An Experience on the Integration of ICT into a Teaching-learning Methodology of English as a Foreign Language

In this paper, we present the use of free ICT materials to foster the communicative approach in an actual educational setting. Specifically, we show and discuss the outcomes of the exploitation of two websites’ content and resources inserted in our subject curriculum. This initiative has been put forward to work on listening skills as a means for attaining a twofold objective: i) as the first step to favour communication from the addressee’s stance by further building their ability to recognize and reproduce Anglophone pronunciation and, ii) secondly, to encourage self-learning through an Internet-based resource. Although it is widely recognised that in Foreign Language Teaching (FLT) a common agreement has not yet been reached on what methodology is the ideal for every possible linguistic learning situation, it seems that there is general consensus within the teachers of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) community to bestow value on the Communicative Approach. Under the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) framework, the notion of “competence” (Hymes, 1972) has gained momentum in the teaching arena. Faced with this simultaneous responsibility and opportunity that the EHEA has brought about, we advocate the gradual integration of technology for language learning (CALL) to develop a functional communicative competence.