Didactic Strategies for the Teaching of English as a Second Language

The pandemic caused by COVID-19 has forced the adoption of health measures such as social distancing and confinement, which have forced the suspension of educational processes in a face-to-face manner. For this reason, pedagogical alternatives based on the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) have been adopted to develop the process of distance learning, in a scenario of considerable limitations due to deficient technological access, high poverty levels, and geographic barriers predominant in Ecuador. ICTs have been successfully applied in the teaching of English as a second language in many other countries taking advantage of multimedia resources for this purpose. To evaluate the effectiveness of using ICT¿s as a didactic strategy, students from elementary and secondary education in different regions of Ecuador (the Highlands, the Amazon Rainforest, and the Coast), who applied the learning strategies in their homes, were evaluated. In this research, the impact of the pandemic on the students¿ access to education was quantified, an inventory of the existing teaching resources for the teaching of English as a second language was made.