Dolores Ramírez Verdugo and Isabel Alonso Belmonte
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain)

Included below is the abstract of the research, the full paper is available on the website of: The Journal of Language Learning & Technology
Vol.11, No.1, February 2007, pp. 87-101 Link >>>

This paper examines the effects that digital stories may have on the understanding of spoken English by a group of 6-year-old Spanish learners. To accomplish this aim, a quasi-experimental research study was launched in six state schools in Madrid. A pre-post test design was used to investigate whether internet-based technology could improve listening comprehension in English as a Foreign Language (henceforth, EFL). Findings indicate that the experimental group outperformed the control group in the final test administered. These results raise interesting issues related to the use of technology in the context of foreign language learning. Future research which includes other age groups and digital materials and which explores other linguistic areas could further substantiate the link between Information and Communication Technology (ICT) rich environment and improved language learning. more >>>

Dr. Ramirez Verdugo (dolores.ramirez@uam.es) works as an ELT lecturer and Senior Researcher at the Faculty of Teacher Training and Education (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain). Her research areas focus on second and foreign language acquisition, English prosody, phonetics and phonology, discourse analysis and pragmatics, corpus linguistics, and technology-enhanced language foreign language learning. Her Ph. D. thesis was awarded with the first national prize in educational research. She has also participated in national and international research projects on language learning and linguistic analysis.

Both Dr. Ramírez Verdugo and Dr. Alonso Belmonte belong to the ReTeLL research group (Research on the Effects of TICs on English Language Learning, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid).