This corpus will be analysed in detail to create e-learning courses on language use and interpreting discourse, based on examples provided by native speakers. After completing the e-learning process, the students will record another dialogue. Both recordings will be analysed to find out to what extent pragmatic and intercultural skills have been acquired in the e-learning process. The fact that the platform is exclusively virtual will make it an inherently inclusive learning resource enabling ELE learners to participate in an international environment remotely.
In addition to establishing a collaborative learning community, the platform will seek to form an international virtual environment to provide teachers of ELE with innovative teaching resources they can incorporate into their classes in order to enhance students' pragmatic skill.
Finally, PRACOMUL will not only contribute to the development of the teaching and learning process of ELE, but will also provide researchers’ access to oral language learners’ data with two authentic and varied oral corpora.
According to the CEFR, pragmatic competence is part of the so-called communicative competence and refers to the functional uses of linguistic resources using scenarios or predetermined scripts of international exchange. It involves the ability to use language in an appropriate way and the mastery of discourse cohesion and coherence.
The objective of PRACOMUL is to enable students to move from learning about pragmatics to learning pragmatics in an interactive and intercultural environment.
Intercultural competence is defined by the Centro Virtual de Cervantes as “the ability of second or foreign language learners to perform adequately and satisfactorily in intercultural communicative contexts.” Given the aim of the platform to bring together learners of Spanish from different countries and with different mother tongues, they will not only acquire pragma-linguistic competences, but they will also develop their ability to communicate with people from other cultures and become aware of intercultural relations.
