ABSTRACT |
This research tries to show the sociolinguistic dimension of English as
a foreign language in a virtual teaching context. Within the scope of
our investigation we examine the e-learning project Ehlee (eHistory
Learning Environment and Evaluation). The project was funded by the
European Commission in September 2004 and lasted until April 2006. A
European virtual university community was built between students from
Alcalá, Bologna, Hannover, Pisa, Turku, Uppsala and the Finnish Virtual
University of History. While students examined how ideas of identity
were formed, reinforced and modified in European history, social
networks were built by using English as the course language. A
significant linguistic corpus was provided by undergraduates’ active
participation in daily on-line forum discussions. This paper contrasts
Spanish students’ linguistic output with other European students. The
differences and similarities are shown and classified in order to
establish the use of English at Spanish universities nowadays.
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