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Use of technological applications for teaching and learning English

language during the pandemic.

Uso de aplicaciones tecnológicas para la enseñanza aprendizaje del

inglés durante pandemia.

Steven Jesús Cedeño Montalván

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0522-9739 - stecdn@gmail.com

Selena Jamileth Mendoza Santana

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1372-7949 - jamilethmendozasantana@gmail.com

Raisa Macias Sera

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9618-2854 - raisamacias15@gmail.com

Universidad Laica “Eloy Alfaro” de Manabí - Extensión Chone.

Ecuador

Recibido: 19-01-2023 – Revisado: 15/03/2023 - Publicado: 29/07/2023

Abstract

New information and communication

technologies began to be used more

frequently in the learning of English in the

last three years, with the arrival of the

Covid-19 pandemic, its use intensified

during the development, practice, and

feedback of virtual classes. The objective of

the present work consisted of evaluating the

use of the technological application

Liveworksheets to favor English language

skills in the students of the Second High

School of the "Amazonas" Educational Unit

of the Chone canton. The information was

obtained from 23 students and 6 English

teachers. This is a qualitative research

participatory research type. Surveys and

interviews were applied to teachers and

students and an exhaustive review of the

literature was made where it was obtained

as a result that there is still a lack of

knowledge about the use of technological

applications for language learning and that

the Liveworksheets application was the

most used in the Amazonas educational

institution, which encouraged the

motivation of teachers and students. It is

concluded that the Live worksheets

application favors the process of teaching

and learning English despite the limitations

such as the lack of preparation of teachers in

the use of technology and it is

recommended to continue using this

platform as support material given the

advantages it offers to teachers and students.

Keywords: Liveworksheets; English

learning; pandemic; communicative

competencies.

Resumen

Las nuevas tecnologías de información y

comunicación comenzaron a usarse con

mayor frecuencia en el aprendizaje del

inglés en los últimos tres años, con la

llegada la pandemia del Covid-19, su uso

se intensificó durante el desarrollo,

práctica y retroalimentación de las

clases virtuales. El objetivo del presente

trabajo consistió en valorar el uso de la

aplicación tecnológica Liveworksheets

para favorecer las habilidades del

idioma inglés en los estudiantes del

Segundo de Bachillerato de la Unidad

Educativa “Amazonas” del cantón

Chone. La información se obtuvo a partir

de una muestra de 23 estudiantes y 6

docentes del área de inglés. Esta

investigación es cualitativa de tipo de

investigación participativa. Se aplicaron

encuestas y entrevistas a los docentes y

estudiantes y se hizo una revisión

exhaustiva de la literatura donde se

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obtuvo como resultado que existe aún

desconocimiento acerca del uso de

aplicativos tecnológicos para el

aprendizaje de idiomas y que la

aplicación Liveworksheets fue la más

utilizada en la institucione educativa

Amazonas, la misma incentivó la

motivación de docentes y estudiante. Se

concluye que la aplicación

Liveworksheets favorece el proceso de

enseñanza aprendizaje del idioma inglés

a pesar de las limitaciones como la falta

de preparación de los docentes en el uso

de la tecnología y se recomienda seguir

utilizando esta plataforma como material

de apoyo dada las ventajas que ofrece a

docentes y estudiantes.

Palabras clave: Liveworksheets;

aprendizaje del inglés; pandemia;

competencias comunicativas.

Introduction

The learning of foreign languages is nowadays a necessity of the first order. As a result

of Globalization, trade, and mobility of citizens to and from different points of the planet,

has grown and English has been the most widely used language at the international level;

therefore, it has become essential to seek methodologies, strategies, techniques and

technological tools for the development of communicative language skills.

Moreira-Aguayo and Venegas-Loor (2020) and other authors share the idea that

communicative competencies are characterized as a person's ability to communicate

successfully in real-life situations that fall within the domain of foreign language

teaching, such as English. Communication is an important factor to develop because that

is the achievement of learning a language and interacting with speakers of the other

language.

