e-Literature Circle in the English class. An educational innovation after the 2016 earthquake in Ecuador

Abstract

This work aims is to introduce the e-Literary Circle (e-LC) as an academic innovation that parts from the conventional Literary Circle (CL) towards, its adaptation to an accessible computer platform, and the transformation of an oral practice in English into a written production process. The methodology selected is based on the social interaction approach where 38 university students participated in a distance educational intervention designed by the researcher team. From the qualitative method were applied the technics: focus group, contextualized observation, and semi-structured interview to test the efficiency of the digital tool. The results demonstrate a high technical feasibility of the e-LC and its contribution for the participants improve their written production levels in the English language, despite being in adverse conditions. It is concluded that digital education enhances the possibilities of resuming the daily march of educational activities with quality, within scenarios affected by natural disasters. In addition, the use of the Literary e-Circle has managed to reduce student’s exposure to latent hazards in natural catastrophes events, such as the 7.8-magnitude earthquake that hit Ecuador on April 16, 2016.

Keywords

• higher education
• distance education
• e-learning
• english as a foreign language
• literature circle