Papers by Alejandro Curado Fuentes
US-China Education Review, 2025
GenAI (Generative Artificial Intelligence) is being extensively explored for academic L2 (second ... more GenAI (Generative Artificial Intelligence) is being extensively explored for academic L2 (second language) English writing skills in higher education, but its impact on research writing at postgraduate levels remains underexplored. This study presents an examination of this context within the tourism degree at University of Extremadura. Four participants engaged in a 10-hour hybrid course about GenAI for academic writing in October 2024. The course also integrated Broad Data-Driven Learning (BDDL) tools as online corpus interfaces designed to assist with linguistic comparison and writing development. Participants' feedback was collected and analyzed by qualitative means (inclass discussions, task writing annotation, and final survey). Overall findings indicate notably positive responses and usage of these tools for both content and linguistic improvement in the texts. Despite the study's small sample size, these preliminary findings suggest that postgraduate researchers in tourism can adequately combine expert and linguistic knowledge in their leverage of GenAI and BDDL.
Language Value, 2025
Addressing the limited exploration of Data-Driven Learning (DDL) with mixed linguistic proficienc... more Addressing the limited exploration of Data-Driven Learning (DDL) with mixed linguistic proficiencies in English for Specific Purposes (ESP), the purpose of this study is to experiment with a broad DDL (BDDL) approach in two English for business and tourism courses. The information collected through classroom activities, pre-, mid-, and post-tests, alongside polls and interviews, largely points to positive outcomes with BDDL at all linguistic levels. Lower-linguistic proficiency participants showed a greater challenge with linguistic analysis, but, in contrast with other corpus linguistics-based approaches in these ESP settings, BDDL worked more effectively to accommodate task procedures for these learners.
Exploring Open Science in Applied Linguistics: Reviews and Case Studies, 2024
This chapter describes the findings after analysing keywords in research
articles about digital ... more This chapter describes the findings after analysing keywords in research
articles about digital OS genres, published in two reputed LSP / ESP journals: Ibérica and ESPj (English for Specific Purposes) over ten years: 2012-2022. The rationale for the selection of the journals and articles is explained in the section titled “Selection of sources”, and the keyword approach is described in “Methodology”. In order to respond to three research questions (see below), the main strategy in this study was the comparison of the corpus of digital OS research articles with another corpus of research articles dealing with non-OS genres in the same journals. This narrow focus aimed at a specification of thematic keywords in the scope of digital OS genre research in LSP, as top
keywords and their collocation constellations are characteristic of a specialised corpus, and the opposite of the reference corpus to which this target corpus is compared. Important themes and sub-themes emerged from this analysis, such as distinct concepts and procedures, methodologies, and types of domains encompassed in OS genres. These features significantly differed from non-OS genres in LSP.
Teaching, Translating and Researching LSP during the pandemic times, 2024
This study examines the evolvement of tourism professionals’ perceptions, ideas, and attitudes t... more This study examines the evolvement of tourism professionals’ perceptions, ideas, and attitudes towards communicative skills and digital competence before and after travel restrictions due to COVID-19 in Extremadura, Spain. Specific information is provided by analysing 50 tourism professionals’ answers in two surveys, complemented by semi-structured interviews with three participants in 2019 and 2022. This instrument of analysis constitutes a qualitative approach to evaluate respondents’ appraisal of professional communication developments in tourism. This type of approach in professional communication connects with LSP (Languages for Specific Purposes) interests and scopes (Yamauchi & Orr 2008; Anthony 2018).
Three sub-areas are analysed in professional communication, derived from the literature: Linguistic competence, digital media/genres, and IT use. The appraisal of each section is evaluated in terms of their relevance for professional communication according to informants’ scores. Significant and non-significant findings are derived from respondents’ answers after three years. Their scores and comments can be also contrasted by gender, age, levels of studies, and job positions.
International Handbook of Innovation and Assessment of the Quality of Higher Education and Research (vol. 2), 2024
APPENDIX for Professional communication in tourism: A regional study before and after the COVID-1... more APPENDIX for Professional communication in tourism: A regional study before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Por Curado Fuentes, A.
