Abstract:

This paper analyzes the current state of academic production in research on the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in the teaching and learning of foreign languages (FL) in Mexico, as well as the advancements, challenges, pending issues, and trends in the last decade.

The data used in this presentation were obtained from a project led by the main author. The project involved 150 researchers from 34 Mexican universities who documented research products related to the teaching of FL in 28 states (90%) of the country. To prepare this submission, we reviewed the general database of the project, which contained 869 works, and selected and analyzed 87 (10%) of them that focused on the use of ICT.

Our main findings can be summarized as follows: the vast majority of the products (90%) are practical, focus on higher education and urban population, and have an institutional or regional scope; 75% present some theoretical support; 39% use quantitative methods for data collection, 33% qualitative, and 28% employ mixed methods; the topics of the studies vary but tend to lag behind technological innovations or are confined to commercial agendas. Compared to previous decades, the field has experienced some advancements, including the utilization of a greater diversity of theoretical approaches and research techniques, a slight growth in the educational levels studied, a better balance between quantitative and qualitative studies, and a small increase in using mixed approaches. Some studies show a high level of maturity and quality, use bigger samples, were conducted by colleagues from various institutions, states, or countries, and employed interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary frameworks. A selection of the challenges to be addressed include the need to base research on more solid theoretical foundations; to be more rigorous in explaining the concepts used and linking them to broader theories or approaches; to organize studies of greater depth, coverage, and quality, along with more interdisciplinary, multilingual, and/or multi-methodological research projects; and to improve the training of those who do research in the field. One of the major pending issues in the field is the lack of research on the use of ICT in FL learning by traditionally invisible populations, such as indigenous, migrant, rural, marginalized, low-income, and/or those with special needs or characteristics. Furthermore, there is a lack of research on topics that are not in commercial or technological agendas. Finally, trends appear to indicate an increasing number of works focused on digital applications, alternative modalities to face-to-face education, the role of online games and artificial intelligence, as well as the use of digital media for data collection in research.

Keywords:

Research, Technology, Foreign Language, Teaching.