Within this order of ideas, communicative competencies, as previously mentioned, are

the ability of a person to develop suitably and efficiently within a certain speech

community where they share the same language and its standard. In this sense, different

communicative competencies are mentioned such as: grammatical, psycholinguistic,

sociocultural, probabilistic, strategic, and discursive. All these competencies are based on

the communicative approach; authors such as Gooding de Palacios (2020) state that the

communicative approach deploys many types of activities: interactive, motivating,

projected in the development of communicative functions, playful to release tensions, get

out of the routine and worries, making entertaining, fun classes, etc.

In this sense, for the development of classes taking the communicative approach as a

premise, the implementation of technological applications as a support for

systematization and interactive learning, even outside the classroom, is appropriate.

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Nowadays several resources and applications motivate and allow students to learn a

foreign language in their own time and style.

Brovetto (2011) argues that technologies provide new forms of interaction and joint work

in a face-to-face, synchronous or asynchronous manner. They can establish

communication and development activities in English in interaction with native speakers

or with their schoolmates, which is why they have a leading role in the various academic

scenarios and have contributed to improving the level of linguistic competence of

learners.

According to Serrano (2016) (as cited in Torres & Cobo, 2017) indicates that educational

technology (ET) is a discipline in charge of the study of media, documents, web portals,

and technological platforms for the learning process; where domains are resources

applied for training and instructional purposes, designed initially to meet the needs and

concerns of users.

Historically, the 1940s as indicated by Munroe (1941) (as cited in Torres & Cobo, 2017)

initiated the incursion of technology as changes in behavior resulting from the school

application of materials such as silent or sound film; school period; still images, which

can be viewed live or projected as slides, movies, etc.; equipment; and sheets, maps, and

graphs. It was at this time that technology began to be part of education through different

materials, techniques, and methods, where its objective was to relate new technologies to

education to obtain new and better learning results.

Nowadays the world is exposed to many changes that bring with them great positive and

negative consequences in different aspects of life. Recently during the Covid-19

pandemic, several alterations arose in a society where daily activities such as

communication, work, education, and others were forced to be virtual; for this reason,

education assumes virtuality as a fundamental means in the teaching-learning process

such as the organization of activities and tasks, the acquisition of skills and knowledge,

evaluation methods, class dynamics or inter-institutional relations.

According to Diario El Universo (2022) (as cited in Arteaga-Flores et al., 2021).

"In Ecuador only at the level of basic general education of fiscal colleges and

schools, there are 3 million students enrolled in 150 thousand teaching centers, of

which, 2 million have the possibility of connectivity; while 1 million do not have

access to it, in addition to not having adequate digital devices for the teaching-

learning process".

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When virtual education was introduced in Ecuador, the lack of technological resources or

their incomplete existence was the result of many gaps in the students because the

insufficient interaction with technological resources did not allow the study in virtual

mode to be received appropriately.

During the confinement, technology became the first tool for the delivery of classes,

having a high usage. As Bozkurt and Sharma (2020) argue, the educational system was

unfit for external imminences such as Covid-19. In effect to the global education crisis,

online remote teaching was implemented, which was a learning process that involved

several factors where students were provided not only with appropriate content but also

with accountability and flexibility, which demands careful planning, design, and goal

setting to create meaningful learning.

Therefore, educators had to look for new ways to bring knowledge to their students

through strategies, didactic materials, and technological resources that before the

pandemic was not used optimally.

In Ecuador, the learning of English during the confinement period was not alien to the

way it was approached in other latitudes. As in other countries in the region, there were

several problems. Starting with the difficult access to the internet and technological

equipment to connect to online classes, the limited experience in the mastery of ICTs, and

the decrease in the development of foreign language proficiency in students (Córdova et

al., 2022).

Before the completion of this work, we participated in the pre-professional internship

project of the Universidad Laica "Eloy Alfaro" of Manabí - Chone extension of the

National and Foreign Languages Pedagogy career at the "Amazonas" High School. This

was a fundamental experience in the formation of future teachers, especially at a time

when changes were made in the methodology of teaching English as a result of the

international pandemic situation.