International Handbook of Innovation and Assessment of the Quality of Higher Education and Research (1st ed., Vol. 2)., 2024
Being commercially competitive is a key aspect in the Tourism industry. Effective communication w... more Being commercially competitive is a key aspect in the Tourism industry. Effective communication with customers is a crucial commodity to achieve commercial and economic gains (OMT, 2014). In many countries, including Spain, this need to strengthen competitiveness has led to the enhancement of linguistic and communicative competences in Tourism studies (Bárcena Madera et al., 2016). According to the literature, communicative skills in Tourism should involve not only advanced linguistic competences but also multimodal and digital literacies (Bhatia
& Bremmer, 2014; Calvi, 2010). Among the linguistic skills required, professionals should be able to “communicate, negotiate, and execute transactions with tourists” (Prachanant, 2012, p. 117). Digital literacy for effective communication is also examined as increasingly relevant. However, it is often found in the Tourism industry that the staff
are under-trained and lack the appropriate skills and instruments to carry out effective communicative transactions both linguistically and digitally (Devereux et al., 2017; García Laborda & Litzler, 2017; Gruss et al., 2019).
This study considers that more research on the evolution of professionals’ attitudes about digital communication is needed. To this author’s knowledge, there is no literature comparing Tourism professionals’ ideas about digital communication before and during
the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, there is a demand for “evidence-based studies of professional and institutional practices and cultures” (Bhatia, 2014, p. 8).
IntechOpen eBooks, Mar 19, 2024
LSP (Languages for Specific Purposes) research can be represented by publications in a highly ran... more LSP (Languages for Specific Purposes) research can be represented by publications in a highly ranked international research journal, Ibérica, belonging to AELFE (European Association of Languages for Specific Purposes), and the international AELFE conferences. The present study explored these two research outputs as sample resources in order to describe specialized language research foci and directions integrating multilingualism over the past decade (2012-2022). The methodology for this study followed a keyword analysis, based on comparing the journal articles and conference papers with a larger reference corpus of academic writing. The results highlighted LSP research-related keywords at the top of the wordlists and salient thematic denotations derived from the contexts of these keywords. It was found that four main dimensions are distinctive in relation to multilingualism in these texts extracted from the journal articles and conference papers: Methodology, English as a lingua franca, groups of learners, and collaborative projects. While research articles tend to focus on methodological issues, conference papers describe more multilingual projects taking place in LSP contexts. It was also found that multilingualism especially stands out in teaching methods, translation, and lexicology. Findings indicate that multilingual conceptualizations are important, even though English dominates, in LSP research.
Research in Education and Learning Innovation Archives, 2024
Despite the established framework of digital skills in education, there is a need for more contra... more Despite the established framework of digital skills in education, there is a need for more contrastive analyses of actual digital competence (DC) developments in cross-disciplinary and cross-curricular ecologies: How current pedagogical approaches may vary within an exponentially growing digital world is, in fact, a key issue deserving further schol-arly attention at various research dissemination levels.1 A fair question, then, to ask is whether the post-pandemic era is witnessing significant DC developments and changes across the curriculum, and if so, to what extent. Also, related to this concern, is the lingering question of how digitally competent educators and learners really are in formal and informal teaching/learning scenarios? Further, how may pedagogy-informed decisions be made and integrated into current policies, projects, and plan-ning in an era where technology should have become so familiar that it is invisible?
