Language Value http://www.e-revistes.uji.es/languagevalue July 2017, Volume 9, Number 1 pp. i-iv ISSN 1989-7103 Articles are copyrighted by their respective authors DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.6035/LanguageV.2017.9.1 i From the Editors TEACHING WITH TECHNOLOGY: INTEGRATING NEW TECHNOLOGIES IN THE LANGUAGE SKILLS Over the last decades, we have witnessed a rapid development of technology in the arena of education in general, and more particularly in the area of second/foreign language (SL/FL) teaching, which is the major concern of the present volume. Although it might be logical to state that technology has influenced education and SL/FL teaching practices, perhaps we are just at the very beginning of the integration of new technologies in the context of language education. The interest in technology and its implementation in the SL/FL classroom is not new. Indeed, several researchers, and especially in recent years, have drawn their attention to the potential of technology in the language teaching and learning context (e.g. Beltrán-Palanques 2013, 2014, Chapelle 2013, Taguchi and Sykes 2013, González-Lloret and Ortega 2014, Carrió- Pastor 2016, Martín-Monje et al. 2016). A range of technologies are available for SL/FL teaching, the use of which will be somehow determined by language teachers’ readiness, interest and knowledge. However, it is also true that, on some occasions, access to technology is somehow constrained by external factors that impede teachers’ use of technology in the FL/SL classroom. To the best of our knowledge, it is an undeniable fact that technology may play a role in the language classroom, but we should not lose sight of the fact that our major concern as SL/FL teachers is to develop learners’ communicative competence (Celce-Murcia 2007). Therefore, the idea is not just to add technology in the classroom, but to use technology to support language teaching instruction. Taking those aspects into account, the main idea of the present edited volume is to shed some light on how technology can be integrated in the language classroom from various perspectives. This edited volume will be of interest to researchers and language teachers who are interested in the field of SL/FL teaching and new technologies, bearing in mind that selected experiences encompassing the use of technologies in the teaching of language skills have been From the Editors Articles are copyrighted by their respective authors DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.6035/LanguageV.2017.9.1 ii carefully selected and included. The volume is divided into two sections. The first section includes seven articles and the second presents two reviews that enrich the perspective provided on technologies and their use in the language classroom. In the first article of this volume, Calvo-Benzies explores the possibilities of implementing Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in teaching pronunciation. Her article, Contribution of New Technologies to the teaching of English pronunciation, provides both an overview of materials available and an empirical study on how English for Specific Purposes (ESP) students used technologies to improve their pronunciation skills, showing a high level of satisfaction. In the second article presented in this volume, Learners’ identities at stake: Digital identity texts in the EFL classroom, García-Pastor focuses on the study of identity in digital texts written by English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students, presenting an analysis of how students’ identity is discursively constructed through diverse resources to create a digital communication narrative style. Talaván and Costal present a project where they assess the potential of intralingual dubbing in English as a resource to improve oral production skills at a higher education level. iDub – The Potential of Intralingual Dubbing in Foreign Language Learning: How to Assess the Task introduces a study including dubbing tests, questionnaires and observation as data to present conclusions that will help other teachers to implement dubbing activities in the B2 language class. In the fourth article included in this volume, Teaching apps for the learning of languages through sports: technology and sports in the English and Spanish as an L2/FL classroom, Botella and Galindo present a selection of apps for teaching and learning English through sports. These apps are analysed to present a range of activities that can be included in the language classroom within the framework of task-based language teaching with technology. The fifth article presents a study framed within Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL), where an original mobile app is used by students to enhance their participation and motivation in the language class. Up2B2: playing English grammar games at the B2 level depicts the implementation of an app that consists of multiple Language Value http://www.e-revistes.uji.es/languagevalue December 2017, Volume 9, Number 1 pp. i-iv ISSN 1989-7103 Articles are copyrighted by their respective authors DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.6035/LanguageV.2017.9.1 iii choice questions on varied aspects at B2 grammar and vocabulary level and presents gamification components (response time, competition, score ranking, etc.) that enable Arguelles, Martínez, García and da Silva to present quantitative and qualitative indicators to reach positive conclusions on motivation and competence levels achieved with the use of the app. In the article English teaching and beyond: a multimodal and integrated approach, explores how medical English teaching materials can be improved by incorporating multimodal activities to develop communicative skills in non-native English speaking doctors in their relation with patients. A practical proposal is put forward by Franceschi to show how medical English teaching materials could be improved to strengthen doctors’ ability to offer patient-centred effective and affective communication. In the last article of this section, Miura aims to investigate the feasibility of assessing learners’ sociopragmatic competence by analysing a spoken corpus of requests produced by Japanese students of English. Pragmalinguistic features of requests in shopping role-plays were extracted from the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology Japanese Learner English (NICT JLE) Corpus and rated in terms of politeness. The process and results are shown in this article, Assessing Politeness of Requestive Speech Acts Produced by Japanese Learners of English in a Spoken Corpus. The volume ends with two reviews. The first one is a review of A Practical Guide to Integrating Technology into Task-Based Language Teaching, written by Montaner- Villalba, who carefully examines the strengths of the book as a helpful resource that offers teachers of foreign languages a straightforward plan to successfully integrate technologies into TBLT in the classroom as well as to develop technologically-mediated materials. The second review, written by Fernández-Nogueira, reflects on the book Second language acquisition: a theoretical introduction to real world applications and its applicability as a resource to introduce students and trainees to the topic of SLA in a clear way. Among its strengths, the author highlights the inclusion of activities and the presence of references for further research on the topic. From the Editors Articles are copyrighted by their respective authors DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.6035/LanguageV.2017.9.1 iv Vicent Beltrán-Palanques Blanca García Riaza Guest Editors Universitat Jaume I, Spain Universidad de Salamanca, Spain Mari Carmen Campoy Cubillo Editor Universitat Jaume I, Spain REFERENCES Beltrán-Palanques, V. 2013. “Teaching the Four Language Skills Communicatively: The Potential of New Technologies”. In Chodkiewic, H. and Trepczyńska, M. (Eds.) Language Skills: Traditions, Transitions and Ways Forward. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 456-471. Beltrán-Palanques, V. 2014. Practical concerns in SL writing: Working collaboratively across instructed settings using new technology tools. Analecta Malacitana, Anejo XCVI, 27-36. Carrió-Pastor, M. L. 2016. (Ed.). Technology Implementation in Second Language and Translation Studies. New Tools, New Approaches. Singapore: Springer. Celce-Murcia, M. (2007). “Rethinking the Role of Communicative Competence in Language Teaching”. In Alcón, E. and Safont, M. P. Intercultural Language Use and Language Learning. Dordrecht: Springer, 41-57. Chapelle, C. 2013. English Language Learning and Technology. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. González-Lloret, M. and Ortega, L. 2014. (Eds.) Technology-mediated TBLT: Researching Technology and Tasks. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Martín-Monje, E. Elorza, I. and García-Riaza, B. 2016. (Eds.) Technology- Enhanced Language Learning for Specialized Domains. Practical Applications and Mobility. Routledge: London.