About the experience lived in the "Amazonas" High School where the pre-professional

practices were carried out, the authors of this work wanted to deepen the topic related to

the technological applications used for the learning of English, through the development

of the practices it was evidenced that the students and teachers did not make adequate use

of the technological applications during the classes, for such reason the interest for the

learning of the language with the use of the technology was low.

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Motivated by the experience, a diagnosis was made to the students and teachers of the

institution, various instruments were applied through which English language skills were

put into practice using various technological applications and as a result, it was evidenced

that students had insufficiencies in the development of oral and written communication

skills and that the most used platform was Liveworksheets. Therefore, motivated by the

use of tics during the pandemic stage and to favor the learning process in high school, a

scientific question was posed: Can the use of technological applications favor the

teaching-learning process of the English language?

The objective was established as follows: "to evaluate the results obtained with the use of

the technological application Liveworksheets in the teaching-learning process of the

English language to favor language skills", the following scientific tasks were established

among which are: To study the main theoretical and methodological aspects of the

research, to determine the current state of the preparation of teachers and students, to

evaluate the use of the technological platforms used in the teaching-learning process

during the COVID 19 pandemic, to elaborate the pertinent recommendations to improve

the use of these technologies and to expose the experiences systematized in this work

about the use of the technological application Liveworksheets as a novel tool in the

teaching of the English language.

This research benefits teachers and students by highlighting the benefits and offering

recommendations for the use of the Liveworksheets application in the learning of English

in a didactic and even fun way. Likewise, interest in the optimal use of technology in

education is encouraged.

This research is qualitative, the concept of the qualitative method is supported by Taylor

and Bogdan (1986) (as cited in Herrera, n.d. ) indicates that "it is the one that produces

descriptive data: people's own words, spoken or written, and observable behavior", in this

research it is used because through this method the different scenarios in which the

instruments were applied to 23 students and 6 teachers of the subject of English were

analyzed, information was subtracted from the sources consulted to determine the

problem, analyze it and reflect on the topic addressed.

Due to the above-mentioned, this research is important because it provides teachers and

students with necessary information about the use of technological applications in the

process of learning English in the virtual modality, highlighting the Liveworksheets

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application as an alternative tool for the teaching and acquisition of knowledge during the

classes together with the development of the communicative skills of the language.

The hypothesis: The use of the technological application Liveworksheets, due to its

characteristics and correctly used after preparation of teachers, students, and a minimum

of technological resources, can favor the development of communicative skills in the

English language.

Literature Review

For the adequate development of a language, linguistic competencies play a very

important role within it. Thus, as Cisneros (2009) indicates, communicative competencies

are how people can establish a relationship with other people in a given environment.

These skills begin to be acquired through the relationship of the person with the different

scenarios of the environment of the other language to be learned such as family, school,

and society in general.

Linguistic competencies must be developed under an approach; therefore, it is considered

the concept of Gooding de Palacios (2020) that the communicative approach has several

objectives, techniques, and ludic activities for language learning. In the same way,

Zambrano and Alirio (2001) expose:

The communicative approach is based on five primary objectives: 1) to provide

support to students in the management of the communicative competencies of the

foreign language; 2) to facilitate the use of the foreign language in everyday

actions to express diverse personal and intrapersonal information; 3) to provide

adequate feedback and correction of errors according to the needs that arise; 4) to

promote the learning of the foreign language not only for educational purposes

but for foreign language linguistic purposes; 5) to enliven the exploration of

different teaching methods and techniques that strengthen communicative skills

in function and meaningfulness.

Supporting the above notions, Serrano (2016) (as cited in Torres & Cobo, 2017) states

that it is possible to implement technology in education based on the communicative

approach. Therefore, Cabrero (2003) mentions that educational technology can be

conceptualized as "an integrating, living, contradictory and significant discipline of

education" furthermore it is considered that currently, it has become a necessity to

incorporate technology in education, due to so many changes and risks that society goes

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through, education has been forced to have a preparation for possible virtual classes,

where technology and its branches play the fundamental role.

