecting the updating of multilingual web portals of big institutions and enterprises is the effective management of the contents that are simultaneously published in more than one language. Nowadays, there is not a platform that allows global control of the flux of versions made of the texts from the moment they are written till they are published, including the stages of revision, translation, finding and validation. In this paper we present a model of textual categorization within a control chain of the flux of information in a management system of multilingual contents for web environments, SareBi.
SareBi is integrated in the platform for the development of web environments ZOPE (www.zope.org) and uses Localizer products (www.j-david.net/localizer) and gettext (www.gnu.org). The texts are kept as Zope objects, but the system allows the exportation in two standard XML formats. The first one is based in TEI (www.tei-c.org) when the dump is wanted for documentary purposes. The second one is TMX (www.lisa.org/tmx) for its exploitation from transition memories. The format used in the multilingual publication chain is XLIFF (www.opentag.com/xliff.htm). The system of textual categorization constitutes a key element in the management of the flux of work. (Translated by the conference organization)

Internet en català com a eina de treball en la traducció científicotècnica.

Vicent Montalt i Resurrecció

Title: Internet in Catalan as a working tool in scientific-technical translation.

Paper delivered in: Catalan

University / Research Institution: Universitat Jaume I (UJI)

Abstract:
 

La traducció de textos cientificotècnics requereix importants esforços de consulta a l'hora de resoldre entrebancs de tot tipus: cognitius, terminològics, fraseològics, estilístics, textuals, entre d'altres. Els recursos de consulta en la llengua meta són d'especial interés i utilitat en qualsevol procés de traducció.
Tradicionalment, les obres en format imprés, com ara les enciclopèdies generals i temàtiques, els tractats i llibres de texts sobre les distintes disciplines, els diccionaris, els glossaris, les gramàtiques i els llibres d'estil, han estat els principals aliats dels traductors. En l'era digital, Internet constitueix una espècie de megacorpus lingüístic amb potents eines de cerca que ofereix una àmplia i variada gama de recursos de consulta. A més de facilitar la tasca dels traductors, Internet està canviant radicalment la seua forma de treballar.
En aquesta comunicació, exposaré una classificació dels recursos d'Internet en funció de les necessitats dels traductors especialitzats i apuntaré alguns dels problemes a què s'enfronten els traductors internautes en l'actualitat, com ara la qualitat i fiabilitat tant del llenguatge com de la informació.

 

The translation of scientific-technical texts needs great consulting efforts for solving a number of different problems: cognitive, terminological, phraseological, stylistic and textual among others. The consulting resources in the target language have a special interest and utility in any translating process.
Traditionally, printed works such as general and thematic encyclopaedias, treatises and text books about different subjects, dictionaries, glossaries, grammars and style-books have been the translators’ main allies. In the digital era, Internet is a kind of linguistic megacorpus with powerful searching tools that offer a varied range of consulting resources. In addition to making easier translators’ work, Internet is radically changing the way they work.
In this paper, I will present a classification of Internet resources according to the specialized translators’ needs. I will also mention some of the problems that internaut translators have to face nowadays, such as the quality and reliablity both of the language and the information. (Translated by the conference organization)

The limits of the Medline database as a non-specialist translation tool.

David Shea

Paper delivered in: English

University / Research Institution: Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (LPGC)

Abstract: 
 

The Medline, or PubMed, data base of abstracts provides an invaluable research tool for translating medical documentation, particularly in the preparation of manuscripts for journal publication. However, for non-specialized medical translators, this data base may only limit our field of vision as to what is acceptable terminology. In complicated areas of surgical medicine such as interventionist radiology, the Medline collection, though formidable, can never tell us what is possible in a text but what has been published. This paper reflects on a decade of medical translation work for the local medical association (Colegio Oficial de Médicos de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria) and on the neighboring island of Tenerife. Medline has proven most helpful but, on a long-term basis, extensive coordination with medical specialists in the specific field being dealt with, is necessary. These specialists may or may not have any command of English, our target language.

Internet skills and translation: training freelance translators to explore, exploit and evaluate the potential of web-based resources.

Heather Fulford and Joaquín Granell Zafra

Paper delivered in: English

University / Research Institution: Loughborough University

Abstract:
 

The Internet has, over the past decade, become an increasingly important tool in the freelance translator’s toolkit, with uses ranging from electronic mail for the transmission and receipt of source and target texts, through employing web search engines for identifying background documents or terminology, to running online machine translation systems to produce draft, or information-only, translations.  Given this growing importance of the Internet in the contemporary translation environment, the acquisition of Internet skills inevitably now constitutes an important component of a translator’s training.  In this paper, the Internet resources currently available for translators are briefly reviewed and categorised, and a framework is proposed for incorporating Internet-skill acquisition into the translation curriculum.  Support for this framework is drawn from recent surveys of freelance translators to determine Internet usage, as well as from feedback gathered by the authors when co-ordinating Internet training seminars for UK-based professional freelances translators.  The paper concludes by suggesting that the proposed framework for Internet-skills acquisition provides a broader opportunity for trainers to help novice translators explore, exploit and evaluate the range and potential of semi-automated and automated tools available for incorporation into the 21st century translation working environment.

Internet aplicado a la enseñanza de la traducción del  texto técnico-científico. Propuestas  para el  estudio  de  textos paralelos en español e italiano.

Mª Cándida Muñoz Medrano.

Title: How to use Internet in teaching translation of technical and scientific texts. Some advices for the study of parallel texts in Spanish and Italian.

Paper delivered in: Spanish

University / Research Institution: Università di Catania (UNICT)

Abstract:
 

En nuestros días Internet  se ha convertido en una herramienta fundamental en el campo de la traducción que permite, incluso, trabajar on-line. Como docentes, consideramos que la Web es fuente inagotable de información que  favorece la motivación y el aprendizaje de los discentes. 
El propósito de este trabajo ha sido, en primer lugar, estudiar los procedimientos cognitivos como técnicas aplicadas a la traducción de textos especializados del área técnico-científica; en segundo lugar se ha examinado un corpus de  textos paralelos en español e italiano, utilizando las inmensas posibilidades que ofrece la web, con la finalidad de realizar un inventario de rasgos comunes y divergentes de los textos científico-médicos en ambas lenguas para poder, así, someterlos a su tratamiento didáctico. 

 

In recent times Internet began a basic instrument in the translation field and it gives us the possibility to work  on-line. In the quality of university teachers, we consider the Web an endless source of information that can improve the interest and the learning of the students. 
The first aim of this research was to study cognitive procedures as a technique for the translation of specialistic texts in technical and scientific field; moreover, a corpus of parallel texts in Spanish and Italian has been examined, using all the information available on the Web, to realize a list of common and different characteristics about technical and scientific texts in both languages so that it is possible to create a teaching programme.

Theodora Tseliga

Ricardo Benito Alcubierre

Teresa Alamán

E. Turney, Carmen Pérez, Begoña Montero and Anna Montesinos

Anna I. Montesinos López

Isabel Roboredo Seara

I. Elorza and R.F. Bromber

Mari Carmen Campoy and Marina López

Ania Saorín Iborra and Miguel F. Ruiz Garrido

Cira Fernández Sánchez

María Jesús Rodríguez Medina

Annick Rivens Mompean

Marta Torres i Vilatarsana, Salvador Climent, Miquel Strubell and Glyn Williams.

Galina Timofeeva
 

Title: Pragmatic competence of native and non-native speakers of English in academic e-mails: Study of four conversational routines.

 

A corpus-based study of discourse features in Roman-alphabet Greek (i.e."Greeklish") emails

Theodora Tseliga

Paper delivered in: English

University / Research Institution: University of Brighton

Abstract:
 

Since the advent of modern Internet technologies which have enabled computer-mediated communication (CMC) in a multitude of languages, the emergence of novel linguistic phenomena has become so ubiquitous that Crystal (2001) refers to a new domain of ‘Internet linguistics’. 
The current study investigates a phenomenon evidenced in Greek CMC, namely ‘Greeklish’, which denotes the use of Roman-alphabeted Greek in emails, chatrooms, instant messaging, etc. both within Greece and abroad.  This paper presents a small corpus-based study which explored the idiosyncratic linguistic practices of Greeklish emails. The basic data constituted authentic Greek and Greeklish emails, which were organised in two corpora (each comprising 10,000 words), with the aim of investigating contrasting patterns of regularities and distributions of use of the relevant features.
The linguistic features investigated were drawn from respondents’ accounts and the relevant literature on e-mail register (e.g. Baron, 1998, Collot and Belmore, 1996, Cherny, 1999), such as: the use of foreign language material, features marking informality, type-token ratio, word-length, etc.
Preliminary findings indicate that Greeklish messages are more conducive to the activation of devices such as simplification, informality, deviance, etc., suggesting that the use of Roman-alphabeted Greek and the expectations associated with its use could influence the composition of these emails.

Análisis pragmático del discurso e-mail para la delimitación del género.

Ricardo Benito Alcubierre

Title: Pragmatic analysis of  the e-mail discourse for genre delimitation.

Paper delivered in: Spanish

University / Research Institution: Universidad de Barcelona

Abstract: 
 

Indudablemente, el correo electrónico se está convirtiendo en uno de los principales medios de comunicación escrita. Muchos profesores de E/LE así lo han percibido y lo han incorporado en sus aulas como recurso para generar actividades encaminadas a un uso auténtico de la lengua escrita. Analizar este discurso “electrónico”, escasamente estudiado en la actualidad, permitirá tratarlo con eficacia didáctica en las clases de español, y, seguramente, aproximarnos al futuro del español escrito.
El punto de partida del presente estudio es que el medio electrónico ha generado un texto singular en español, tanto por el fondo como por la forma: hemos creado un nuevo género discursivo, caracterizado por elementos emparentados con la oralidad, concretamente con la estructura de la conversación espontánea, y por carecer de presión estilística u ortográfica. Son rasgos generales a los que llegamos a través de un análisis pragmático de un corpus de e-mails de autores con carreras universitarias.

 

Undoubtedly, electronic mail is becoming one of the main means of written communication. Many E/LE (Spanish as a foreign language) teachers have noticed this and have included it in the classrooms as a resource in order to generate activities directed towards an authentic use of the written language. The analysis of this “electronic”discourse, scarcely studied nowadays, will allow it to be treated with pedagogic efficiency in the Spanish classes and, surely, to approach to the future of written Spanish.
The starting point of this study is that the electronic medium has generated a singular text in Spanish, both in content and form: we have created a new discursive genre, characterized by elements related with orality, more specifically with the structure of spontaneous conversation, and by the lack of stylistic or ortographic pressure. We may obtain these general traits through a pragmatic analysis of an e-mail corpus of authors with university degrees. (Translated by the conference organization)

The banner ad as a netvertising subgenre: an analysis of form and content

Teresa Alamán

Paper delivered in: English

University / Research Institution: Universitat Jaume I (UJI)

Abstract:
 

This paper attempts to define the genre of banner ads through the analysis of both form and content. It has been paid attention to the level of recurrence of some visual and linguistic features in 300 banner ads analysed resulting from the search of a series of keywords in 5 different browsers. Results will allow to draw conclusions on what series of characteristics confine banner ads within the boundaries of a particular Internet sub-genre within netvertising.

Digital Genres Across Cultures.