Research in Education and Learning Innovation Archives, 2024
Competencia lectora digital en inglés para ADE y Turismo: La importancia de las microdestrezas pa... more Competencia lectora digital en inglés para ADE y Turismo: La importancia de las microdestrezas para los planes de estudios Competència lectora digital en anglès per a ADE i Turisme: La importància de les microdestreses per als plans d'estudis
Multilingualism in its multiple dimensions, 2024
LSP (Languages for Specific Purposes) research can be represented by publications in a highly ran... more LSP (Languages for Specific Purposes) research can be represented by publications in a highly ranked international research journal, Ibérica, belonging to AELFE (European Association of Languages for Specific Purposes), and the international AELFE conferences. The present study explored these two research outputs as sample resources in order to describe specialized language research foci and directions integrating multilingualism over the past decade (2012-2022). The methodology for this study followed a keyword analysis, based on comparing the journal articles and conference papers with a larger reference corpus of academic writing. The results highlighted LSP research-related keywords at the top of the wordlists and salient thematic denotations derived from the contexts of these keywords. It was found that four main dimensions are distinctive in relation to multilingualism in these texts extracted from the journal articles and conference papers: Methodology, English as a lingua franca, groups of learners, and collaborative projects. While research articles tend to focus on methodological issues, conference papers describe more multilingual projects taking place in LSP contexts. It was also found that multilingualism especially stands out in teaching methods, translation, and lexicology. Findings indicate that multilingual conceptualizations are important, even though English dominates, in LSP research.
Creative Education journal, 2024
The exploration of LOTE (Languages Other Than English) as a multilingual scope in LSP (Languages ... more The exploration of LOTE (Languages Other Than English) as a multilingual scope in LSP (Languages for Specific Purposes) constitutes both a major goal and challenge in LSP pedagogy and research, since English is mostly the target language used and analyzed in specialized communication. This study set out to explore multilingualism-oriented articles in a representative LSP journal in Spain, Ibérica (Q1 in language and linguistics). The years from 2012 to 2022 were selected for comparison, as other studies had examined previous time frames. A thematic exploration of these articles was enabled by keyword-based analysis, comparing the Ibérica collection with a larger academic corpus of writing in order to retrieve highly distinctive linguistic occurrences. It was found that keyword-derived collocations point to pivotal thematic references throughout the corpus, as these linguistic elements were frequent and dispersed. By manually annotating the co-texts of these collocations referring to multilingual issues and ideas, a classification was achieved according to thematic elements, leading to four major categories related to multilingualism in the journal: Methodologies, ELF (English as a Lingua Franca), groups of learners/participants, and collaborative projects. In general, it was confirmed that ELF dominates specialized language pedagogy and research in multilingual studies. However, it was also observed, among other developments, that three areas, lexicology, translation, and teaching methods, concentrate more studies dealing with LOTE and multilingualism in the journal.
Corpora and language learning. Bridging the research-practice divide, 2024
Journal of Modern Education Review, 2022
Our project focused on the design of a digital interface called STVALL (Smart TV-Assisted Languag... more Our project focused on the design of a digital interface called STVALL (Smart TV-Assisted Language Learning) for all kinds of users at home. This program delivers linguistic and content challenges in the form of learning pills with which users can interact. The input and scores are stored as assessment content on an authoring tool. Our main research question is whether users' hands-on interaction with the tool, which records their performance, correlates with learning motivation. This study is conducted on a quasi-experimental basis with 1500 training pills across five subject areas (Science and Nature, Literature and Art, Geography and History, Entertainment and Sports, and Language) and four language user levels: Adults/Children (0-12 years old): A1/A2/B1/B2. The training pills are produced in the form of text, audio, and audiovisual content in those categories. Linguistic scaffolding is based on user profiles. The pills present dynamic questions/answers so that users can respond individually or in groups. Preliminary results with 15 users point to generally positive learning outcomes and responses. A post-session questionnaire was answered by 11 people, and significant feedback is obtained and considered regarding the interface, preferred types of activities, and EFL scaffolding. It seems that linguistic proficiency and content knowledge play a crucial role in relation to the motivation for using the tool. In addition, playing by teams is favored by most users whereas short dynamic audiovisual interactions are mostly preferred.
International Handbook of Innovation and Assessment of the Quality of Higher Education and Research, 2022
To describe the STVALL project and how its design can accommodate different types of
learner prof... more To describe the STVALL project and how its design can accommodate different types of
learner profiles and groups (Method section).
To analyse the main characteristics of the TV platform for learning at this training stage
(Method section).
To examine data derived from the use of the system by 15 participants and their
impressions and perceptions on their use of the tool (Results and Discussion).
