Abstract:

The aim of this paper is the proposal about the application of some Web 2.0 tools to a Spanish language learning course for European international engineering students included in the Programme of Languages for Internationalization (PROLINTER) organized at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM). The suggested activities are the result of several educational innovation projects funded by the UPM since 2005.
First, we give a short introduction to Web 2.0, a second-generation web where users create and interact with contents. We present some of the tools most commonly used in education (blogs, wikis, podcast, social bookmarking) and their possible applications in second language learning and, specifically, in the Spanish as a Foreign Language classroom.
Second, we show how Web 2.0 tools are a very useful mean to develop cooperative, meaningful and autonomous learning (key concepts in the European Higher Education Area (EHEA)) and to implement an action-driven approach to language teaching and learning (as recommended by the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) for Languages: learning, teaching, assessment).
Finally we analyse how to use Web 2.0 tools in our classrooms, weigh up the benefits of their use and show, by way of an example, collaborative activities and projects carried out by UPM students taking the Spanish language course applied to science and technology.

Keywords:

Cooperative and autonomous learning, second language acquisition, web 2.0 applied to language learning.