E. Turney, Carmen Pérez, Begoña Montero and Anna Montesinos

Paper delivered in: English

University / Research Institution: Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV)

Abstract:
 

The paper presents a cross-cultural analysis of the linguistic behaviour in electronic talkboards in Catalan, English and Spanish. The study is based on an analysis of three talkboards dealing with a topic of international politics, maintained by The Guardian, El Periódico and Vilaweb.
Special attention is paid to the interaction or lack of interaction established between participants in the talkboards, how different messages realize the phenomenon of intertextuality and language style, (especially features specific to oral and written codes, formal and colloquial registers and linguistic correction).
The paper compares the extent of linguistic informalization in these three internet groups.

L’ortografia fonètica en català dins del correu i del fòrum electrònics.

Anna I. Montesinos López

Title: The phonetic orthography in Catalan in the electronic mail and forum.

Paper delivered in: Catalan

University / Research Institution: Unversitat Politècnica de València (UPV)

Abstract:
 

En aquest estudi s’analitzen els trets fonètics de l’escriptura electrònica en llengua catalana, dins del marc d’anàlisi de l’oralització del discurs escrit a Internet. Més concretament, i dins de les possibilitats d’interacció que ofereix Internet, s’estudien els trets esmentats anteriorment en el correu electrònic estricte i en les varietats derivades: els fòrums electrònics i els grups de notícies. L’adaptació del discurs, que realitzen els cibernautes, a l’escriptura dels missatges electrònics es fa palesa en determinats trets que, malgrat no ser nous majorment, reflecteixen la compensació de l’absència dels ciberparlants. En aquest sentit, l’espontaneïtat comunicativa, que permet el mitjà, genera la informalització del discurs i, alhora, aquesta última dóna lloc a una escriptura en què les grafies fonètiques són presents i ben valorades pels ciberparticipants, tot formant part dels jocs lingüístics propis d’Internet. Un fenomen així, fins fa poc valorat negativament en el discurs escrit, ha esdevingut una de les característiques comunicatives més importants dels textos elaborats en el correu electrònic i en els fòrums i grups de discussió.

 

In this study, the phonetic traits of the electronic writing in Catalan within the frame of analysis concerning the oralization of the written discourse in Internet is analyzed. More specifically, and included within the possibilities of interaction offered by Internet, the aforementioned traits in the strict electronic mail and in the derived varieties are studied: the electronic forums and groups of news. The adaptation of the discourse used by the cybernauts when writing electronic messages becomes evident in certain traits that, in spite of not being new for the most part, reflect the compensation for the absence of the cyberspeaker. In this sense, the communicative spontaneity allowed by the medium, enhances the informality of the discourse and, at the same time, the latter gives rise to a kind of writing in which the phonetic graphs are present and well appraised on the part of the cyberparticipants, everything being a part of the linguistic puns that characterize Internet... Such phenomenon, to which written discourse has added little and negative value, has become one of the most important communicative features of the texts made up in the electronic mail and in the forums and discussion groups. (Translated by the conference organization)

Oral features in an electronic epistolary corpus

Isabel Roboredo Seara

Paper delivered in: Spanish

University / Research Institution: Universidade Aberta

Abstract:
 

Rapid development of computer-mediated communication has improved the interest and the research within this area in the last years.Computer networks are changing the way we think, we write, we interact.The ordinary use of electronic interactions produces daily a huge amount of written discourses that provide important data for the analysis of electronic epistolary interactions (Collot & Belmore 1993, Ziv et Herring 1996, Garton et Wellman 1995, B. R. Sims 1996, Murray 1996 and Naomi Baron 2001).
On the basis of the definition by Harrison (1998) who considers that “e-mail is an intermediate form of discourse which has features from bother written and spoken language”, a corpus of electronic messages is presented and analysed in respect to verbal routines, address forms, politeness forms and formulation of illocutionary acts of request.Specific oral features and structures such as the use of familiar lexicon, interjections, diaphonic sequences, fragmentation and sentence reduction are described in a pragmatic point of view. Analysis results show that rapid interaction rhythm, writing and reading restrictions motivate textual brevity and induce verbal behaviour similar to conversation.

Internet: cortar y pegar (¿plagiar?)

I. Elorza and R.F. Bromber

Title: Internet: cut and paste (plagiarize?)

Paper delivered in: Spanish

University / Research Institution: Universidad de Salamanca (USAL) / Universidad de Southern Colorado

Abstract:
 

A la vista del aumento exponencial que está experimentando el uso de Internet como fuente de referencia, los autores abordan la cuestión de los plagios en los trabajos académicos elaborados por estudiantes universitarios. La facilidad que actualmente tenemos a nuestra disposición para acceder a numerosas y diversas fuentes de información, así como las eficaces herramientas para el tratamiento de la información digital, están transformando rápidamente el modo de realización y los resultados de los trabajos académicos que los estudiantes deben elaborar y mediante los cuales son evaluados. Si bien esto no supone el surgimiento de un nuevo género textual, se plantea la cuestión de que el modo característico de utilizar estas nuevas fuentes de información tiene una clara influencia sobre el resultado final, es decir, sobre los rasgos que podemos asociar con los trabajos académicos elaborados de este modo. En última instancia, este modo de producción de trabajos académicos supone una nueva vuelta de tuerca al concepto de intertextualidad (Kristeva, 1981).
Los autores aportan ejemplos reales de plagios detectados en trabajos de estudiantes, presentando al mismo tiempo un repertorio de estrategias de detección de plagios (Bromber, 2002) basado en los indicadores de Robert Harris (1997).

 

In the light of the exponential increase which the use of Internet is experimenting as a reference source, authors have to deal with the issue of plagiarism in the academic works made by university sudents. Both the straightforwardness we nowadays enjoy for having access to numerous and diverse information sources and the effective tools for the treatment of digital information are quickly transforming the way of elaboration and the results of the academic work students must undertake and through which they are assessed. Although this does not imply the appearance of a new textual genre, it can raise the issue that the specific way of using these information sources has a clear influence on the final result, that is to say, on the features that can be associated with the academic works made in this way. Finally, this way of production of academic works imply a new dimension in the concept of intertextuality.
The authors provide real examples of plagiarism detected in students’s work and present a repertoire of strategies for detecting plagiarism  (Bromber, 2002) based on Robert Harris’ (1997) indicators. (Translated by the conference organization)

User Guides in Computer-Mediated Dictionaries.

Mari Carmen Campoy and Marina López

Paper delivered in: English

University / Research Institution: Universitat Jaume I (UJI)

Abstract:
 

This article focuses on the design of user guides in computer-mediated dictionaries (electronic, CD, or Internet dictionaries). Traditional guides in paper dictionaries have been said to be ignored by most users, particularly by students using a dictionary. What most students expect to find out in these guides is a brief general comment introducing the book but providing no important, necessary or useful information. Since most dictionary users have used L1 dictionaries to find out about the meaning of words in their own language, and have needed no clarification on abreviations, grammar codes or any macro- and micro-structural issues which make dictionary look-ups easier, they assume they will not need such information for the L2 or L3 either.Computer-mediated dictionaries, however, may offer interactive user guides, and include a greater amount of information which for reasons of space traditional or paper dictionaries could not provide. We shall examine monolingual and bilingual French and English dictionaries to analyse in which ways are computer-mediated dictionaries better or worse than their paper counterparts.

Some text features in business e-mail messages:a pilot study.

Ania Saorín Iborra and Miguel F. Ruiz Garrido

Paper delivered in: English

University / Research Institution: Universitat Jaume I (UJI)

Abstract:
 

For the last years e-mail writing has been proved to be relevant within the business communication environment. As a relatively new written means of communication, little has been studied about its metadiscourse. Our aim in this paper is to check if the results found in previous studies on business e-mail messages and metadiscourse are found in real e-mail writing. We will also compare these data with the guidelines offered in different business communication textbooks. Our analysis of authentic electronic messages written by native and non-native speakers in English-speaking business contexts may help researchers and teachers observe the constant evolution of this recent way of corresponding.

E-banks Web Sites: An evolving Cybergenre

Cira Fernández Sánchez

Paper delivered in: English

University / Research Institution: Universidad de Extremadura (UNEX)

Abstract:

 
The present paper offers a subtle description of the formal features – text formatting devices, general layout, visual items and steps – of two types of promotional document types from a single major bank: the bank brochure and the electronic bank web site. As most recent studies in the field of genre analysis demonstrate, new ICTs (Information and Communication Technologies) have given rise to digital or cyber- genres, which may be alterations or variants of old, familiar paper-based formats. Drawing on these sources, the aim of our study has been twofold: in the first place, establishing a comparison between the form of both bank brochures and e-banks web sites and, secondly, demonstrating that an electronic bank web site has evolved into a recognizable multi-page document, which borrows more heavily on the style of traditional paper-based formats such as the bank brochure and serves the promotional purposes of a well-known discourse community: the banking community.

El fragmentado sector alemán está siendo aunado: la sintaxis de las páginas web de empresas de telecomunicaciones.

María Jesús Rodríguez Medina

Title: The fragmented German sector is being united: the syntax of the web pages of the telecommunication enterprises.

Paper delivered in: Spanish

University /Research Institution: Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPG)

Abstract:
 

Internet ha cambiado, de forma significativa, los hábitos  sociolingüísticos de los hablantes, hecho que ha originado nuevas líneas de investigación, entre las que destacan la cibercultura y el ciberlenguaje. En lo que respecta al ciberlenguaje, hemos observado que apenas se ha analizado la sintaxis de la red, al menos en las publicaciones sobre las páginas web en español. Esto no es de extrañar si tenemos en cuenta que se trata de un plano que, en general, ha recibido menos atención que el léxico-semántico, que cuenta con mayor número de monografías, sobre todo en lo referente a las transferencias del inglés, quizá por la dificultad que entraña fijar el grado de penetración de una lengua en la sintaxis de otra (Lorenzo 1996). 
Por ello,  nuestro objetivo principal es paliar, en lo posible, esta laguna mediante el análisis de los rasgos de la sintaxis del español en la red y la comparación de los resultados con los obtenidos en otros soportes, como los manuales informáticos,  donde la influencia de la lengua inglesa es también patente.

 

Internet has significantly changed the speakers’ sociolinguistic habits and this fact has originated new fields of research among which cyberculture and cyberlanguage deserve a special mention. Regarding cyberlanguage, we have observed that the syntax of the net has hardly been analysed, at least in the publications about web pages in Spanish. This is not surprising taking into account that it is an area that has received less attention than the lexical-semantic one, which can rely on a higher number of monographies, especially if referring to the transferences of the English language. Maybe it is due to the difficulty implicit in determining the degree of penetration of a language in the syntax of another language (Lorenzo 1996).
That is why our main aim is to palliate, if possible, this lack of research through the analysis of the features of Spanish syntax in the net and through the comparison of the results obtained in other mediums such as the computer ones, where the influence of English language is also obvious. (Translated by the conference organization)

Electronic English, oral or written English?

