Stepping Up to the Challenge: Innovative Online Strategies in the ESP Digitalised Classroom

Introduction

The recent (and ongoing) COVID-19 pandemic has given an added impetus to a wide range of digital initiatives in Higher Education. Faced with an unforeseen crisis, which prompted the interruption or dramatic reduction of all onsite activity, most institutions went remote, thus transferring their action online. This overnight shift has had a significant effect on educational and instructional activities, paving the way to what was dubbed an “emergency remote teaching” period (Hodges, Moore, Lockee, Trust, & Bond, 2020), during which stakeholders and practitioners had to react to events and developments, often in real-time.

Though challenging, this unique period was also unparalleled in what research and digital innovation was concerned. In addition to several recommendations and contributions developed and/or endorsed by different experts, as well as national and international bodies such as OECD (OECD, 2020) and UNESCO (IESALC-UNESCO, 2020), institutions and individuals mobilized their know-how and expertise in order to find effective responses, not only in terms of platforms and tools, but also in what concerns strategies and activities to be implemented with students. This effort has been complemented by recently developed research documenting and reflecting on the experiences and innovations within this period.

Aiming to further contribute towards this endeavour, this chapter is centred on language teaching and learning, outlining practical examples that focus on English for Specific Purposes (ESP) courses (namely English for Tourism, English Applied to Quality, English Applied to Management) within this setting. Bearing in mind recent events and intending to support practitioners working in technology-mediated environments, it sets out to provide guidance and practical suggestions within the scope of ESP teaching and learning. Stemming from field application and ensuing reflections, these examples are framed by a theoretical rationale and reflect the authors’ hands-on experience, also providing an interdisciplinary and holistic outlook on skill development, competence aggregation and assessment.

Basing their approach on their experience as teachers and educational researchers, the authors employed action research methods in order to understand and improve “the quality of actions or instruction” (Johnson, 2019, p. 253). Drawing from previously defined learning outcomes and the guidelines for defining language proficiency, they designed and implemented different strategies and activities with their students, which were then analysed taking into account reflective and descriptive field notes and personal artefacts and documents (i.e. student’s attendance and discipline records and assessment data) (Efron & Ravid, 2013). This analysis allowed them to endorse what activities to include. These were then grouped according to their type and targeted language skills/modes of communication.

Hence, rather than simply listing a broad spectrum of activities and focusing solely on actual tools and applications, the authors put forward a matrix in which they crosscut the four core language skills (i.e. listening, reading, writing and speaking) with actual activities, which are then described considering students’ profile, their field of studies and the aggregation of competences undertaken with other courses of the degree. As a result, each activity is described taking into account that specific context and their applicability, laying the ground for future uses, namely within the scope of Virtual Learning Environments (VLE). The description of each activity also includes an outline of different tasks that can be carried out, examples of tools that can be used, and an account of how it was used by the authors, following a brief practice-based reflection on affordances and shortcomings.