Los diccionarios de internet de acceso libre en el proceso de enseñanza/aprendizaje del inglés para fines específicos: el «businessdictionary.com» en situaciones cognitivas

Abstract

From its inception in the early 1960s, English for Specific Purposes (ESP) has grown to become one of the most prominent areas of EFL teaching. ESP is usually concerned with the teaching of English used in academic studies and/or professional activities, especially the teaching of English related with Business/Economics, Medicine, and Engineering. As the number of courses and students has grown considerably the original team teaching methodology is being substituted by a more autonomous approach in which both ESP instructors and students have to acquire knowledge of the basic concepts of the field by themselves. This new approach lends support to recent developments in the field of learner’s autonomy, especially those based on Internet (for example, Moodle) that are being promoted in this era of shortages and lack of resources. Within this framework, this article presents Internet dictionaries, especially the so-called free institutional Internet reference works, as adequate tools for using in cognitive situations, i.e., the social situations that arise when users want to gain knowledge about something. In particular, this article describes five lexicographical structures and functionalities of the BusinessDictionary.com that can be used by ESP instructors and students in order to acquire and/or update their business knowledge.