Annick Rivens Mompean

Paper delivered in: English

University / Research Institution: Université Lille 3

Abstract:
 

In emails and chatroom messages sent on the Internet, a specific style of writing has developed, which significance and influence on the English language cannot be denied. Speed is required in computer mediated communication which needs to be “short, sharp and snappy” (Aitchison, 2001). As a consequence many abbreviations are used and acronyms are commonly created. In these messages, which seem to be half way between oral and written communication, written words are meant to be pronounced orally. For example, in CQ meaning “seek you”, it is the phonic characteristic of these letters which is meaningful. This kind of short-hand writing moves away form traditional acronyms which stand for the initials of the words they represent. A popular phonetic alphabet has been created, combining with emoticons which give indications on intonation, as if to compensate for the extreme simplicity of the syntax of these messages.The aim of this paper is to analyse this creative process and classify the phenomena that reveal the oral quality of this kind of written language. If one of the main characteristics of human language is creativity, it seems to be at its best in this popular appropriation of language in emails and chatroom messages.

The Atlantis Observatory: Resources Available on the Internet to Serve Speakers and Learners of Minority Languages. 

Marta Torres i Vilatarsana, Salvador Climent, Miquel Strubell and Glyn Williams.

Paper delivered in: English

University / Research Institution: Universitat de Barcelona (UB)

Abstract:
 

The ATLANTIS Project (Academic Training, Languages and New Technologies in the Information Society) and its outcome, The Atlantis Observatory, are presented. The project’s website (www.uoc.edu/in3/atlantis) brings together totally updated information on digital tools and resources available for Lesser-Used Languages of the European Union in a searchable database. The structure and classification of the database is explained and some preliminary results are also offered.

The Russian language on the Internet: lexical units in variants and alternatives

Galina Timofeeva

Paper delivered in: English

University / Research Institution:

Abstract:
 

In the Internet era, when all human life is reflected on the Web, the linguistic issue language in cyberspace is becoming particularly meaningful, distinctive and controversial for the Internet users and especially for those linguist-researchers who investigate the contemporary state of languages, in our case, Russian.
The paper is devoted to the analysis of several new linguistic trends, unique, linguistically “challenged” facts and examples discovered on Russian web sites. At the present time we can point out the following trends on the Russian Internet:
a) the use of new symbolic elements for graphic images of text represented inlinear and vertical structures, as well as banners and windows which encourage participation in web-activities; b) the use of new spelling for “old” words with “inner” capital letters inside a word that create new alternative written units in Russian web-texts; c) the use of semantic neologisms as alternative units for texts with news or news summaries; d) the use of metaphors as a new standard in Web-communication; e) the use of various alternative language units for commands, recommendations, advices and etc. expressed by Russian imperatives – the so-called “clicking” or “navigating” words and expressions placed next to navigation buttons or windows or given as hyperlinks and used for establishing a link from one “portion” of information to the following text or used as indicators of ways/ activities though a site.
In addition, we would like to touch the problem of new type of the Web-texts –web-texts-extras for online editions only. The updating of these texts continuously throughout the day leads to the “updating” language units in their variants and alternatives as well as new communicative models and language stereotypes. Many of them determine and will determine ways of information exchange, storing, communication and socialization via cyberspace in the twenty-first century.
 

Pragmatic competence of native and non-native speakers of English in academic e-mails: 

Study of four conversational routines.

Clyde Ancarno

Paper delivered in: English

University/Research Institution:

Abstract:

 
This research project looks at academic e-mail as a genre and more specifically its pragmatic dimension. The corpus used contains not only academic e-mails, but also paper letters in the same context, which allows me to determine in which ways e-mails differ from a more traditional genre. Thanking, apologising, requesting and offering, seen as conversational routines, are analysed in the text of the corpus. The conclusions of this comparative study are of interest mainly for the style of academic e-mails and for the differences in the language production of native and non-native speakers of English.

 

Internet: voz pública, voz privada

Elena Carpi

Paper delivered in: Spanish.

University / Research Institution: Università  di Pisa.

Abstract: 
 

In the Internet milieu we can discriminate among various genres that may be associated mainly with two big systems, “public and private voices”, though it is possible to introduce other subsystems. The expressive resources of the web are different from the written-oral register. The web expresses itself through an “infolanguage” that passes to other linguistic milieus and changes the lexicon, the organisation of ideas and the speech acts. The graphic-phonic register of the public agency web sites and the newspaper sites belongs to the public voice. It exploits the idea of interactive but not simultaneous communication; hence it is not a written prototypical language. The e-mail, the forum and the chat, on the contrary, belong to the private voice, they mimic the spoken language. In this article I present the characteristics that modify the Spanish language when it is in contact with the web. 
 

Dentro del entorno Internet, como desde algún tiempo se denomina, pueden distinguirse varios géneros que corresponden a dos grandes sistemas, voz pública y voz privada y que a su vez pueden dividirse en varios subsistemas. La red posee recursos propios, distintos del registro escrito/oral: se expresa en una infolengua que pasa a otros ámbitos lingüísticos modificando el léxico, la organización de las ideas y los actos de habla.
 A la voz pública pertenece el registro gráfico-fónico con el que se expresan los sitios de entidades públicas y privadas. No se trata de un lenguaje escrito prototípico, en cuanto que en este registro gráfico entran sonidos, imágenes en movimiento, y enlaces con otros sitios y con otras entidades. Es un nivel que aprovecha una idea de comunicación interactiva, pero no simultanea; una absoluta novedad en el marco de la comunicación. A la voz privada pertenecen el correo electrónico, los foros de discusión y las charlas, que usan un registro gráfico-fónico en cuanto que se acercan a la lengua hablada. Dichos marcos pueden dividirse en tres subsistemas:A: foros de discusiones; B: correo electrónico; C: charlas, según expresen en medida mayor o menor la inmediatez de la parole. Desde hace algún tiempo estudio con dicha perspectiva las características que convierten la lengua de las charlas en lengua hablada; me propongo actualmente trazar un mapa de los problemas lingüísticos que nacen de una situación tan peculiar, evidenciando las particularidades de la infolengua y las estrategias de los participantes. 
 

The relationship between language and context in on-line advertisements: some cultural implications. 

Jolanta Kowalska

Paper delivered in: English.

University / Research Institution: Universitat Jaume I.

Abstract: 
 

In recent years there has been a move from analysing texts for their underlying significance or structure, to analysing text because of their function. One of the discourse types, that can be clearly distinguished by its function is advertising, namely, it always persuades people to buy or do something, like for example to register for a course or give their support for some organisation. Nevertheless, advertisements represent a type of discourse that arises from new technologies and is responsible for new kind of relationships between producer and receiver of the text.
The aim of the present study is a comparative study of a selection of some on-line advertisements, which indicates that there exists a difference regarding preference of the vocabulary and structures used depending on the communicative goal. Also, it is necessary to keep in mind that the understanding of a message depends not only on language, but on factors such as context, the mutual knowledge of producer and receiver, among others. 
A created message is based on the conscious use of expressive resources, which means that there are certain mechanisms leading us to a certain measurable effect. Therefore, the analysis of the relationship between units of advertisements at the structural level can determine not only the degree of comprehension and interpretation of the receivers, but also the intentions of the addresser. 

 

María José Luzón

Isabel Bovea

María-Rosario Martí Marco

Luis Guerra Salas and Mª Elena Gómez Sánchez

Vicent Salvador and Cecili Ma

Llum Bracho Lapiedra

Gemma Mas i Fossas

María Luisa Renau Renau

Alejandro F. López de Vergara Méndez and José A. Luis Estévez

Jesús García Laborda 

José Díaz-Cuesta

Mercedes Fernández Menéndez, Marta Pérez Toral, Santiago González, Esperanza Granda and Francisco Lupiáñez.

Kris Buyse and Patricia Muñoz Tavira

María Dueñas, Pilar Aguado, Mª Lourdes Cerezo, Florentina Mena y Purificación Sánchez

Alejandro Curado Fuentes

Elisabet Arnó Macià, Carmen Rueda Ramos, Antonia Soler Cervera
 

Title: Development of  a new CD ROM for learning presentation skills in ESP

Barbora Budíková and Alena Šteflová

 

 

Web-based research activities for ESP.

María José Luzón

Paper delivered in:English

University / Research Institution: Universidad de Zaragoza (UNIZAR)

Abstract:
 

The Internet can become a highly useful tool for task-based approaches to ESP teaching and learning. Teachers can develop realistic learning frameworks that enable the students to use the target language to complete a meaningful task. The Internet provides invaluable resources for this type of activities: a great variety of authentic and up-to-date material, language learning aids, tools for real communication in the target language. However, there are still very few ESP teachers that have integrated Internet activities into their classrooms. In this paper I will examine the reasons for the use of the Internet in the ESP classroom and the constraints and problems faced by ESP teachers and students when using Internet tools and resources. I will then describe a type of Web-based research activity which can help students exploit the full potential of the Internet for ESP learning.

The design of a topic corpus for the humanities.

Isabel Bovea

Paper delivered in: English

University / Research Institution: Universitat Jaume I (UJI)

Abstract:
 

The aim of this paper is to design a corpus of the topics which generallyappear under the heading of Humanities in English using the world wide web in order to elaborate a specific syllabus for the subject 'English I' in the degree of Humanities at Universitat Jaume I.The search was done through the  main browsers in the net: Yahoo.com and Google.com, Lycos.com, and Infoseek.go.com.The concept of 'Humanities' is undoubtedly very broad and in the first general search on 16th December 2002, we found that the web sites selected were 3,170,000 through the browser Yahoo.com; approximately 3,130,000 through the browser Google.com; 4,657,579 through the browser Lycos.com; and 180 web sites and domains through the browser Infoseek.go.com.The results, however, show that the topics which appear under the studied heading are generally related to three main areas: Art, the Arts and History.

Ökosprache im Internet.

María-Rosario Martí Marco

Title: The German language in the sustainable tourism.

Paper delivered in: Spanish

University / Research Institution: Universidad de Alicante (UA)

Abstract: 
 

Para el presente trabajo terminológico se han utilizado como corpus las iniciativas de turismo sostenible que presentan las mayores empresas turísticas alemanas: DeHoGa, Lufthansa, T.U.I., entre otras, en sus páginas de internet. El estudio lingüístico realizado durante seis meses en la Technische Universität Dresden, nos ha permitido caracterizar esta lengua de especialidad, en la que convergen la economía, la ecología, el lenguaje publicitario, y en la que se entremezclan textos muy informativos y a veces de gran densidad científica y técnica con juegos de palabras y figuras retóricas. Todo responde al dictado de un sector, el Turismo, en el que la confianza del cliente en la calidad y la cada vez mayor sensibilidad por el medioambiente, han empezado a multiplicar las iniciativas en este sector, creando una sugerente eco-lingüística, que utiliza el cauce de internet para su difusión.

 

In this terminological work, the initiatives of sustainable tourism suggested by the major German touristic enterprises (DeHoGa, Lufthansa, T.U.I. among others) in their Internet pages, have been used as a corpus. The study undertaken for a period of six months in the Technische Universität Dresden, has allowed us to characterize this speciality language in which economy, ecology and advertising language converge and in which highly informative texts and sometimes of a great scientific and technical density are intermingled with word puns and rhetorical figures. Everything in this respect answers the needs of a sector, Tourism, in which the customer’s confidence in the quality and the increasing sensitivity regarding the environment, have contributed to multiply the initiatives in this sector, creating a thought-provoking eco-linguistic which uses the channel offered by Internet for its diffussion. (Translated by the conference organization)

Aportes de Internet al estudio diacrónico de los lenguajes de especialidad.

