Ubiquitous interaction for ESP distance and blended learners

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse some effective e-tools and interactive tasks to enhance language acquisition and competence building in today’s English for specific purposes (ESP) students in higher education programmes. Design/methodology/approach – There are countless learning methods, often supported by the access of ubiquitous learning materials, which improve students’ engagement, group interaction and independent learning skills in foreign language learners. More frequently, students become successful, independent and cooperative creative learners by means of participating in multimodal virtual learning platforms that would help them to improve a variety of competences. This study is based on English applied to social work, a compulsory subject offered either in a blended (b-learning) or a distance (d-learning) learning environment as part of the degree in social work. It combines its correspondent course book with digital content and multimedia tasks. Findings – Results suggest that a ubiquitous practice for ESP b/d learners can be innovative and successfully competence-addressed when implementing interactive learning tasks that can combine individual and group work inside and outside the classroom hours. Originality/value – The challenge of this research is to integrate a ubiquitous learning approach so that students would interact more and, consequently, enhance their communicative language skills, both in b-learning and d-learning environments.