The GRAPE group has recently attended the 40th International Conference of the Spanish Association of Applied Linguistics (AESLA) in Mérida, This year, the conference centered around the theme of «Interdiscourse and digital genres: Open science and multilingual approaches.»
The GRAPE group made a notable contribution to the 40th International Conference of the Spanish Association of Applied Linguistics (AESLA) held in Méride. Our presentations focused on the pivotal role of multimodal communication in disseminating scientific knowledge and enhancing university teaching.
First, Edgar Bernad-Mechó and Noelia Ruiz-Madrid kickstarted the team’s presentations talking about science dissemination through YouTube Shorts and their pedagogical application within EMI contexts (read the full abstract here). Then, Carolina Girón-García and Lorena Bort-Mir (our collaborator at the Universitat Politècnica de València) presented their study on reading comprehension texts in ESP courses, under the title “Integrating sentiment and gender analysis for the selection of texts to practice the reading skills in ESP courses” (read full abstract).
The second day of the conference, Julia Valeiras Jurado and Inmaculada Fortanet Gómez explored multimodality in the educational materials used in EMI contexts, focusing on the cybergenres used in an EMI Business Administration course (read full abstract). Also, our predoctoral fellow, Enzo Boggio López, presented a study co-developed with Vicent Beltrán-Palanques. Their presentation, «Exploring interaction in EMI lectures from a multimodal perspective», examined the way in which teacher-student interactions take place in EMI face-to-face lectures and the role of multimodality (read full abstract).
On the third day, Carmen Notari Montoyo and Noelia Ruiz Madrid presented some results of the Erasmus+ KA2 project TEMPLATE, under the title «Implementing plurilingual activities through technology in CLIL: The in-service teacher perspective» (read full abstract).
Finally, this year has been special for us. We brought Elena Serrano and Alejandro Mena, two undergraduate students in the English Studies Degree, who came not just as attendants, but as presenters. Elena and Alejandro have been participating in the “Estudia i Investiga” program at Universitat Jaume I, a program that intends to involve promising undergraduates into research since their first years in the degree. Our students have joined the group in several meetings and dissemination activities, such as the Mednight (The European Researchers’ Night, held last September 2022). This time, they dared to present in a scientific conference for the first time. Well done, guys! You did a fantastic job. Their presentations delved into the emerging genre of Instagram reels to disseminate science, in the case of Elena (read full abstract), and a multimodal analysis of rich points in EFL classes, in the case of Alejandro (read full abstract).
The AESLA association serves as a platform for researchers across various disciplines within applied linguistics to exchange knowledge and disseminate advancements in their respective fields. For detailed information about the congress, and the panels, read more at https://aesla2023.unex.es.
Our research group was delighted to participate in AESLA’s conference, greet researchers from all over Spain, and learn more about emerging lines of research. It was a great honor to present some of the studies that we have been conducting this year and to include, for the very first time, undergraduate presenters, which highlights the group’s commitment to support and foster young researchers.
