The use of the virtual classroom to improve and promote reading and writing skills

Reflexiones sobre la lengua y propuestas prácticas sobre la didáctica del inglés

Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, UNT

Lugar: Córdoba; Año: 2017; p. 68 - 77

Our daily living is permeated by technology, and our classrooms are not the exception. Hyland (2003) claims that ?several teachers make use of technological resources since they provide liveliness to their teaching, contribute to the developing of writing and foster the cooperation and interaction among students in and outside classrooms?. (p.143) Therefore, the members of the chair of English Language II, School of Languages, UNC, promote the use of the virtual classroom as a space to promote and improve, among other abilities, students´ reading and writing skills. In this virtual environment, students have access to different readings that appeal to them and that work as a starting point for the writing process and the development of their arguments. Besides, in the virtual classroom, students have access to different files that present guidelines for writing tasks and the criteria for correction. Through this virtual platform, students share their productions, receive feedback and send improved versions of their papers. The writing project is stated in this fashion since the members of the chair favor a constructivist approach to writing in which the writing process is understood as recurrent planning, writing, revision and re- writing (Evans et al. 2010; Hyland 2003, 2007). In this paper, we will describe the way in which we have made use of the virtual environment to promote the development of these two macro abilities.