1.2.2. THE COMMUNICATIVE SCENARIO OF ICTs

In the communication systems oral, non-oral, ideographic and iconic aspects converge and have traditionally considered philological aspects centred in the different aspects of language: phonetics, morphology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics, etc. Increasingly, we claim that processes traditionally considered parts of linguistics are fed on the grammar of digital communication where the new theoretical principles that explain production and decoding of multimedia messages are enabled.

Since 1980s we have observed a revolution of multimedia aspects, similar to the impact the Guttemberg print, or the radio and the television had. This situation seems paradoxical because the new digital scenario integrates the advances of all the previous communication systems in the same technology. Similarly, in the new generation cellular phones we can read documents, speak, listen to the radio and participate in virtual communities or send messages synchronously or asynchronously. It leads us into the cybernetic culture (Chomsky y Dieterich. 1999:162), an interconnected organization that is fed on global communicative processes of interrelated access.

The cybernetic culture has invaded all social spheres and communication has adopted new aspects that are more immediate, more participative and more dynamic turning the culture into a mass revolution. It is a network of networks where people can express themselves and disseminate ideas, images, videos and opinions, and that enables the communicative and discursive skill so that we all may have the same opportunities to provide our ideas and participate with our linguistic, sound and visual productions.

The uses and applications of the new technologies facilitate our life and broaden the horizon of our material limitations, “an extension beyond the humankind” (Vázquez Mendel, 1999:416). Although the criticism generated around these technologies is diverse and aims at the loss of ethic or social relationships (Postman 1994), from our point of view, a new digital language is developing, a language which offers a universal grammar providing a common scenario, i. e. the Internet. A great variety of languages originated because of the lack of interaction between people, a situation which has led to a diachronic linguistic evolution. In the present time, this problem has not affected the Internet, because sharing this globalized scenario is generating a new way of interacting by means of new grammatical principles and generating a similar label to the one we are proposing in this study, a new digital language. It is almost part of our communicative culture, from simple recipients to producers of the digital language, and the grammar used in this new language doesn’t consist in producing written words, but using tools to systematize our mind from the interactive worldwide coordinates of the Internet. Thus, we give rise to a new form of coding ideas and thoughts and categorize the digital world from a new instrument, the language of the digital communication.

Teaching to understand, decode and produce in the present digital world is one of the objectives intended for in the curricula and in the development of the basic competences (digital competence) of pre-university teaching. It is not a new issue regarding other historic times where kings and queens, priests and nobles banned ordinary people to read and write.

Computer-Assisted Instruction en English

TOPIC 1

HOW TO INTEGRATE NEW TECHNOLOGIES INTO THE ENGLISH CLASSROOM

 

1.1. Objectives

The main objective of this topic is to make the student familiarized with the concepts of digital and interactive communication from a linguistic and discursive reflection to enable the student to understand the new communicative scenario of the ICTs based on solid and theoretical principles.

1.2. The old, the new and the newest: An introduction to materials and resources for language teaching

1.2.1. INTRODUCTION: A PRELIMINARY OVERVIEW

The development of the present society relies on a semiological structure that covers a great range of communicative situations coming from the new context where the new ICTs belong to. A society which is conditioned by the high flow of information that is not easy to access and decode. This situation has coined more suitable terms such as digital galaxy (Pérez Rodríguez, M.A. 2004). The educational environment and specifically the language teaching environment must get enriched by more accurate approaches that can learn from the context and aid in the Didactics of language teaching.

Internet, computer games, CD-ROMs, massive multimedia storage devices and on-platform interactive environments are known as the new media.  Interactivity is probably the most innovative and stimulating aspect of the new media. New languages have broken with the primacy of words, and the audiovisual communication has appeared as the new and necessary communicative process that makes up new perspectives for the human being.

Not long time ago, what was referred to as the communicative competence, requires a new methodological, conceptual and practical revision. The old concepts concerning the linguistic and communicative competences must be intrinsically studied as far as the audiovisual communication is concerned.

Drawing on the previous intrinsic principles, the capability of using audiovisual media to communicate and inform is part of the new concept of linguistic competence, and implicitly integrates the understanding of the tools that enable the technological communication (e-mailing, chatting...). Likewise, the concept of communicative competence is currently wrapped up by the possibility of communicating in different technological contexts (the radio on the Internet, online videos, etc..)

We think that such interactive environments as images, videos, texts and games require a closer look. Currently, the way to communicate and interact with people is dominated mainly by text messages, photographs and videos on cellular phones, emails and instant message systems (IMSs), chats, forums, videoconferences, exchange of photographs on the computer…

Now it is possible to see and speak with our family and friends faster and more directly than ever before, thanks to the web cameras and VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) telephony at a very low or no cost. We can access the information and disseminate it easily by using new author creation tools with basic user knowledge.

Nowadays in education, concepts such as linguistic and digital competences have originated from an audiovisual communicative perspective where competence not only means to be able to access multimedia contents, but also to express oneself in these new interactive scenarios that enable certain ICT-based tools. The fact is that in the socio-cultural coordinates where we are living, the oral aspect has been considerably enriched by the iconic and visual use, and make up a new and richer communicative panorama full of different elements: emoticons, gifts, motion images, presentations, effect videos, etc.., all of which make up a new scenario requiring that speakers decode, access and structure information in a different and new way and by means of new tools.

The XXI language is not limited to the paper, radio or television, not to mention, being just simple recipients of information. The new media let us create multimedia and audiovisual contents, and provide us with an opportunity that we cannot overlook, otherwise we would become digital illiterates capable of understanding languages but incapable of producing multimedia messages.