Luis Guerra Salas and Mª Elena Gómez Sánchez

Title: Internet contributions to the diachronic study of speciality languages.

Paper delivered in: Spanish

University / Research Institution: Universidad Europea de Madrid (UEM)

Abstract:
 

Los recursos disponibles en la red nos permiten hoy día hacer investigaciones rigurosas en el campo del lenguaje científico. Este trabajo pretende: (1) proponer unas pautas metodológicas para realizar estudios diacrónicos sobre lenguajes de especialidad basadas en el empleo de diferentes aplicaciones lexicográficas presentes en internet; y (2), desarrollar el método propuesto con dos ejemplos concretos: el léxico de la hidrología médica y el de la neurología.
Veremos cómo los recursos disponibles en Internet nos permiten trazar una historia del léxico especializado registrado en los diccionarios generales del español, desde Nebrija a nuestros días.

 

Nowadays, the resources available in the net allow us to undertake accurate research works in the field of scientific language. This work aims to: (1) establish a series of methodological guidelines in order to make diachronic studies about speciality languages based on the use of different lexicographical applications which can be found in Internet; and (2) develop the suggested method with two specific examples: the lexicon from medical hydrology and from neurology.
We will see how the resources available in Internet allow us to follow a history of the specialized lexicon contained in the general dictionaries of the Spanish language, from Nebrija to nowadays. (Translated by the conference organization)

El discurs de la podologia en Internet (Anàlisi de recursos de divulgació científica i de tecnologia de mercat a partir d’un corpus plurilingüe).

Vicent Salvador and Cecili Macián

Title: the chiropody discourse in Internet. (Analysis of scientific spreading and market technology resources from a plurilingual corpus.)

Paper delivered in: Catalan

University/ Research Institution: Universtat Jaume I (UJI) and Escola Universitària de Ciències de la Salut, FUB, UAB.

Abstract:
 

En  l’ampli marc de les determinacions que la maquinària mediàtica d’ Internet imposa als diversos discursos d’especialitat, ens situem en el camp de les ciències de la salut, on l’efecte més visible de la mediació corresponent consisteix en la intensificació i l’acceleracio del circuit del consum, que s’imposa així a la relació humana entre el professional de la salut i el(s) seu(s) pacient(s) i la encabeix en l’esquema prioritari de la dinàmica productor-consumidor. Hem triat el cas del calcer ortopèdic i esportiu, com a exemple d’un producte comercial la venda del qual es vehicula per Internet amb una tendència clara a l’anul.lació -o si més no la minimització- del paper de l’especialista en podologia i de l’atenció personalitzada als pacients, cosa que comporta una tergiversació d’un model terapèutic clàssic d’eficàcia comprovada. Aquest canvi de model fomenta pràctiques tan discutibles com la de l’autodiagnosi i la compra directa d’un producte que afecta el correcte funcionament d’uns determinats òrgans corporals prescindint del consell i la inspecció immediata de l’especialista. La nostra comunicació aborda l’estudi d’aquestes pràctiques des de perspectives discursives. 
 Amb aquest propòsit hem seleccionat una mostra de discursos podològics presents a Internet en diverses llengües (català, espanyol, francès i anglès), tot analitzant les seues característiques lingüístiques en dos aspectes principals: el terminològic i el dels gèneres vehiculats. Pel que fa  a la terminologia, fem especial insistència en la funcionalitat dels recursos metafòrics emprats, tal com, d’altra banda, s’esdevé en aquest camp de les ciències de la salut: un camp que conjumina el caràcter de disciplina científica amb el de pràctica curativa amb una llarga tradició més o menys institucionalitzada. Pel que fa als gèneres discursius presents en aquest espai de la xarxa comunicativa, cal assenyalar -a més dels glossaris- protocols o formularis d’autodiagnòstic, descripcions més o menys publicitàries de diversos tipus especialitzats de calcer i uns “fòrums per especialistes” que, observats de prop, se’ns apareixen com a mers xats d’interacció banal. Tot plegat, la nostra anàlisi apunta a l’estudi de les imbricacions entre discurs d’especialitat i publicitat comercial a través d’Internet i l’escatiment de les característiques  lingüístiques que aquest hibridisme d’especialització

 

In the broad context imposed to the different speciality discourses by the media machinery of Internet, we place ourselves in the field of the health sciences where the most obvious effect of the corresponding mediation deals with the intensification and acceleration of the consumption circuit. In this way, it is imposed to the human relationship between health professionals and their patient(s) the prior scheme of the producer-consumer dynamics. We have chosen the case of orthopaedic and sports footwear as an example of a commercial product whose selling through Internet presents a clear tendency to suppress –or, at least, minimize- the role of the chiropody specialist and the personalised attention to patients. This fact implies the distortion of a classical therapeutic model whose efficacy has been already proved. This shift of model promotes arguable practices such as the self-diagnosis and the buying of products that affect the correct functioning of certain body organs disregarding the specialist’s advise and immediate attention. Our paper deals with the study of such practices from discursive perspectives.
With this aim in mind we have selected a range of chiropodic discourses that appear in Internet in various languages (Catalan, Spanish, French and English) analysing their linguistic features according to two main aspects: the terminological one and the generic one. With regard to terminology, on the one hand, we will specially insist on the functional character of the metaphorical resources used, the same that, on the other hand, happen in this field of the health sciences: a field that combines the character of a scientific discipline with the healing practice with a great tradition more or less institutionalised. Regarding discursive genres that appear in this area of the communicative net, we should mention -apart from the glossaries- self-diagnosis protocols or forms, more or less advertising descriptions of different specialized kinds of footwear and “forums for specialists” that, if carefully observed, look more like mere chats for banal interaction. All together, our analysis points to the overlapping between speciality discourse and commercial advertising through Internet and the curtailment of the linguistic characteristics of that speciality hybridism. (Translated by the conference organization)

La traducció de revistes mediambientals en Internet.

Llum Bracho Lapiedra

Title: The translation of environmental magazines in Internet.

Paper delivered in: Catalan

University / Research Institution: Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV)

Abstract: 
 

L’aparició d’Internet ha possibilitat que moltes publicacions que ja es feien en suport paper aprofitaren aquest gran canal de difusió per transmetre els seus continguts. Un dels avantatges que té aquesta nova forma de divulgació respecte de les versions impreses és que es pot publicar la informació en diverses llengües per tal d’arribar a un major nombre de persones. Així, en aquest treball es pretén realitzar una anàlisi comparativa de les traduccions de diverses revistes institucionals de to divulgatiu, publicades en Internet, i que tenen en comú el medi ambient com a tema central.
En primer lloc, s’estudien els factors macroestructurals dels textos que componen les versions traduïdes i, fins i tot, del text en llengua original, i la influència d’aquesta macroestructura en la recepció de les distintes versions d’una mateixa revista. Segonament, es fa una anàlisi dels factors microestructurals, que abracen els elements gramaticals, terminològics, pragmàtics i semiòtics dels textos estudiats, per esbrinar les tècniques traductores que se segueixen en cada cas. La finalitat és determinar, per una banda, si el discurs final i la seua recepció es veuen afectats pel tipus de suport; i de l’altra, de quina manera pot influir aquest format en les tècniques traductores adoptades pels traductors.

 

The appearance of Internet has permitted that lots of written publications profitted from this great diffusion channel aiming to transmit their contents. One of the main advantages that this new way of spreading has with respect to other printed versions is that the information can be published in different languages with the purpose of reaching more people. Therefore, this work aims to undertake a comparative analysis of the translation of different institutional magazines of informative tone published in Internet which have in common the environment as a central topic.
First of all, the macrostructural factor of the texts that build up the translated versions are studied, including even the text in the original language and the influence of this macrostructure in the reception of the different versions of a given magazine. Secondly, an analysis of the microstructural factors, which include grammatical, terminological, pragmatic and semiotic aspects of the studied texts, is made in order to find out the translation techniques used in each case. The target is to determine, on the one hand, whether the final discourse and its reception are affected by this kind of medium; and, on the other hand, in which way this format can influence the translation techniques adopted by translators. (Translated by the conference organization)

La llengua d’Internet. Nous reptes i tendències per a la neologia terminològica.

Gemma Mas i Fossas

Title: Internet Language. New challenges and tendencies for terminological neology.

Paper delivered in: Catalan

University / Research Institution: Centre de Terminologia TERMCAT

Abstract:
 

El desenvolupament i la implantació d’Internet arreu del món ha transformat de formes diferents les diverses àrees d’activitat social i individual. En aquest context, la societat s’ha trobat amb el repte d’haver de designar tot un seguit de conceptes i objectes nous vinculats fonamentalment a les tecnologies de la informació i la comunicació. 
El Centre de Terminologia TERMCAT ha treballat en aquesta línia, estudiant i tractant la llengua pròpia de l’àmbit d’Internet, especialment pel que fa a la creació lèxica, i recopilant-ne i analitzant-ne la terminologia.
La llengua i la terminologia d’Internet, a banda d’integrar les característiques pròpies de la llengua i la terminologia informàtica (innovació conceptual contínua, generació i difusió en anglès), sorgeix i es transmet a gran velocitat i amb una gran amplitud, amb un ritme trepidant d’avenç, d’innovació tecnològica, de neologia i de difusió, principalment per la idiosincràsia de la mateixa xarxa. 
En aquesta comunicació exposarem quin és l’abast d’aquesta llengua d’especialitat com a tal i quina és la seva naturalesa. Observarem com és la terminologia d’Internet, quina és la seva casuística, quins dilemes i reptes s’han plantejat en llengua catalana, com s’ha considerat l’omnipresència i la mediatització de la llengua anglesa i quines són les principals tendències neològiques de l’àrea.

 

The development and growth of Internet around the world has transformed in different ways the diverse areas of social and individual activity. In this context, society has met the challenge of having to appoint a series of new concepts and objects mainly linked to information and communication technologies.
The Centre of Terminology TERMCAT has worked following this guideline, studying the language peculiar to the field of Internet, especially the one related to the lexical creation, compiling and analyzing its terminology.
The language and terminology of Internet, apart from having the characteristic features of the computer language and terminology (continuous conceptual innovation, generation and spreading in English) is generated and is transmitted broadly and quickly, with a shattering rate of advance, of technological innovation, of neology and of spreading, mainly due to the idiosyncrasy of the net at issue.
In this paper we will explain which is the area of this speciality language as such and its nature. We will observe the terminology of Internet, which dilemmas and challenges have been posed in Catalan, how the omnipresence and mediatization of the English language have been considered and which are the main neological tendencies in the field. (Translated by the conference organization)

Páginas web en la industria cerámica: estudio descriptivo-comparativo.

María Luisa Renau Renau

Title: A descriptive and comparative study of web pages of the ceramic industry and its possible applications to the teaching of commercial English in the UJI.

