Debates in English language education: A multimodal, collaborative ecosystem

Abstract

Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.Discussing and reasoning remain essential activities in a 21st educational and professional ecosystem, which are often supported by multimodal communication. This paper links learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL) to a professional and communicative approach through the debate task, which is supported by a ubiquitous CALL/MALL environment. This study will show the proposed structure of the debate in order to establish interdependent and collaborative work that can be successfully planned by means of combining 21st cognitive and communicative skills that will enhance students' EFL performance in Higher Education. Students' decisions to explore target content, role positions, and the production of well-linked communicative messages in EFL will be shown at upper intermediate level B1+/B2. The empirical data suggests that interactive patterns and argumentative rebuttals in English encourage a multimodal educational and professional ecosystem for 21st century learners, who use face-to-face and technological devices to interact with each other and to access ubiquitous information.