Using Digital Resources to Boost English Writing Development

• Published in: Learning Technology for Education Challenges Vol. 1011; pp. 337 - 348
• Main Authors: Musskopf, Ângela, Barbosa, Débora Nice Ferrari, Bassani, Patrícia Brandalise Scherer, Jefferies, Amanda
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland Springer International Publishing AG 2019; Springer International Publishing
• Series: Communications in Computer and Information Science
• Subjects: Digital tools; Teacher training; Writing development
• ISBN: 9783030207977; 3030207978
• ISSN: 1865-0929; 1865-0937
• DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-20798-4_29

Official documents from the Brazilian Government stress the importance of including technological issues for teacher training. Also, programmes to promote teachers’ digital literacy were created. Yet, recent surveys in the country show low relevance of the pedagogical use of ICTs in classrooms. This research describes a practice developed with undergraduates being prepared to become teachers of English as a Second Language in the south of Brazil. The practices were developed in a subject aimed to develop the students’ proficiency in English. The experiment proposed the use of educational digital resources to develop the writing skill. The main objective was to develop pedagogical practices, which include digital educational resources for students preparing themselves to become English teachers and to verify their influence in the linguistic knowledge of the students. According to the theories of Second Language Learning, interaction, meaningfulness and task-essential form must be considered to achieve success. These features were explored through the digital resources. It is possible to state that there was an improvement in the writing skill of the participants.