Paper delivered in: Spanish

University / Research Institution: Universitat Jaume I (UJI)

Abstract:
 

La evolución y transformación del concepto de género, sobre todo, por la aparición de las nuevas tecnologías nos conduce a ampliar nuestros estudios sobre ellos. Nuestro estudio se centra en el análisis de géneros digitales y en concreto de páginas web comerciales. Se estudia y compara un corpus de 40 páginas web de empresas que pertenecen a industria cerámica de dos países que pertenecen a culturas distintas y cuyo entorno socioeconómico y sociocultural es diferente: España y E.E.U.U. Las variables utilizadas para el estudio del corpus han sido las siguientes: diseño de la página principal de cada página web, rasgos lingüísticos (tiempos verbales, pronombres personales y posesivos, uso de adjetivos), enlaces internos textuales, enlaces internos como iconos y símbolos, enlaces externos, fotos, idiomas e imágenes en movimiento.
Mediante este estudio comparativo queremos aportar una perspectiva de las páginas web de la industria cerámica observando su diseño, estructura y contenido, clasificar la página web de la industria cerámica dentro de los géneros digitales, y sugerir posibles aplicaciones pedagógicas en la docencia del inglés comercial en la UJI.

 

The evolution and transformation of the concept of genre, especially due to the appearance of new technologies, make us broaden our studies about them. Our study is focused on the analysis of digital genres, especially commercial web pages. A corpus of 40 web pages of enterprises that belong to the ceramic industry of two countries with different cultures and whose socio-economic and socio-cultural setting is different, Spain and USA, is analysed and compared. The variables used for the study of the corpus are the following ones: design of the main page of each web page, linguistic traits (verbal tenses, personal and possessive pronouns, use of the adjectives), textual internal links, internal links such as icons and symbols, external links, photographs, languages and images in movement.
Through this comparative study we want to provide a perspective of the web pages of the ceramic industry observing their design, structure and content in order to classify the web page of the ceramic industry within digital genres and to suggest possible pedagogical applications in the teaching of commercial English at the Universitat Jaume I in Castellón, Spain. (Translated by the conference organization)

Net Catching: creating ESPecial materials

Alejandro F. López de Vergara Méndez and José A. Luis Estévez

Paper delivered in: English

University / Research Institution: Universidad de La Laguna (ULL)

Abstract: 
 

In this paper a practical experience carried out during the past two years on three of the engineering degrees offered at La Laguna University will be presented.
In the Spanish University, and especially at engineering degrees, it is becoming more and more difficult to put up a traditional English language geared course while ignoring the possibilities of the Internet: on-line and off-line courses, specialised dictionaries and databases, real-time chat sessions and video-conferences.
The creation of tailored to needs materials, exploitation of the nets' possibilities, while implementing students' learning autonomy is also to be shown.
The use of Javascript programmed activities where the student interacts with the computer will be presented, as well as, net-based reading activities, listening comprehension activities with flash formatted videos and mp3 formatted speeches, the use of spreadsheets for the assessment and ftp closed servers to provide students with passworded access to the spreadsheets. In addition, different uses of chat and forum applications—both inside and outside the classroom— will be looked at.
However, all this possibilities might as well be locked up in a safe if we are unaware of them, especially when current materials on specialised subjects are so difficult to find.

A Taxonomy of Free Online Resources on Internet for EFL for Tourism Studies.

Jesús García Laborda 

Paper delivered in: English

University / Research Institution: Universidad Politécnica de Valencia (UPV) 

Abstract:
 

This talk shows a taxonomy created at the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia Tourism College as an Internet guide for foreign language both for professors and students. It also describes the process that is currently being carried to provide students with access and adequate tools to improve the learning – teaching process. Besides, it provides tips on how to look for different sources of free available materials online. The first section describes the frame8work in which some students are working to develop their “Proyecto final de carrera” in Tourism EFL language resources. After, the second part, proposes a taxonomy of the different desirable items. Finally, the third section provides the attendees with some basic guidelines and addresses of online free resources that support the Tourism Diplomature curriculum and supplement university core educational materials. The additional bibliography in the paper is limited to free and frequently updated resources; over 60 new annotated addresses are enclosed to encompass electronic journals and newspapers, e-mail discussion groups, free-nets, and world wide web sites. These resources are grouped according to the suggested taxonomy, with sections on culture (big and small “c”) art, songs and newspapers, magazines and many more. This bibliography includes information of touristic webs and general Tourism resources.

Technical English versus Technical English: before and after the introduction of WebCT.

José Díaz-Cuesta

Paper delivered in: English

University / Research Institution: Universidad de La Rioja (UNIRIOJA)

Abstract: 
 

In spite of having been teaching "Inglés Técnico" (Technical English) in the last six years first at the University of Zaragoza and now at the University of La Rioja, and although I have been using different textbooks throughout these years, nothing has been as challenging and as thought-provoking as the introduction of the Internet for the learning and teaching of the fifty per cent of this subject. In this paper I showthe consequences of that innovation in the teaching-learning process.Firstly, I refer to what that adaptation has meant for the teacher, in terms of both the preparation of the teaching materials, and the pedagogical changes due to the new environment. Secondly, I comment on the results of an experiment carried out with two groups of students: one of them receiving the input of part of the materials of one unit via WebCT, and the other receiving the same information in a traditionalclassroom. As a conclusion, a list of advantages and disadvantages is given, together with the question of whether this subject would benefit from being taught only via WebCT on the Internet.

Reescritura de trabajos científicos desde una interfaz informática.

Mercedes Fernández Menéndez, Marta Pérez Toral, Santiago González, Esperanza Granda and Francisco Lupiáñez.

Title:  Rewriting scientific papers from a computer interface.

Paper delivered in: English

University / Research Institution: Universidad de Oviedo (UNIOVI)

Abstract:
 

En la redacción de un trabajo académico para su publicación, resulta imprescindible incluir un resumen (abstracta), que anuncie los resultados de manera sintética y eficaz. En consecuencia, estimamos de la mayor importancia desarrollar una metodología y unos materiales adecuados para la información-formación que interviene en todos los procesos de elaboración de trabajos científicos, desde la mera ficha bibliográfica, hasta una monografía extensa.Como ejemplo hemos elegido un texto argumentativo-tipo (Por qué los españoles no tienen hijos, de Margarita Rivière: El País, 24/10/2002) en el que vamos a trabajar los procesos de coherencia desde la metodología de la gramática textual.
Los objetivos son
a) Analizar y describir las diferentes estrategias discursivas que utiliza un autor para asegurar la progresión y la coherencia de las distintas partes de un texto.
b) Visualizar estos mecanismos en una interfaz informática que permita una óptima comprensión de procesos abstractos que se derivan del lenguaje.
c) Facilitar la redacción de textos académicos en la que se expresen con claridad y concisión las ideas que deben desarrollarse en el conjunto de un trabajo de investigación.
Pretendemos así sensibilizar a los destinatarios para que alcancen autonomía en la práctica compleja de la (re)escritura de trabajos científicos.

 

In the writing of an academic paper for publication it is unavoidable to prepare an abstract that announces the results of our work in a synthetic and efficient way. We consider that developing a methodology and a set of adequate materials for the formation-information that takes place in all processes leading to prepare all kinds of scientific papers (from a mere bibliographic card to an extensive monograph) to be absolutely necessary. We have chosen an argumentative-type text (Por qué los españoles no tienen hijos, by Margarita Rivière: El País, 24/10/2002) to illustrate the processes of cohesion using a text-grammar methodology.
Our aims are:
a) Analysing and describing the different discourse strategies used by an author to secure the progression and coherence of the different parts of a text.
b) Visualising those mechanisms on a computer interface that will allow the best understanding of the abstract processes derived from language.
c) Prepare strategies for the writing of academic texts so that the expression of ideas to be developed is clear and concise.
These guidelines seek that readers become fully aware of the complex practice of the (re)writing of scientific papers.

Plataforma electrónica del español económico dentro del proyecto ElektraVoc-II.

Kris Buyse and Patricia Muñoz Tavira

Title: Electronic platform of  economic Spanish inside the ElektraVoc-II project

Paper delivered in: Spanish

University / Research Institution: K.U. Leuven and Lessius Hogeschool

Abstract:
 

El proyecto “ElektraVoc-II: módulo económico” se inscribe en el marco de la elaboración continua y conjunta de herramientas electrónicas para el autoaprendizaje asistido del español por parte de la K.U.Leuven, la Lessius Hogeschool y la U.Gent. Dichos instrumentos se hacen indispensables en un curso integrado de español, una formación a distancia o un aprendizaje autónomo en la enseñanza superior flamenca, caracterizada cada vez más por un descenso gradual de las horas de contacto, el crecimiento de las posibilidades técnicas y el fomento consiguiente del autoaprendizaje asistido. El proyecto ElektraVoc, destinado a elaborar materiales de aprendizaje y referencia, tanto del español general como con fines específicos, fácilmente accesibles y actualizables, comprende varias fases. 
ElektraVoc-I es una aplicación informatizada que une listas temáticas contrastivas y ejercicios contextualizados con retroacción e interfaces para entrar en contacto con asesores. Se aprende a trabajar individualmente y a organizar el aprendizaje de manera autónoma, ya desde el nivel inicial. Para los niveles intermedio y superior se dispondrá en un futuro cercano de los productos de ElektraVoc-II, que tiene por cometido fomentar la integración de las dimensiones pragmáticas y socioculturales de la lengua. La ampliación prevista para finales del 2003 incluirá (i) una base de datos relativa al campo económico y a la explotación de fragmentos de películas y (ii) la elaboración de un entorno web donde el estudiante encontrará enlaces, materiales y foros para enriquecer sus conocimientos.
En la presentación nos centraremos en el módulo económico de ElektraVoc-II, cuyo objetivo principal es ofrecer, dentro de la plataforma ElektraVoc, una base de datos terminológica contrastiva español-neerlandés-francés (y posteriormente inglés) que permita al usuario tanto descodificar los artículos económicos de la prensa general y especializada en español, como redactar sus propios textos económicos. Esta segunda aplicación nos ha llevado a hacer especial hincapié en las colocaciones léxicas, ya sean transparentes o no. Destacan también su formato XML –que comporta una gran flexibilidad y adaptabilidad para publicar-, la autenticidad de los contextos, la publicación en una plataforma electrónica junto con otros materiales de niveles distintos, y, finalmente, su aspecto multiplicador: los procedimientos y materiales se podrán aplicar en el futuro a otros campos y podrán servir para emprender nuevas investigaciones, e.o. sobre las colocaciones.
En la comunicación presentaremos los distintos procedimientos y fases del proyecto: selección de textos y otros materiales, constitución del corpus, clasificación temática, extracción y lematización de los términos, elaboración de fichas, redacción de introducciones temáticas e integración a la plataforma electrónica. 
El proyecto está basado en los últimos avances de la lingüística de corpus, el enfoque léxico, el estudio de las colocaciones, CALL y WALL.

