Discursive Adaptation of Spanish Language Teachers in Virtual Learning Environments

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the discursive practices of Spanish Language teachers in Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) from a lexical-semantic perspective, focusing on the development of competent users of the mother tongue. The study adopted a qualitative critical-descriptive approach. Four licensed Spanish Language teachers were selected through convenience sampling and participated as key informants. Data were collected through three techniques: observation, an evaluation rubric, and in-depth structured interviews. One of the most significant findings revealed that a considerable number of interventions during pedagogical sessions were aimed at promoting students’ interaction with Virtual Learning Environments, moving away from the recurrent concerns of traditional pedagogical models. The language used by the participants to construct their discursive activity, from both dialogic and instrumental perspectives, materialized in syntactic and semantic constructions encoded through the use of technical terms and loanwords associated with virtual education, demonstrating a lexicon substantially transformed by contemporary ways of carrying out educational tasks. It is concluded that discursive construction is built upon a complex lexical-semantic transformation that requires the incorporation of terminology associated with Web 2.0 environments. Such terminology acquires semantic value within these contexts and reflects the globalization processes currently shaping education, thereby unifying communicative purposes through a shared language between senders and receivers.