Biodata

Dr. Alexandra Santamaría Urbieta has a Bachelor´s Degree in Translation and Interpreting from University of País Vasco, one Master in Spanish as a Foreign Language (ULPGC), another Master in Teacher Training (UNED), and a PhD in Translation (ULPGC). She is currently an associate Professor at University of Alcalá in the Degree in Modern Languages and Translation, and at Francisco de Victoria University in Masters of Spanish as a foreign language and Bilingualism. Regarding her research fields, she is part of the research group ENTELEARN (UNIR) and FITISPos group (University of Alcalá) and her lines of research are focused on specialised translation, more specifically on the touristic context, the use of computer tools for the analysis of large amount of corpus, and the study for improvement in teaching innovation.

Orientation guide for bilingual postgraduate
students: the writing of research projects in English

The increasing number of Spanish schools that include within their programs the term “bilingual” has had a direct effect on the number of teachers that decide to enroll on a Master’s Degree to acquire a diploma that prepares them for future job positions or even for sitting a state exam which will allow them to teach any subject through English in the near future. The demand of teachers who have to write research projects in English for the first time, calls for an orientation guide which could help them throughout the writing of a paper that entails great effort and dedication. This communication will present a general overview of the opinions and difficulties of a wide number of bilingual postgraduate students who have had to work on a project like this one. We will take into account these viewpoints to set the needs that will lay the basis of a future written complete orientation guide. Their difficulties with the English language, the absolute lack of awareness of the structure of a paper like this one, the difficulties set to research on the chosen topic so as to write an adequate literature review, as well as the great difficulties encountered when quoting and writing a list of references will be some of the aspects analyzed in this communication and will justify the urgency to write a future guide like the one here proposed.