Based on Solér (2008) indicates that information technologies play an important role in

education for teachers, students, and family that is also part of education, the personal use

of having access to information to solve various problems raised in their educational

process and turn acquire adequate knowledge about the different topics that are taught in

the classroom. Including technology in education generates great results in the teaching

and learning process of students, besides being a more dynamic and appealing way for

them to work.

Brovetto's theory, (2011), indicated that technology provides new forms of interaction

between people and facilitates different ways of working in a face-to-face or virtual way,

in turn, the use of technology can develop education. Currently, technology is present in

most academic scenarios, and its use has allowed education to be more active and efficient

for those who make use of it.

Based on statistical data from INEC (2019) (as cited in Oviedo, 2021) 37% of families

have Internet access and only 9.1% of rural families. Of the 37% mentioned above, 24%

have a computer, and families in the countryside only 8%. Emphasizing the ideas of

Brítez (2020) (as cited in Cedeño-Solorzano et al., 2021) the way of teaching in Ecuador

during the pandemic left owing much, because teachers were deficient in the management

of the platforms, the collapse of the same, parents and most students lacked knowledge

about the mastery of computers.

Valdivieso and Gonzales (2016) (as cited in Mendoza-Bozada, 2020) state, Ecuador lacks

the budget to invest in technology in education, and with every day that passes the

situation is worse. Science and technology are meaningless in development, especially

when the contribution of scientific research is needed to make innovation more productive

and competitive.

Namely, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

(UNESCO) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) (2020) (as cited in López

et al., 2022) state that "at the initial, basic and high school education levels, it has been

estimated that the loss of learning is 40%; that is, students are learning a maximum of

60% of what they would have learned if they were in face-to-face classes".

Due to the above, the difficulties and growth of technology, nowadays several interactive

pages and technological applications are used in the classroom for the development of the

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same, teachers make use of them to maintain a more dynamic and participatory class. A

clear example of this is the Liveworksheets application (2022), which indicates that it is

a page that allows transforming traditional worksheets into worksheets with self-

correcting exercises, also called interactive worksheets. In turn, it allows students to

complete the worksheets online and send the answers to the teacher, which is considered

good for the students because it sounds motivating, for the teacher because it saves

correction time, and for the environment because it saves paper.

These cards take advantage of new technologies applied to education since they can

include sounds, images, videos, drag and drop exercises, join with lines, multiple choice,

and audio recording, among others, all these features that fully help the development of

communicative language skills.

According to Garzón (2020) who indicates that through the game the learner's skills can

be perfected through playful activities that are performed unconsciously, indicates that

the game is the greatest motivator in the process of teaching and learning the English

language and in turn mentions that the virtual platform Liveworksheets and its

implementation helps dynamically and entertainingly, for this reason, the valuable role of

the virtual platform is emphasized by combining these two elements such as the game

and teaching so that learners get great learning.

Franco and Garcia (2019) indicate that the Liveworksheets virtual learning environment

has a positive impact on learners by providing additional practice to improve the four

skills associated with learning English such as listening, speaking, and writing.

Liveworksheets are a technological application that not only helps to reinforce the

knowledge acquired in class but also greatly aids in the development of communicative

language skills.

Along the same line Mora (2022) mentions that the Liveworksheets application is widely

used because it consists of a digital space that can be used online and offline, it contains

a series of self-modifying interactive worksheets with various exercises, where students

after completing them can send them to their teachers to proceed to be graded

automatically, the platform allows listening, writing and interacting through the exercises

to motivate students.

Based on the experience of Machado and Orozco (2021) the use of new technologies

enriches and innovates the educational learning environment in an interdisciplinary way,

and as an improvement strategy can be used in different fields, it favors learning in all

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areas of knowledge including languages. Nowadays, different areas of knowledge can be

developed effectively and productively through technology and the different elements

that it facilitates.

