Implementing TLBT and ICTs to foster students’ development of written descriptions and its effects on motivation: A didactic proposal in an EFL classroom

Treball Final de Màster Universitari en Professor/a d'Educació Secundària Obligatòria i Batxillerat, Formació Professional i Ensenyaments d'Idiomes. Codi SAP419. Curs: 2018/2019.Throughout the years, the teaching and learning of English as a foreign language has experienced constant development. Consequently, and due to information and communicative technology rapid expansion, teachers need to adjust their teaching methodologies to this new generation of students and meet their requirements so as to foster their learning styles, strategies and motivation. In order to reflect upon this conception, a theoretical background is presented. Firstly, different methodologies to teach a foreign language are reviewed; secondly, communicative competence is introduced as a requirement for learning a language; thirdly, digital competence and innovative education are described as necessary conditions for the introduction of technology inside the classroom; finally, the benefits and drawbacks of technology in class as well as some of the pedagogical applications that have emerged in recent literature are specified. Having into consideration these concepts, the main aim of this project is threefold: i) the design of a didactic unit mainly relying on ICTs; ii) to examine the effectiveness of ICTs for writing focusing on structure, expressions and vocabulary acquisition; iii) to assess if the use of ICTs in class motivates students. Hence, a complete didactic unit is designed following task based language teaching approach and including online resources, from which only three sessions are implemented in an EFL 4th of ESO classroom. The results from the implementation seem to corroborate that the use of technology in the classroom has had positive outcomes as regards students’ motivation and writing short descriptions achievement