International Handbook for the Advancement of Science, 2022
Our study focuses on English as a foreign language writing skills in Primary Education,
an area w... more Our study focuses on English as a foreign language writing skills in Primary Education,
an area which Escofet (2020) describes as fruitful for the integration of project-based
collaboration in both physical and virtual environments. An important approach with
digital tools is the method of mental mapping at 9 and 10 years of age, by which learners
can dynamically engage in pre-writing chores. Digital tools can be used for the creation
of electronic mental maps, e-collages, e-posters, e-postcards, and other e-writing
elements, whereas non-digital resources can be also found fruitful for collaborative
writing developments (e.g., wall-posted cardboard maps and posters). In this way, the
tools should facilitate planning, text preparation, and drafts at different developmental
stages of writing (Izquierdo-Magaldi et al., 2016).
OBJECTIVES
− To describe our case study in rural elementary classrooms where digital and nondigital
tools are deployed for English writing (Method section).
− To examine learning outcomes quantitatively with learners’ data in the classroom and
to observe statistically significant survey answer differences (Results).
− To interpret the triangulation of the data derived from classroom-based feedback,
survey data, and interview answers in terms of learning implications (Discussion).
Encuentro Journal
In EAP (English for Academic Purposes) contexts, a holistic view is desirable for research and pe... more In EAP (English for Academic Purposes) contexts, a holistic view is desirable for research and pedagogy. This mixed-methods approach usually includes quantitative data from language learning situations. For example, pre-tests, post-tests, and delayed post-tests may be exploited for concrete linguistic aspects so that the learners’ performance evolvement with them is measured and contrasted. Other instruments of qualitative observation such as surveys, questionnaires, interviews, and classroom discussion also tend to refine the depiction of the learning profiles and outcomes. In this paper, the goal is to compare different EAP contexts over an 8-year period so that some corpus-related pedagogy issues in EAP may be explored. In particular, the study sets out to compare three different academic scenarios where DDL (Data-Driven Learning) techniques were developed with and for students during the academic writing sessions of the courses. The students were university faculty members (N=20...
Asian Journal of Education and e-Learning, 2021
Hybrid television refers to the merging of the Internet and television via a multi-user platform.... more Hybrid television refers to the merging of the Internet and television via a multi-user platform. This technology is used in the STVALL project, providing an educational platform for interactive and adaptive (individual and group) learning. A focus has been the design of specific content activities in the form of learning pills fed into the authoring tool, which stores and distributes them from its knowledge base. The content is classified according to five major subject areas in Education (Science and Nature, Literature and Art, Geography and History, Entertainment and Sports, and Language) and four language levels: Adult (over 12 years of age) / Children (0-12): A1/A2/B1/B2, based on the Common European Framework. Different tags are also assigned for content taxonomy based on the type of content (e.g., monologic vs. dialogic, narrative vs. instructions, etc). Upon interaction with the program, users build a content and language level profile that the system stores and “remembers” ...
This paper aims to describe the development of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) as specialised... more This paper aims to describe the development of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) as specialised language study and research at tertiary level in Spain over the past twenty years. The year 1992 is chosen as a starting point because AELFE, the Association of Languages for Specific Purposes, was founded in Madrid at the time. As more members from other countries have joined in, this Association has served as an academic landmark for the development of ESP within the umbrella of applied linguistics. ESP has reflected the social changes, educational shifts, linguistic trends, and technological innovations involved in academic and professional contexts. The evolution of the specialised language practitioner’s scenarios and communicative situations has turned ESP into a lively and stimulating action, though not lacking in controversy, e.g., a general increase in the ESP teacher’s workload. Different lines of work and research have been followed from the inception of AELFE until the imple...