Patiño-Quizhpi et al. (2020) point out that the main advantage of Liveworksheets is to

transform the traditional spreadsheet pdf, jpg, doc, etc. into interactive pages of self-

correction, including multimedia such as video, audio, and images. Among other things,

it is a free platform that teachers can use to send assignments to students. On the other

hand, the only disadvantage identified is that each account has a limit of one hundred

students, so teachers must create other accounts to work with all their students or pay

premium subscriptions to increase the number of students in the same account.

Materials and methods

During the pre-professional practices and the contact with the students in a virtual way,

some questions about ICTs and language learning arose, which motivated us to study and

deepen the subject, and consequently to carry out this research using several types of field

instruments. This research is qualitative because it details descriptively the information

collected through instruments such as interviews, observation sheets, and surveys.

In correspondence with the above, it can be said that the qualitative method, through its

instruments, allows the researcher to participate in the research together with the object

and subjects of study. Therefore, the qualitative level of this research was action-

participatory since it made known the problem that arose in the place of study and in turn

acted by analyzing and proposing improvements to transform the reality where the

research was carried out.

Therefore, the population consisted of 200 students in the first year of high school at the

Educational Institution “Amazonas” of Chone, from which a group of 23 students was

taken as an intentional sample, for the application of surveys and observation sheets since

they were the students with whom we worked in virtual classes during the COVID 19

pandemic. Of equal importance, 6 teachers of the English area were obtained as a

population for the application of the interview and survey, of which 6 teachers were taken

as a sample for the interview and to know how they used the technological applications

and what was the effect that the use of these had on the students since they taught classes

at the level of students that inspired to carry out this scientific work, and the 6 teachers

were part of the survey conducted.

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It should be noted that, during the research, several technological platforms and

applications were used that helped in the student's English language learning process,

among which were: WhatsApp, YouTube, PowerPoint, Zoom, and Liveworksheets.

However, at the end of it, a comparative analysis was made between the mentioned

applications, where it was deduced that although the other applications contributed to the

educational process of the students, the Liveworksheets application allowed

strengthening the skills together, that is, in the same application to develop all the

language skills progressively.

In the present research, a review of the literature of the last decade was carried out, which

was of great importance in allowing the authors to analyze the various ways in which

language learning has been approached with the use of technologies, specifically with the

use of the technological application Liveworksheets, where several authors mentioned

that it is of great help in the process of teaching and learning English for teachers and

high school students due to great support for the practice of the knowledge previously

taught during the virtual classes in pandemic time.

Results

Figure 1. Student Survey

In the survey applied to 23 students of the Second Parallel High School "G" of the

"Amazonas" Educational Unit about the use of technological applications, specifically

Liveworksheets in virtual classes during the Covid-19 pandemic, 80% of the students

Very sastified Satisfied Dissatisfied Very Dissatified

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indicated that they were satisfied with the teaching-learning process during the pandemic

and worked with this modality despite the various difficulties and inconveniences that

arose, such as access to connectivity and technological applications.

Regarding the interaction that the students felt they had, 70% of the students indicated

that it was satisfactory while the other 30% did not feel comfortable with the interaction

among classmates and with their teachers since communication in virtual classes was to

some extent limited and complex.

Using technological applications for developing English classes was to their liking

because it was a new learning environment where, despite the social distance, they could

be in contact with their teachers and classmates. Regarding the use of the Liveworksheets

application in virtual English classes, they mentioned that they used it in 80% of the types

and felt motivated by its use.

With the above mentioned, the students consider that the learning acquired during the

virtual classes was positive with the technological applications. They mentioned that the

technological applications mostly used were WhatsApp, Zoom, YouTube, and Live

worksheets. Seventy-five percent of the students in consider that the English language

can be learned using technological applications and that they are interested in using these

technological tools in the face-to-face modality.

