Motivating language learning through online radio

Resumen

Radio is the means of communication with the best adaptation to ICT changes, integrating its routineto the internet. Since the European Parliament urged the governments of member states in 2008 toenforce actions that advocate for media literacy programmes, especially in schools, there has been adevelopment in Spain for technological modernisation, which instead of seeking an establishment inmedia education, has been aimed at providing technological infrastructures to schools. Ultimately a“simple” technology translation. Society in the 20th century is characterised as multicultural andmultilingual as a result of cultural and human diversity. Bilingualism is the rule rather than theexception, meaning that a great part of the world’s population is able to communicate in more thanone language. But being exposed passively to a language is not efficient when trying to learn it. Socialinteraction is fundamental to acquire the sounds of a language. An education of the 21st century mustimprove the way languages are learnt and used, starting with our own, and a communicationalapproach might be the key. Of all the existing language teaching methods throughout history since the18th century, those oriented towards achieving communicative proficiency stand out. Reaching a“hearing education” could be obtained thanks to the radio, for the means enables speaking, benefitslistening, stimulates imagination and allows the sound’s quality and typology to be understood. In thissense, we need to consider how to improve language teaching and learning for both foreign andofficial languages in Spain, and more specifically, the ability required for speaking. This is the contextin which the school Radio at the secondary school IES Mediterrània in Benidorm appears. This onlineradio is proposed as a motivational tool to favour language learning in a multilingual and multiculturalenvironment like Benidorm in a moment in which new generations are not only originators, but alsoproducers and prosumers of mass media. It is an educational project, aimed at students between 12and 18 years old, who play the role of journalists in front of the microphones, reaching an integratedtreatment of the four working languages (Valencian, Spanish, English and French). News, interviewsand cultural spaces are some of the programmes designed by themselves that can be heard onIVOOX and on the center’s website. Thirty-two programmes have been recorded so far in thelanguages used in the center (Valencian, Spanish, English and French). The creation and recordingprocess of a radio programme implies working with the four competencies, both oral and written, whendrafting scripts, searching information about the chosen topics and recording them (listening andwriting comprehension and production). The programmes are broadcasted live weekly on the internetthrough the streaming programme and with recorded audios (podcast). Among the people taking partin the project we can find students with Asperger’s Syndrome, Autism, Cerebral Palsy and DownSyndrome. The radio has allowed them to be empowered like the young people they are, autonomousbeings with their own initiative