Learning language or not learning language. The acquisition of the communicative competence in secondary education in a highly technological environment. A study from Catalonia (Spain)

Abstract

In the last three years, Spain has implemented one-to-one educational models, based on a constant and permanent use of technology in classrooms, among the last years of primary education or the first years of secondary education. However, we still have not begun analyzing the effects of those changes. In this context, the aim of this paper is to analyze the pupils’ achievement expected within this technological environment in the subject of Spanish Language and Literature during the 1st secondary course in Catalonia (Spain). To do this, we have designed a pretest and a posttest and we have recorded those teaching-learning methods used during that course. The results bring up a discouraging picture: students poorly improved their communicative competence after a full school year. This leads us to two conclusions: the first is a curricular problem that exists, as most of the teaching-learning activities are not oriented to the communicative competence learning, instead they are oriented to grammatical or literary contents; the second one is about the current technology use, since it does not seem to contribute to improve textual skills in its current use.