Figure 2. Teacher Survey

In the survey applied to 6 teachers of the English area of the "Amazonas" High School

regarding the use of technological applications, specifically Liveworksheets in virtual

classes during the Covid-19 pandemic, 70% of the teachers indicated that the teaching-

teaching

process in class

satisfaction

with

applications

access and

ease of entry

to applications

teacher

preparation on

technological

applications

development

of English

through

technological

Applications

Very sastified Satisfied Dissatisfied Very Dissatified

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learning process during the pandemic was satisfactory, despite the various difficulties and

inconveniences that arose, such as access to connectivity and technological applications,

and the other 30% were not very satisfied with the work modality.

Concerning the satisfaction of working with the technological applications, 25% of the

teachers indicated that they were very satisfied, while 75% indicated that they were

satisfied with working with the technological applications during the virtual classes, both

favorable and positive results. In turn, 10% of the teachers indicated that they were very

satisfied with the accessibility with which they were able to access and make use of the

different technological applications, and the other 90% were satisfied, both results agreed

that it was easy to access and make use of the applications.

According to the teachers' training for virtual teaching with different applications that can

be used, 50% strongly agree with this decision, 25% agree and the other 25% slightly

agree with this statement, the teachers believe that for better teaching of classes virtually

it is important to have a previous preparation.

Finally, about whether teachers agree that the English language can be developed

effectively with the use of technological applications, 100% fully agree that it is possible

and are very satisfied with this statement since technological applications facilitate many

activities for the development of language skills.

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Figure 3. Teacher Interviews

The interviews were conducted with a total of 3 high school English teachers of the

"Amazonas" Educational Unit. Once the interviews were conducted, each of the answers

obtained was analyzed, and the results showed that 100% of the educators used regular

applications to connect to classes and communicate, such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and

WhatsApp; 67% of them delved into the search for and implementation of technological

applications for teaching classes, the most used being Liveworksheets since it allowed

students to develop activities in line with the topics of the classes while strengthening

their communication skills and interacting with each other.

However, there was a problem that 100% of the teachers had connectivity problems with

their students; students with limited resources did not have the necessary technological

devices to receive the classes, and many of them lacked internet service, especially those

living in rural areas. But despite these difficulties, with the use of the Liveworksheets

application, students were able to practice when they had internet, without the need to be

connected to classes and from other people's devices, whether they belonged to family or

friends.

100%

66,67%

100%

66,67%

Use of technological platforms and applications in Covid-19

Most used tools or applications

Most widely used proposed technological applications

The students were motivated when using the applications to learn English

Allow applications to interact in classes

Skills enhanced with the use of applications

Se presentaron desventajas durante el uso de las apliaciones

There were disadvantages during the use of the applications

It is necessary to train teachers in the management of technology and applications

Virtual classes and the use of tools and applications favored learning

Assessment of student learning outcomes

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99% of the teachers share the idea that training on technological applications is necessary,

so that in the future, if they were to return to virtuality, they would have the necessary

knowledge on the management of these tools, since some only knew the applications to

connect to the classes and made excessive use of them, a fact that changed when they

used other applications such as Liveworksheets to complement learning, generating the

participation of all students.

The effectiveness of the Liveworksheets application was evidenced through a

comparative study with other applications used for teaching English language learning

during the pandemic. Liveworksheets, unlike WhatsApp, YouTube, Zoom, and

PowerPoint, allow the development of practical, ludic, communicative, and reasoning

activities, as well as the use of the language through interactive worksheets that can be

developed during synchronous or asynchronous classes. With the Liveworksheets

platform, direct interaction between teachers and students is not necessary, the materials

or activities are stored on the platform and can be easily carried out after class.

As for the YouTube platform, it allows access to multimedia content (music, videos,

tutorials) that strengthen receptive language skills such as listening and reading, while the

Liveworksheets application, in addition to allowing students to study content or perform

classroom activities of the same receptive language skills, adds the practice and

development of productive skills such as oral communication and writing.