 

The project “ElektraVoc-II: economic module” is included within the frame of continuous and joint electronic tools for Spanish  assisted self-learning by K.U. Leuven, Lessius  Hogeschool and U. Gent. Such tools become essential in an integrated Spanish course, a training at a distance or a self-learning process in Flemish higher education, increasingly characterised by a gradual decrease of  contact hours, by the growth of the technical possibilities and the resulting fostering of assisted self-learning.
The ElektraVoc project, aimed at elaborating easily accesible and able to update learning and reference materials, both of general and for specific purposes Spanish, includes various stages. ElektraVoc-I is a computerized aplication which links contrastive thematic lists and contextualized exercises with feedback and interfaces in order to get in touch with advisors. In this way, it is learnt how to work individually and how to organize the learning in an autonomous way from the very beginning. For the intermediate and superior levels, the ElektraVoc-II products will be available in a near future, being their purpose to enhance the integration of the pragmatic and sociocultural dimensions of the language. The enlargement, planned for 2003, will include (i) a data base regarding the economic field and the exploitation of fragments of movies and (ii) the elaboration of a web environment where the students will be able to find links, materials and forums in order to foster their knowledge.
In the comunication we will focus on the economic module of ElektraVoc-II, whose main aim is to offer, within the ElektraVoc platform, a terminological contrastive Spanish-Dutch-French (an dafterwards English) data base which allows the users to decode the economic articles of general and specialized press in Spanish, and write their own economic texts in Spanish. This latter application has lead us to pay special attention to lexical colocations, wether transparent or not. It is also worth mentioning its XML format –which permits a great flexibility and adaptability when publishing-, the context authenticity, the publication in a platform together with other materials in different levels, and, finally, its multiplier aspect: procedures and materials will be able to be applied in the future to other fields and will also be useful in order to undertake new research (e.g. about colocations).
In the comunication we will present the diferent procedures and stages of the project: text and other materials selection, corpus constitution, thematic classification, extraction and thematization of the topics, card elaboration, writing of thematic introductions and integration to the electronic platform.
The project is based on the most recent developments in the linguistics of the corpus, the lexical approach, the study of colocations, CALL and WALL. (Translated by the conference organization).

Internet y redacción académica en inglés: recopilación anotada de una selección de recursos sobre tipos y estructuras de trabajos.

María Dueñas, Pilar Aguado, Mª Lourdes Cerezo, Florentina Mena y Purificación Sánchez

Title: Internet and academic writing in English: annotated compilation of a selection of resources about kinds and structures of work.

Paper delivered in: Spanish

University / Research Institution: Universidad de Murcia (UM)

Abstract:
 

La redacción de textos académicos en inglés es una tarea difícil que a menudo limita las aspiraciones de los hablantes no nativos en lo que respecta a la difusión internacional de su producción científica. Somos conscientes de las deficiencias de numerosos profesores, investigadores y estudiantes españoles dentro del ámbito de la humanidades y las ciencias sociales en sus habilidades de escritura académica. Por ello, hemos intentado diseñar una clasificación amplia y organizada de recursos de Internet sobre tipos y estructuras de trabajos académicos. Tales recursos están destinados a ayudar tanto a hablantes nativos como no nativos en la redacción y corrección de sus propios trabajos atendiendo a los formatos y convenciones más extendidos de escritura académica en inglés. La clasificación está dividida en diez categorías, cada una de las cuales cubre un dominio específico: essays, research papers, reviews, reports, summaries, abstracts, theses and dissertations, bibliographical compilations, CVs, y letters. No se han considerado cuestiones específicas de disciplinas concretas, puesto que nuestra intención ha sido recoger y comentar una serie de recursos seleccionados pero no restrictivos que contengan información práctica de aplicación multidisciplinar. 

 

Writing academic texts in English is an arduous task that often constrains the aspirations of non-native speakers to the international diffusion of their scholarly production. Conscious as we are of the deficiencies of academic writing skills that many Spanish lecturers, researchers and students in the humanities and social sciences have, we have attempted to design an organized, comprehensive classification of annotated internet resources on academic texts typology. These resources aim at assisting both native and non-native speakers in the writing and/or editing of their own pieces of scholarly work according to the most extended formats and conventions in academic English. The classification is divided into ten categories, each covering a specific domain: essays, research papers, reviews, reports, summaries, abstracts, theses and dissertations, bibliographical compilations, CVs, and letters. The specifics of particular disciplines have not been considered as our intention has been to collect and annotate a selected yet non-restrictive array of web sources containing practical information for cross-disciplinary application.

Academic Language on the Web and Task Competencies in ESP.

Alejandro Curado Fuentes

Paper delivered in: English

University / Research Institution: Universidad de extremadura (UNEX)

Abstract:
 

Internet can provide ESP instructors with both a source and recipient of ESP material. In particular, it can  be highly useful for task development since it can offer a real learning environment in terms of language and content. Some examples may include the broad range of digital genres and text types available to the academic community (research genres, electronic discussions, lectures, interviews, etc.). In this sense, the appropriate design and construction of ESP corpora can work as a fruitful assessment reference for task exploitation in the ESP setting. In contrast, there are still very few teachers profiting from internet-based corpus-driven information for ESP course design. This paper presents our particular situation where an academic corpus of electronic texts is integrated in first and second year Business and Computer English courses. We describe the selection criteria for the corpus design, particular activities developed by exploiting the corpus, and an example of electronic written task evaluation by assessing corpus-driven knowledge on the web.

A study of students’ profile as autonomous learners in an internet-based eap course

Elisabet Arnó Macià, Carmen Rueda Ramos, Antonia Soler Cervera.

Paper delivered in: English.

University / Research Institution: Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)

Abstract:
 

This paper reports on a study which aims to find out whether and to what extent university students are able to develop learner autonomy through a virtual EAP course delivered through the Internet. The course, which makes special emphasis on the use of Internet resources for language learning, was designed specifically to foster learner autonomy. This research is based on a previous exploratory study (Arnó et al.  2003) which aimed at defining students’ profile as autonomous learners by identifying certain actions and views related to language and learning. Based on the categories developed in the preliminary study, this paper seeks to refine the profile of the autonomous learner initially developed and to discover which specific actions and attitudes related to learner autonomy are more commonly found among students’ behaviour. For this purpose, and combining qualitative and quantitative methods, we carried out an analysis of the autonomous behaviour displayed by a larger population of students—those who took part in the three editions of the course—when using a variety of Internet resources through activities designed to foster learner autonomy. The study reported on in this paper has allowed us to broaden the profile outlined in our previous research as well as to identify those specific actions and attitudes that students are more prone to develop as opposed to those that they rarely display. This paper emphasises the connection between making the most of the potential of the Internet and developing students’ autonomy. Our ultimate aim is to point to ways in which students may be encouraged to become more autonomous language learners and explore the role that the Internet may play in helping us attain this objective. 
 

Development of  a new CD ROM for learning presentation skills in ESP

Barbora Budíková and Alena Šteflová

Paper delivered in: English.

University / Research Institution: Masaryk University Brno

Abstract:
 

The aim of our presentation is to share our experience with preparing and developing materials for a CD ROM, intended to serve as a learning tool for university students of ESP. The CD ROM will contain practical exercises and a guide on language input and strategies, common errors and practical tips for a successful professional presentation. A separate part of the CD ROM will be devoted to sample materials of successful presentations given by the students themselves. This should serve as a motivation tool for the CD ROM users. The CD ROM is meant to be available to students of Masaryk University working in the Self-access Centre as a part of our tutoring programme. 

 

 

Mohammad Al-Khawalda

Vicent Barberà Manrique

Salvador Insa

Eduardo de Gregorio Godeo

Fernando Rosell Aguilar

Kristi Jauregi, Dorien Nieuwenhuijsen and Rick de Graaff

Lizzie Reilly

Inés Laborde Patrón

Antonio Sánchez Sola and Cristina Escobar Urmeneta

María del Mar Sánchez Ramos

José Antonio Mompeán González

Rosaura Serra Escorihuela, Irma Mulet Vilar, M. Josep Soldevila Blasco, Ana Pitarch Gil and Miquel Àngel Castillo Muñoz.

Noelia Ruiz Madrid and María Luisa Villanueva Alfonso

María Isabel Pérez Torres

Caterina Calafat

Sima Sengupta

Pascual Pérez-Paredes and Juan García Iborra

Ana Fernández-Pampillón Cesteros, Covadonga López Alonso and Arlette Seré

Maria Pilar Safont Jordà and Mari Carmen Campoy Cubillo.

Patricia Salazar Campillo and Maria-José Esteve Ramos.
 

 

The influence of computers on teaching English as a Foreign Language.

Mohammad Al-Khawalda

Paper delivered in: English

University / Research Institution: Mutah University

Abstract:
 

The use of computers and related technology has been increased rapidly during the last few years. With the popularization of computers, the use of them in teaching has also been increased in an amazing way mainly for the non-native speakers of  certain language.   The aim of  this paper is to investigate the role of  the internet and computer in teaching English for non-native speakers.  It compares between the use of computer to teach some  basic skills  in English language, such as reading, speaking, writing, in addition to some grammatical issues, such as: tenses, passive structure, conditional sentences, etc. and the use of the traditional way in which the teacher, the book and the students are involved.  40 subjects, non-native speakers of English, are involved in the study. They are divided into two groups (20 subjects per group).  All of them are almost in the same level according to their results in a general test designed for this purpose.  It turns out that the group which uses the computer and Internet   shows a noticeable progress and a very good command of all the language skills in comparison with the other group.  The difference is significant in certain skills such as listening and speaking.

Una vieja herramienta en un medio nuevo: Glosarios en Internet.

Vicent Barberà Manrique

Title: An old tool in a new medium: Glossaries in Internet.

Paper delivered in: Spanish

University / Research Institution: Universitat Jaume I (UJI)

Abstract:
 

Con la presencia en Internet de las sucursales de los negocios tradicionales, elestudio y la enseñanza de las lenguas para fines específicos ha visto aumentadade manera considerable el acceso a un gran número de documentos. Entre estos documentos encontramos los glosarios que se publican, entre otras razones, comouna manera de adelantarse a las necesidades informativas de los posibles clientes,supliendo así la falta de interactividad que supone visitar una página web encomparación con el diálogo frente a frente en un negocio convencional. En estetrabajo hacemos un análisis de los glosarios publicados en las cibersucursalesde varias instituciones bancarias de España y de Estados Unidos. Este análisispretende ser el primer paso que nos lleve a poder utilizar los glosarios y lossitios web que los contienen, en la enseñanza del inglés, el español y latraducción de ambas lenguas en el ámbito del lenguaje financiero.
 

With the presence in Internet of the branches of traditional businesses, the study and the teaching of languages for specific purposes have significantly increased the access to a great deal of documents. Among these documents, we find glossaries that are published, among other reasons, as a way to go forward in the informative needs of potential clients, replacing in this way the lack of interactivity implicit when visiting a web page if compared with face to face dialogue in a conventional business. In this work we analyze the glossaries published in the cyberbranches of various banking institutions in Spain and USA. This analysis is the first step that will enable us to use the glossaries and the web pages containing them for the teaching of English, Spanish and for the translation of both languages in the context of financial language. (Translated by the conference organization)
 

The mechanisms of lexical interference in Internet, Computing Science and other specific jargons.

Salvador Insa

Paper delivered in: English

University / Research Institution: Universitat Jaume I (UJI)

Abstract:
 

Starting from several corpora, a new classification of false friends is attempted here, based on Cruse's concept of lexical unit: rather than words or lexemes, these units are the resulting union of a word form and one single meaning. Then, this new typology is revised at the light of some of the principles governing linguistic interference (such as Van Overbeke's assumption that the more similar the stimuli, the more lasting the interference). Finally, I have attempted to explain why some of the most common false friends seem to escape linguistic assumptions governing linguistic interference.

