El relato digital educativo en la enseñanza del inglés y el turismo cultural

Abstract

Digital storytelling is an effective promotional strategy which is increasingly breaking into the market of cultural tourism. Personal stories are becoming central to destination marketing in small rural areas where tourism is an incipient source of financing. Examples of this tendency are the projects developed in Australia, Queensland or Ukiah, California. Recent studies show the enormous potential of the educational digital storytelling in the English classroom as a tool for developing communicative, social, linguistic and professional competences. This paper seeks to analyze the feasibility of the introduction of the educational digital storytelling in the field of English for Tourism with a twofold perspective: as an input for teaching essential concepts such as ecotourism, conservation of nature, sustainability and cultural heritage, alongside the linguistic features of the genre; and as an output, where students create their own digital stories to practice the concepts and competences acquired in the classroom. To conclude, from our experience in ‘Comunicación en Lengua Inglesa para Turismo I’, we consider the introduction of digital storytelling in the Tourism Degree curricula as an example of the promotion of coordination among subjects and the use of ICT in higher education.