Discussion

The results of the instruments applied to students and teachers on various characteristics

of the use of technological applications in virtual classes during the Covid-19 pandemic

showed that the teaching-learning process during the pandemic was moderately

satisfactory to work with this modality due to the various difficulties and inconveniences

that arose, such as access to connectivity and technological applications. The interaction

that the students and student-teachers felt they had was slightly pleasant for them since

communication in virtual classes was limited and complex to some extent. The use of

technological applications for the development of English classes was more liked by the

teachers than by the students, since the students did not feel more motivated to use them

because it was a new learning environment that they did not handle with total security,

and for that reason, they did not feel more motivated to use them.

Due to the above-mentioned, the students consider that they did not learn enough during

the virtual modality and the use of the technological applications; however, the teachers

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believe that the students reached half the level of knowledge that was intended to be

transmitted. They mentioned that the technological applications most used were

WhatsApp, Zoom, and YouTube. Regarding the use of the Liveworksheets application in

the virtual English classes, the teachers mentioned that they did use it in their classes,

with the use of this application they were able to motivate the students with the use of it.

The teachers and students consider that the English language can be learned using

technological applications and that they are interested in using these technological tools

in the face-to-face modality.

These findings are confirmed by the results obtained by Hurtado et al. (2022) within their

research 91.02% consider that student participation in virtual classes depends on

interactivity. In the observed activities, participation was determined, however, the

authorities found that teachers use permissive techniques in the interaction, but the

desired effect of the operative is not the expected". For the case of the group of the present

research 80% of the teachers indicated that the interaction in the virtual classes between

teachers and students was good, while the other 20% indicated that the interactivity was

not adequate, despite the limitations they had with the applications and technological

resources, however, for the students the level of satisfaction with the interaction they had

in the virtual classes was not adequate.

On the other hand, Zambrano-Hidalgo and Arroyo-Cobeña (2022) in their research

indicate that "observing the results achieved on the digital tool Liveworksheets, teachers

rely on the various teaching materials it provides as a resource to enhance the learning

process of students to develop language skills". In this research, 75% indicated that they

made use of the Liveworksheets tool in virtual classes to make them more dynamic and

interactive with their students; students indicated that they did use this application with

their teachers and that it was a new way to carry out class activities. Another 25% of the

teachers did not know about this digital platform or did not use it.

Several technological applications were used in the teaching-learning process in times of

pandemic. According to Castillo and Canese (2021) in their research from the analysis of

the results obtained by applications contributing to language skills, it was discovered that

many applications help English teachers and students to improve through practice. On the

part of the present research, the teachers and students who participated in it indicated that

through technological applications, it is possible to achieve an adequate acquisition of the

English language.

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As far as the English teaching-learning process is concerned, connectivity problems had

too much influence because most of the students did not have internet or the equipment

to connect, which delayed their training. Similarly, for Prieto and Ramírez (2020) in their

research, the lack of connectivity and technological resources hindered coverage,

prevented the desired impact, and reduced access to learning, especially for children in

remote areas.

Teacher training on the use of technological applications was another cause that limited

learning, since the lack of knowledge about the tools and their use meant that teachers did

not implement them correctly during their classes, which is why they suggested that they

should be trained to be better prepared in the future for an event similar to that caused by

the Covid-19 pandemic. The same is evident in the results of Gonzales (2020) that

teachers, even with modern computers, do not have the applications and knowledge to

adapt their methodologies to teach and develop specific topics.

Conclusions

The theoretical systematization carried out in the present work has allowed us to endorse

the importance of the use of technological applications in virtual classes during pandemic

times in the process of teaching and learning English.

The technological application Liveworksheets contains a variety of interactive activities

where language skills can be developed and at the same time allow the teacher to select

the most appropriate ones for his students according to the subject taught and their needs.

The use of the technological application Liveworksheets showed a positive result in the

students as it was a motivating and eye-catching application during the virtual classes,

through the realization of various activities that in turn improved language skills.

The lack of previous technological preparation for teachers and students for its use limited

its effectiveness in the teaching-learning process with the use of technological

applications.

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