Integrating Internet resources into English-as-a-foreign-language self-study processes

Eduardo de Gregorio Godeo

Paper delivered in: English

University / Research Institution: Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM)

Abstract:
 

This paper will present the possibilities of online resources as a self-study tool for students of English as a foreign language (EFL). Following Gremmo and Riley (1995), Gremmo (1996) and Holec (1996)’s approach to self-study in the foreign language classroom, a model is presented involving the students’ negotiation of their own learning  objectives and needs (language level; type of linguistic skills; field or speciality; register; language variety; etc) with a tutor/counsellor helping learners to define their learning process. The use of different internet resources (web pages and, particularly, chats, forums or e-mail) will be then discussed as a tool in the negotiation and implementation of this process. A number of online resources will be thus presented and organised according to level (lower, intermediate and advanced) and relevant domains in the learning-and-teaching process (language skills; grammar; vocabulary; pronunciation; etc.). The model will be finally discussed regarding its applicability in various educational contexts, especially at university.

Electronic Literacy with and attitudes towards the Web as a resource for Foreign Language Learning.

Fernando Rosell Aguilar

Paper delivered in: English

University / Research Institution: The Open University

Abstract:
 

One of the most common uses of the World Wide Web for foreign language learning is as a resource for essay topics. When we as language tutors ask students to perform searches for information about a given issue we assume that students: know how to perform those searches like using the web pay attention to the language
It is essential that these assumptions are examined and researched. There is a need to know what the relationship between learners and the Web is: what processes are involved, how the students go about the search process and what their perceptions of the Web are.
To provide an attempt at researching these issues, a case study was set up. The aim of this case study was to obtain data on how Foreign Language Higher Education students interact with the Web in general and in the context of a search for content/reading task in particular. Our goal was to produce a descriptive snapshot of student impressions and abilities at one given moment. For this purpose 36 final year students of Spanish at the University of Southampton were asked how they use the Web, what for, how they go about finding the information they need, what they perceive to be the advantages and disadvantages of using the Web as a research tool for language learning, to compare it to other resources and what their attitudes towards it are. In addition, the process of searching for information was observed with a number of students.
In this paper we will present the details of the project, the results of the study and discuss those results.

A virtual writing environment for peer feedback in Spanish as a second language.

Kristi Jauregi, Dorien Nieuwenhuijsen and Rick de Graaff

Paper delivered in: Spanish

University / Research Institution: Utretcht University

Abstract:
 

According to constructivist approaches, collaborative tasks are considered an effective way of promoting learning while ICT plays a facilitating role. ICT is a necessary tool for promoting writing of academic texts in a foreign language where students have to collaborate with each other.
 In an academic writing course in Spanish as a foreign language, the role of collaboration in the writing process using a virtual environment, Concourse, was investigated. Students worked according to three different formats: a set of students wrote individually, others wrote individually but got peer feedback, while a third group of students wrote in dyads and got peer feedback from another dyad. 
This paper will present the results of this investigation and discusses students’ and teachers’ experiences with the virtual writing environment, which facilitates collaborative group work process, document management and publishing.

The role of structured online support in the development of learner autonomy.

Lizzie Reilly

Paper delivered in: English

University / Research Institution: Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU)

Abstract:
 

University students in Hong Kong are increasingly facing a need to become skilled independent language learners. Factors such as rising unemployment and competition for jobs, together with a recent government policy to benchmark the English level of final-year undergraduates, contribute to the pressure on students to improve their English proficiency.
However, despite the generous resources available in Hong Kong tertiary institutions many undergraduates seem initially unable to carry out self-access language learning (SALL) work effectively without guidance. These students have had little opportunity to develop skills for SALL in their secondary school system, which is geared primarily towards exam preparation, and they come to university under-equipped to cope with the level of learner autonomy which is becoming required of them. 
One attempt to address this problem, by providing structured support, is discussed in this paper.  Within the context of a course designed to develop strategies for SALL, a web-based educational platform – WebCT – was used to provide a virtual forum for both teacher and peer support of learners. The paper will describe the role of this Internet technology in supporting the students as they worked outside the classroom, and will examine their progress throughout the course. It will also attempt to evaluate the success of this technology as a tool for supporting the development of autonomy in language learning.

Las prácticas de pronunciación vía Internet: el "Chamuyo".

Inés Laborde Patrón

Title: Pronunciation practices via Internet: "Chamuyo"..

Paper delivered in: Spanish

University / Research Institution: Université Charles-de-Gaulle – Lille 3

Abstract:

 
En la Universidad de Charles-de-Gaulle - Lille 3 está en creación  un sistema de enseñanza a distancia sobre la pronunciación de la lengua española. 
La Universidad cuenta con un centro donde se inscriben los estudiantes que no pueden asistir a los cursos. El centro les envía por correo un disco compacto donde hay una serie de ejercicios de fonética programados de modo tal que el estudiante puede escuchar, repetir y grabar frases con distintas dificultades fonéticas y de entonación. El sistema prevee la posibilidad de grabar  la banda sonora del estudiante que pronuncia. El estudiante puede enviar por correo electrónico la banda sonora al docente que a su vez la puede escuchar y así corregir aspectos de la pronunciación dando indicaciones para que el estudiante continúe su aprendizaje. 
En la ponencia se explicará como ha sido concebido el sistema de enseñanza en sus distintas etapas : elaboración del contenido de los ejercicios, sistema para facilitar la escucha, repetición, grabación de los ejercicios e intercambio formativo con el docente. Se mostrará como internet,  usado aquí como un facilitador de la comunicación, puede posibilitar una forma de contacto que puede ser tanto o más provechosa que la clase de laboratorio. 
 

A distance teaching system on the pronunciation of the Spanish language is under development at University Charles-de-Gaulle – Lille 3.
This University has a centre in which students unable to attend the courses can enrol themselves. The course provides them with a compact disc containing a series of phonetic exercises designed in a way that the student can listen to, repeat and record sentences with various phonetic and intonational difficulties. The system makes allowances for the possibility of recording the soundtrack of the student who is pronouncing. The student can send the soundtrack to the teacher via electronic mail. The teacher will be able then to listen to and correct certain aspects of the pronunciation providing guidelines for the students to go ahead with their learning process.
The paper will try to explain how this teaching system has been conceived in its different stages: elaboration of the context of the exercises, system in order to facilitate the listening, recording of the exercises and interchange with the teacher. It will be shown in which way Internet, presented here as a communication facilitator, is able to provide a contact medium as much or even more useful than the lab class. (Translated by the conference organization)
 

The Internet classroom assistant in pre-service teacher training (or) Learning by doing.

Antonio Sánchez Sola and Cristina Escobar Urmeneta

Paper delivered in: English

University / Research Institution: Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona (UAB)

Abstract:
 

The possibilities of Internet in the field of foreign language teaching and learning seem to be unlimited.  Unfortunately, it is often the case that primary and secondary language teachers do not profit the enormous potential that web-based learning has, even if the necessary resources are available and the teachers have completed courses on the use of ICTs.  This can be, to a large extent, attributed to the design of teacher training programmes which offer courses on language, methodology and computers as separate components. 
Nicenet's "Internet Classroom Assistant" (ICA) is a web-based environment  specially designed for educational purposes, which can be accessed free of charge from any school in the world. The user-friendly interface of the ICA offers different tools that facilitate communication between students and instructor and among the students themselves.
In this paper we present the outcomes of a project in progress in which the ICA is being used in a primary pre-service teacher training course as the main tool for organising classroom life and work. The aim of the project is to help  future teachers gain confidence on the use of ICTs by familiarising them with the ICA and demonstrating the potentials of this platform as a very valuable tool (a) in the development of their own linguistic and communicative capacities and (b) in their future professional life as language teachers.

Online Corpora: are they new tools in ELT?

María del Mar Sánchez Ramos

Paper delivered in: English

University / Research Institution: Universidad de Granada (UGR)

Abstract:
 

The general aim of this presentation is to introduce the use of online corpora in ELT and describe their main features and ways of exploitation into de English classroom. The use of corpora in ELT is a recent phenomenon. It was in the 1980s when Tim Johns at the University of Birmingham coined the concept of data-driving learning (DDL) to describe those situations in which students can answer questions about language themselves by studying corpus data. Contrasting with rote learning, DDL “favour learning by discovery-the study of grammar, vocabulary, discourse or style” (Tribble, C & Jones, G: 1990:12). By using corpora, students are exposed to authentic language and are able to work it for themselves by searching for key words in context. A secondary purpose is to show some web-designed activities in order to integrate DDL techniques in everyday teaching practice. Teachers can use online corpora as source for their activities, that is, they can generate their own material based on examples drawn from a variety of corpora.

English phonetics instruction and the course webpage.

José Antonio Mompeán González

Paper delivered in: English

University / Research Institution: Universidad de Murcia (UM)

Abstract: 
 

Phonetics is a discipline which has benefited from technological developments since its inception and more intensely since the computer revolution. However, despite the now relatively long history of developments in phonetics through instrumental methods and tools which use computers, only recently has phonetics instruction started to benefit from the computer technology already used in phonetic research. As the Internet offers an unheard-of chance of integrating sound and image in a potentially useful pedagogical way, we believe that the chances it offers in the teaching of phonetics, a multimodal field by definition, should be better exploited. The creation of course-tailored webpages which exploit the numerous resources and links found nowadays in the Internet is
an example of this. In this respect, the characteristics of an ambitious course webpage designed for the course 'English Phonetics' taught in the third year of Filología Inglesa at Murcia University (http://www.um.es/docencia/fonetica_inglesa) will be described. The numerous uses of the webpage as a pedagogical and research tool will be explained.

Els materials online al centre d’autoaprenentatge: una nova eina cap a l’autoformació.

Title: Online materials in the autonomous learning centre: a new tool towards self-formation.

Paper delivered in: Catalan

University/ Research Institution: Universitat Jaume I (UJI). Centre d’autoaprenentatge de llengües (CAL)

Abstract:

 
Un CAL no és tan sols un espai on utilitzar materials i recursos en situació de lliure accés, sinó que també és una proposta metodològica amb l’objectiu de facilitar l’aprenentatge de llengües, potenciar i formar en l’autonomia els seus usuaris.
El desenvolupament de l’autonomia es veu com un pilar fonamental de la formació en llengües, i els materials online obrin noves perspectives en el món de l'autoaprenentatge. Que es puga trobar tot tipus de materials a la xarxa (didactitzats o no) està revolucionant el món de l'ensenyament i l'aprenentatge de llengües i els CAL han de respondre a les noves necessitats i afrontar els reptes que es plantegen.
Internet s'ha de veure per tots els implicats en el procés d’aprenentatge com un recurs didàctic, com una nova eina de treball, que pot afavorir l’autonomia de l’aprenent. 
Al CAL de l’UJI, i per cadascuna de les llengües presents, es troben materials en diversos suports,  entre els quals l’aprenent  pot trobar una selecció i classificació de recursos online. 
Com que material online no és sinònim de material facilitador d’estratègies d’autoaprenentatge, els assessors del CAL intenten donar coherència a la classificació esmentada. 
 

