Articulation between the virtual and traditional classrooms in the English for Specific Purposes courses in undergraduate programs in the National University of San Luis

Abstract

The purpose of this work is to describe a proposal of articulation between virtual and traditional classroom, known as blended learning, with the aim of enriching the learning-teaching process of the reading comprehension of English academic-scientific texts in an exolingual context, framed in traditional settings not adequate for the implementation of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Even when in face-to-face classes, the printed-paper is still used and information about weekly activities is updated in real notice boards, electronic resources have been included lately to combine both perspectives, though overcoming daily a series of conditions that regulate the situational context. The pedagogic-didactical approach promotes on the one hand, the development of digital competences which facilitate the search, selection and comprehension of texts published online, the activation of strategies for the hypertext and the use of electronical dictionaries. On the other hand, it implements for the moment the use of a virtual classroom in Moodle platform, with the purpose of letting students know about the different tasks carried out in face-to-face teaching and it provides all the material corresponding to the “English for Specific Purposes” Course.