El discurso digital en la enseñanza de español como segunda lengua (L2)/lengua extranjera (LE)

Abstract

This doctoral thesis investigates digital discourse in teaching Spanish as a second language (SL) / as a foreign language (FL) and explores the net from a linguistic and discursive perspective, leaving behind the traditional instrumentalist view of this digital medium which has been predominant in education. To do so, we turned to netlinguistics as a branch of applied linguistics that studies the changes and use of language in the net at every level. However, the topic of study is exclusively focused on digital discourse and the heterogeneous textual typology it is made up by. Consequently, the main goal of this investigation is to undertake a descriptive and comparative study of digital discourse in SSL/FL teaching. To do so, we conducted a bibliographical revision that allowed us to narrow the object of study and articulate the investigation around three core concepts: discourse (discursive competence), the net (digital competence) and digital discourse (netlinguistics). For this reason, in the theoretical framework of this doctoral thesis we undertook a broad bibliographic study which allowed us to confirm the linguistic and discursive nature of the net by defining, characterizing and arranging digital discourse. Moreover, from this didactic perspective of foreign language teaching, we described the concepts of discursive competence and digital competence, with the goal of reviewing the current competence models and directing the interest in digital competence not only towards technology, but also towards communication and discourse. Therefore, to observe the degree of inclusion of digital discourse in SSL/FL teaching, this doctoral thesis is made up of different analysis, with the teacher at the centre of the study, which intend to prove our initial hypothesis: digital discourse is not addressed adequately in SSL/FL teaching. Firstly, we examined the treatment of digital discourse in the main SSL/FL teaching curriculums: the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, teaching, assessment (2002), as well as its 2018 update with new descriptors, and the Plan curricular del Instituto Cervantes. Niveles de referencia para el español (2006b). Curricular programmes are the foundation of teaching, the pillars that teachers resort to in their daily practice and the base on which the different didactic materials are built upon, which is why analysing them was essential. Secondly, the study focused on teachers’ training in matters of digital discourse. To do so, we analysed all the Spanish SL/FL teaching masters in force at the time of research, with the goal to observe if cybertexts are present in the programmes of said postgraduate studies. Specifically, we examined the syllabus of thirty-four masters and the course descriptions of one hundred and eleven relevant subjects for teaching digital discourse. Their contents are focused on writing skills, discursive and pragmatic competence, Information and Communications Technology, and Spanish for Specific Purposes. Thirdly, we undertook a corpus study of SSL/FL textbooks to observe the degree and type of appearance of digital discourse in these didactic materials. The investigation is focused on six didactic collections of very prestigious publishing houses in the world of SSL/FL: Anaya ELE, Difusión, Edelsa, Edinumen, enClave-ELE y SGEL ELE. We selected the corpus, made up of twenty-five textbooks, based on different criteria like the date of publication, the curricular levels it includes, the public it is destined for and them being a stand-alone textbook, that is, not divided in different volumes. Lastly, we conducted a survey on SSL/FL teachers that intended to assess the predisposition and attitude of SSL/FL teachers towards discursive digital content and to observe their training and real teaching practices, with the goal of confirming and supporting the data obtained in previous analysis. This survey is the culmination of a broad doctoral study which evolves from general to specific, from curriculum programming to real classroom practices, and which intends to observe in the different teaching dimensions –curriculum, training, didactic materials and classroom practices– the degree of inclusion of digital discourse in SSL/FL teaching. In conclusion, the different analyses and studies presented in this doctoral thesis meet at a series of conclusions which prove that, despite the fact that digital discourse is starting to become a part of language education, the teachers' training on said content and its application in classrooms needs to be reoriented from the traditional instrumentalist and modernizing perspective of the net to a more linguistic and discursive perspective. Therefore, this study offers a general framework which reveals the current teaching practices and exposes the current context of these new discourses in SSL/FL teaching. This way, it aspires to contribute to a better understanding of the pedagogical and communicative potential of the Internet.