Revista de Lenguas para Fines Específicos, 2017
The use of corpus-informed language in English for Specific Purposes (ESP) / English for Academic... more The use of corpus-informed language in English for Specific Purposes (ESP) / English for Academic Purposes (EAP) teaching has considerably grown over the past two decades, especially due to the proliferation of course book material based on corpora. However, in terms of learning approaches to grammatical items, much less has been published commercially to train teachers in the use of corpora and their exploitation. DDL (Data-Driven Learning) techniques are still something to foster and publicize for ESP scenarios, since DDL tends to work as a productive method among learners whose L2 courses usually present specific (academic or professional) purposes in language use, as previous studies have shown. This paper deals with DDL as approached via hands-on concordancing by university students in the double degree of Business Administration and Tourism (B/T) in our institution. The targeted linguistic items were accessed via form-focused activities (e.g., noticing usage differences with verb tenses and synonymous verbs). Two grammar tests were administered to compare their results with another group that focused on the same grammatical points as delivered by an upper-intermediate, corpus-informed, textbook. The statistical findings reveal that the DDL group performed slightly better in the acquisition of such grammatical points, whereas most students felt that lexico-grammatical knowledge had been gained by relying on DDL to discover and apply usage patterns. Grammatical study may thereby evolve as a different perception in their minds due to corpus data exploitation and teacher-mediated discovery.
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Papers by Alejandro Curado Fuentes
articles about digital OS genres, published in two reputed LSP / ESP journals: Ibérica and ESPj (English for Specific Purposes) over ten years: 2012-2022. The rationale for the selection of the journals and articles is explained in the section titled “Selection of sources”, and the keyword approach is described in “Methodology”. In order to respond to three research questions (see below), the main strategy in this study was the comparison of the corpus of digital OS research articles with another corpus of research articles dealing with non-OS genres in the same journals. This narrow focus aimed at a specification of thematic keywords in the scope of digital OS genre research in LSP, as top
keywords and their collocation constellations are characteristic of a specialised corpus, and the opposite of the reference corpus to which this target corpus is compared. Important themes and sub-themes emerged from this analysis, such as distinct concepts and procedures, methodologies, and types of domains encompassed in OS genres. These features significantly differed from non-OS genres in LSP.
Three sub-areas are analysed in professional communication, derived from the literature: Linguistic competence, digital media/genres, and IT use. The appraisal of each section is evaluated in terms of their relevance for professional communication according to informants’ scores. Significant and non-significant findings are derived from respondents’ answers after three years. Their scores and comments can be also contrasted by gender, age, levels of studies, and job positions.
& Bremmer, 2014; Calvi, 2010). Among the linguistic skills required, professionals should be able to “communicate, negotiate, and execute transactions with tourists” (Prachanant, 2012, p. 117). Digital literacy for effective communication is also examined as increasingly relevant. However, it is often found in the Tourism industry that the staff
are under-trained and lack the appropriate skills and instruments to carry out effective communicative transactions both linguistically and digitally (Devereux et al., 2017; García Laborda & Litzler, 2017; Gruss et al., 2019).
This study considers that more research on the evolution of professionals’ attitudes about digital communication is needed. To this author’s knowledge, there is no literature comparing Tourism professionals’ ideas about digital communication before and during
the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, there is a demand for “evidence-based studies of professional and institutional practices and cultures” (Bhatia, 2014, p. 8).
learner profiles and groups (Method section).
To analyse the main characteristics of the TV platform for learning at this training stage
(Method section).
To examine data derived from the use of the system by 15 participants and their
impressions and perceptions on their use of the tool (Results and Discussion).
an area which Escofet (2020) describes as fruitful for the integration of project-based
collaboration in both physical and virtual environments. An important approach with
digital tools is the method of mental mapping at 9 and 10 years of age, by which learners
can dynamically engage in pre-writing chores. Digital tools can be used for the creation
of electronic mental maps, e-collages, e-posters, e-postcards, and other e-writing
elements, whereas non-digital resources can be also found fruitful for collaborative
writing developments (e.g., wall-posted cardboard maps and posters). In this way, the
tools should facilitate planning, text preparation, and drafts at different developmental
stages of writing (Izquierdo-Magaldi et al., 2016).
OBJECTIVES
− To describe our case study in rural elementary classrooms where digital and nondigital
tools are deployed for English writing (Method section).
− To examine learning outcomes quantitatively with learners’ data in the classroom and
to observe statistically significant survey answer differences (Results).
− To interpret the triangulation of the data derived from classroom-based feedback,
survey data, and interview answers in terms of learning implications (Discussion).