A CAL is not just an space in which materials and resources can be used in a situation of free access. It is also a methodological proposal with the aim of facilitating language learning and enhancing and  training its users in the autonomy.
The development of the autonomy is seen as a basic prop in language formation and online materials provide new perspectives in the autonomous learning setting. Being able to find all sorts of materials in the net, (whether didactised or not) is causing a revolution in the teaching and learning world and the CAL has to be able to provide an answer to the new needs and to  face the challenges that are raised.
Internet has to be understood by all the people concerned with the learning process as a didactic resource, as a new working tool able to favour the learner’s autonomy.
In the CAL of the UJI, there are materials for all the languages which can be studied there and which are presented through different mediums among which the student can find a selection and classification of the online resources.
Given the fact that the online material is not a synonymous concept with that of facilitator material of autonomous learning strategies, CAL advisors try to provide coherence to the aforementioned classification. (Translated by the conference organization)
 

Websites for English Language Learning: A Critical Study from an Autonomous Language Learning Perspective.

Noelia Ruiz Madrid and María Luisa Villanueva Alfonso

Paper delivered in: English

University / Research Institution: Universitat Jaume I (UJI)

Abstract:
 

Computer Mediated Communication (CMC), where Internet plays a fundamental role in the communication process, is a further area of Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) which has been considered as a potential tool to foster autonomy in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom. On the one hand, a medium as versatile as Internet can provide such an ideal environment to enhance autonomous language learning. In this sense, many websites are devoted to language learning material, but on the other hand only a few constitute a real valuable source in terms of autonomous language learning. In fact, very often many of these websites presupposed an already autonomous learner-user. Yet, it is not so frequent to find websites offering explicit proposals and methodological aids in order to foster learning to learn strategies. Besides technical aspects become an important issue to take into account since some of these pages do not have a friendly-user design. The purpose of this paper therefore is to analyse some of these websites in terms of pedagogical and technical criteria. The analysis concentrates more particularly on those pedagogical criteria closely related to autonomous language learning on the one hand, and usability criteria on the other hand. By doing so we will be able to adopt a critical perspective towards language learning websites from an autonomous.

Selecting online resources for a constructivist approach to ELT.

María Isabel Pérez Torres

Paper delivered in: English

University / Research Institution: Universidad de Granada (UGR)

Abstract:
 

The development of the Internet has encouraged research concerning how to use the Web resources in ELT. Besides, the intrinsic features of the Web allow the learning process to be more constructivist. Constructivism sees learning as a process where the individual constructs knowledge through interaction with the environment. Therefore, a constructivist approach to ELT implies designing learning strategies that enable students to learn a language by observing and analysing information, testing hypotheses, describing and explaining facts, etc. Most of those strategies are based on using Internet resources. Our objective in this presentation is to analyse the criteria for selecting the appropriate resources among the great variety available on the Internet. These criteria will promote an efficient search and use of the resources when designing and implementing constructivist learning activities in ELT. 

Des fleurs bleues au fabuleux destin d’Amelie Poulain

Caterina Calafat

Title: Des fleurs bleues au fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain (Blue Flowers in the Fabulous fate of Amélie Poulain)

Paper delivered in: Spanish

University / Research Institution: Universitat de les Illes Balears (UIB)

Abstract:
 

En un intent de mostrar la gran utilitat dels recursos d’Internet en l’adquisició de la competència cultural (i no merament lingüística) per part de l’aprenent d’una segona llengua, presentaré una seqüència didàctica en què el recorregut pedagògic d’un text literari a una obra cinematogràfica compta amb l’ajut d’adreces existents a la xarxa.
La proposta parteix de la recerca documental i de l’anàlisi de figures d’estil, amb l’ajut de recursos d’Internet, d’una obra de Raymond Queneau, Les Fleurs Bleues. Aquest mateix autor, polifacètic i iconoclasta, escrigué també Zazie dans le métro, obra que va conèixer una versió cinematogràfica. Enllaçarem això amb la nova Zazie, Amélie Poulain, protagonista del film del també innovador Jean-Pierre Jeunet, amb l’ajut d’adreces en línia, en una reflexió sobre la imatge de París i de la cultura francesa del segle XX. 
Aquest estudi interdisciplinari a la recerca de la descoberta cultural mira, doncs, de demostrar l’eficàcia dels recursos de la xarxa en seva aplicació a dues obres que comparteixen el mateix gust en la renovació del llenguatge (literari i cinematogràfic), en la fantasia creadora, en el plaer dels jocs de la llengua. 
 

With the aim of showing the great usefulness of Internet resources in the acquisition of cultural (and not merely linguistic) competence on the part of the learner of a second language, I will present a teaching sequence in which the pedagogic course from a literary text to a cinematographic work relies on the help provided by addresses which can be found in the net.
The proposal starts from the documentary search and the analysis of stylistic figures with the help of Internet resources, of a work by Raymond Queneau, Les Fleurs Bleues. This same author, versatile and iconoclastic, also wrote Zazie dans le métro, a work of which a cinematographic version was made. We will relate this to the new Zazie, Amélie Poulain, main character of the film by the also innovative Jean-Pierre Jeunet, with the help of online addresses in a reflection about the image of Paris and French culture in the XX century.
This interdisciplinary study which seeks cultural unveiling tries then to discover the efficiency of the resources of the net in their application to two works that share the same taste in language renewal (literary and cinematographic), in creative fantasy, in the pleasure of language puns. (Translated by the conference organization)
 

Tools for teaching English: The conceptual possibilities of the Internet.

Sima Sengupta

Paper delivered in: English

University / Research Institution: Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Abstract:
 

The electronic age is influencing the ways in which we talk about language teaching. No longer are teachers diligently cutting newspaper articles nor are they frantically checking out books in the library. The Internet now offers them every advantage they need - a huge arena with hundreds of possibilities - only for teachers to explore. Yet there is a problem. In order to become a critical consumer of the conceptual possibilities offered by the Internet, teachers need to be able to get a full picture and not be unable to see the wood because of the trees.
This paper explores the conceptual possibilities that are offered by using the Internet in any foreign/second language classroom. With textual data from a variety of web-based classrooms and interview data of more than 30 students, the discussion focuses on two major inter-related conceptual possibilities that web-based language teaching offers. The first one is the opportunities provided for socially-constructed learning while the second is the possibility of authentic and natural language use. Though these concepts are often discussed in the literature (see for example, Warshauer and Kern, 2000, Chappelle, 2001), applied examples and user voices provide an applied definition of the ideas.

Internet English: culture and teaching and teaching implications.

Pascual Pérez-Paredes and Juan García Iborra

Paper delivered in: English

University / Research Institution: Universidad de Murcia (UM)

Abstract:
 

Internet English, tal y como se perfila en este trabajo,  podría convertirse en un nuevo paradigma dentro de la enseñanza de la lengua inglesa con fines comunicativos generales. Las razones que explican la aparición y la importancia de esta variedad son tanto de índole cultural como económica y, precisamente por la magnitud de las mismas, los profesionales de la enseñanza de la lengua inglesa deberían estudiar con detenimiento este fenómeno. La cuestión planteada en este trabajo es de que forma los aspectos culturales de Internet van a afectar a la lengua inglesa, y si es posible que en los próximos años podamos referirnos a una nueva variedad del inglés desarrollada en un entorno cultural globalizado como Internet, variedad que denominamos a partir de este momento Internet English 
Internet English, as proposed here, is likely to become the new standard of English for general communication purposes. Cultural as well as economic reasons underlie the growth of this new variety and ELT professionals should not turn a deaf ear to its emergence. The question we propose in this paper is how the new culture of the Internet is going to affect the English language, and if it is possible that in the coming years we can speak of a new variety of English developed in a new and globalized cultural environment as the Internet that we name from now on Internet English.

El desarrollo de aplicaciones hipermedia para la didáctica: la enseñanza en Internet de segundas lenguas.

Ana Fernández-Pampillón Cesteros, Covadonga López Alonso and Arlette Seré

Paper delivered in: Spanish

University / Research Institution: Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM)

Abstract:
 

En esta comunicación analizamos el proceso de desarrollo de sistemas hipermedia de enseñanza-aprendizaje desde un punto de vista técnico. El carácter didáctico de estas aplicaciones hace que las primeras fases de análisis de requisitos y diseño, sean especialmente críticas. Por ello, es necesario la utilización de metodologías que permitan sistematizar el proceso de diseño desde las primeras fases del desarrollo de estas aplicaciones. En este artículo se presenta una metodología basada en modelos docentes y modelos de hipermedia para definir (1) el esquema docente y (2) la estructura de datos y navegación de la aplicación hipermedia de forma abstracta e independiente de las posibles implementaciones particulares. Aplicamos esta metodología a la construcción de un prototipo, un módulo para la comprensión escrita de lenguas románicas. Este prototipo se integrará en una plataforma real de enseñanza de segundas lenguas en Internet: el proyecto GALANET .
 

In this paper, we analyze the development of teaching- learning hypermedia systems from a technical point of view. The pedagogical character of these applications make the first stages of analysis of requirements and design specially critical. For this reason, it is necessary the use of methodologies which allow us to systematize the design process from the first stages of development of these applications. In this article, a methodology based on teaching and hypermedia models to define (1) the teaching scheme and (2) the structure of data and navigation of the application of hypermedia in an abstract way (independently from the possible particular Implementations) is presented. We apply this methodology to the creation of a prototype--a module for the written comprehension of Romanic languages. This prototype will be integrated in a real platform of second language teaching in the Internet: the GALANET project. (Translated by the conference organization) 
 

Online pragmatic input: a focus on request acts occurrence in NS and NNS oral Corpora .

Maria Pilar Safont Jordà and Mari Carmen Campoy Cubillo.

Paper delivered in: English

University / Research Institution: (LAELA) Universitat Jaume I (UJI)

Abstract:
 

The present paper aims at analysing the use of request acts in a foreign language learning context and how corpora available through the Internet may improve the quality of language input. We have particularly examined the use of request head act realisation strategies and peripheral modification devices in the instructional and the natural context. In so doing, we have considered the need of resorting to native speakers' input in providing formal pragmatic instruction in the target language, as assumed by scholars like Kasper (1997) and Bardovi -Harlig (1999). Regarding our data collection, learners' production of request formulas has been elicited by means of an open role-play including various situations; while native speakers' data was obtained from the online MICASE corpus. Differences in terms of realisation strategies found in learners' output and in authentic data transcriptions has led us to suggest certain pedagogical implications for the use of online spoken corpora in order to foster foreign language learners' pragmatic development.

The implementation of the basic support for cooperative work (BSCW) as a atool to provide collaboration and feedback opportunities.

Patricia Salazar Campillo and Maria-José Esteve Ramos.

Paper delivered in: English

University / Research Institution: (LAELA) universitat Jaume I (UJI)

Abstract:
 

Recent literature on second language acquisition (SLA) has pointed out the use of tasks which require learners to produce output (Swain, 1995). This author suggests that the requirement to produce output may cause the learners focus on their grammatical or lexical knowledge. To take the issue further, authors such as Kowal and Swain (1994) and Swain and Lapkin (1997) have proposed the implementation of tasks which make the learners produce output collaboratively . In their opinion, the positive effects of collaborative tasks is that the learners’ joint effort may make them aware of the mismatch between their interlanguage (IL) and the target language (TL). Moreover, collaborative tasks may promote feedback on the part of the peer(s), being feedback one of the three theoretical conditions for SLA, along with input and output.
In our paper, we try to present the BSCW as a useful tool by means of which collaborative tasks and the provision of feedback may be fostered. Specifically, if the BSCW included focus-on-form (FonF) tasks (Storch, 1998a; García Mayo, 2001), it would become a valuable step towards acquisition.