Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: feedback/retroalimentación

Resumen:

This study explores the impact of direct and indirect feedback on the improvement of Spanish past aspect (imperfect/preterit) in writing activities in a third-semester Spanish course. Ninety learners were divided into three groups: direct feedback, indirect feedback, and control (no feedback). Learners completed a pretest, a posttest, and a delayed posttest. Although it remains unclear which type of feedback is more effective, results indicate that both types improved preterit-imperfect performance. As the delayed posttest showed, however, learners exhibited more lasting improvement (as indicated by the delayed posttest) when working on the production Activity than on the terminology and selection activities.

--------------------

Este estudio explora el impacto de la retroalimentación directa e indirecta en la mejora del...

Ver ficha completa

Tipo: artículo

Metodología: revisión bibliográfica

Temas: traducción

Resumen:

This article argues for translation as a fifth skill in language learning and for its integration in a systematic, purposeful, and informed manner in the Spanish language curriculum, with special attention to the situation in the United States. After reviewing the relevant literature in the fields of translation studies (TS) and language acquisition and teaching, we contend that a narrow, specialized, and one-dimensional view of translation, on the translation side, and a rigid ban on the use of the native language on the part of the SLA/teaching community prevented a fruitful integration of translation in the second language (L2) classroom. A broader conceptual definition of translation as cross-linguistic language mediation provides for a much more promising interaction. Taking this conceptual basis as the point of departure, the...

Ver ficha completa

Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: traducción

Resumen:

In an Integrated Plurilingual Approach (IPA), translation is used as a natural plurilingual learning strategy to advance language learning and plurilingual communicative competence (PCC). The focus lies on exploring the use of translation in other learning contexts (TOLC), i.e., not directly related to professional translation training, by seeking relevant connections between Translator Training and Additional Language (AL) Learning. Here I will present partial conclusions from an ongoing study that explores: (1) teacher strategies; and (2) best practices for the combination English-Spanish-Catalan. Our pedagogical framework follows socio-constructivist premises and prioritizes transferrable skills and concept-based instruction. The use of translation did not prove detrimental to language learning, and it favoured the development of...

Ver ficha completa

Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: study abroad/estudios en el extranjero

Resumen:

The present study reports on the impact of pedagogical intervention on the second language (L2) pragmatic development of seven L2 learners of Spanish during a short-term study abroad (SA) experience in Buenos Aires, Argentina. During pre-departure orientation, the students received 90 minutes of explicit instruction about requests. In the course of their time abroad, the students were given strategic tasks designed to draw their attention to pragmatic features of the host community. Using role plays to measure the effects of the intervention, we compared our students' request strategies before and after SA, and then once again five weeks after their return to the United States. Results indicate that the participants became more target-like in their use of requests from pre-test to post-test, and from pre-test to delayed post-test. Our...

Ver ficha completa

Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: enseñanza/aprendizaje de vocabulario

Resumen:

This study reports on vocabulary learning through service-learning (SL) where Spanish L2 learners participated in a story-time program with bilingual children. The descriptive, observational, and qualitative analysis of data sources (e.g., journals, vocabulary assessments) describes language learning "sowing" events (van Lier 2000) that supported vocabulary learning/teaching goals: extending learners' meaningful use of the target language, increasing their usable vocabulary, and equipping them with strategies to take charge of their own lexical development (Nation 2013). Framed through sociocultural perspectives, findings show that learners retained vocabulary targeted through their service as a result of doing with the language in a context in which language exchanges were meaningful, creative, and unscripted. Moreover, the activity'...

Ver ficha completa

Tipo: libro

Temas: pragmática

Resumen:

L2 Spanish Pragmatics is a comprehensive, state-of-the-art overview of current research into pragmatics and Spanish language teaching.

It presents the research on the teaching of pragmatics and Spanish language as a multifaceted discipline. Written by an international cohort of scholars, the breadth of topics includes innovative topics in the teaching of Spanish, such as genre analysis, discourse markers, politeness and impoliteness, nonverbal communication, irony, and humor, as well as web-based pragmatics resources.

Contenidos

1. The Pragmatics Toolbox 
Victoria Escandell-Vidal
  
2. Learning L2 Spanish Pragmatics: What Research Says, What Textbooks Offer, What Teachers Must Do 
Montserrat Mir  

3. Pragmatics in L2 Spanish Textbooks:...

Ver ficha completa

Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: enseñanza/aprendizaje de vocabulario

Resumen:

Although extensive research exists on the personal, social, and academic outcomes of community-engaged programs (CEPs), limited research exists on vocabulary learning and students' perceptions of their own vocabulary learning through participation in a CEP. Likewise, limited research exists on vocabulary learning in mixed-proficiency groups of Spanish second language (L2) learners. This study contributes to the current literature by exploring the vocabulary learning of 57 mixed-proficiency L2-Spanish college students who participated in a health-focused after-school program with Spanish—English bilingual children in a Midwestern city in the US. The higher proficiency students were enrolled in a language-focused class, whereas the lower-level students were enrolled in a Spanish for health professional—s class. Student reflective...

Ver ficha completa

Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: práctica docente

Resumen:

This study examines whether second-language instructors of Spanish overuse subject personal pronouns (SPPs) to facilitate communication with their English-speaking students, which would be a form of teacher talk. Ten native Spanish-speaking language instructors were recorded in two speech contexts: teaching a third-semester Spanish class to native English-speaking learners and talking with another native Spanish speaker. Logistic regression analyses using GoldVarb revealed that SPP expression was strongly conditioned both by the classroom as a speech context and by the linguistic factors including morphological ambiguity of the verb and switch reference. Crucially, instructors' language in the classroom exhibited elevated and modified use of overt SPPs. This finding contributes to research on the variable use of Spanish SPPs, and it...

Ver ficha completa

Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: literatura

Resumen:

Texto completo

In today's globalized world, teaching intercultural competence in educational contexts is of great importance. The potential of foreign language literary texts has been emphasized repeatedly. The present study investigates the value of a content and language integrated learning (CLIL) approach to the teaching of literature in foreign language classrooms for the simultaneous development of intercultural competence and foreign language reading proficiency. An intervention based on integrated intercultural literary pedagogy (IILP) was developed. This longitudinal quasi-experimental study examined the effects of the IILP treatment in a sample of 274 Dutch secondary school students (from seven schools...

Ver ficha completa

Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: español académico

Resumen:

Presenting in a second language (L2) is perhaps the greatest challenge for international students in a foreign academic context. In this study, we examine the multimodal (verbal and non-verbal) oral performances of two L2 and two L1 groups of Spanish students enrolled in a university Applied Linguistics course. To determine the specific demands and challenges that each group faces, we conducted a questionnaire with 16 participants and carried out an audiovisual discourse analysis of the presentations based on a multimodal framework applied to the use of academic Spanish. It was discovered in the analysis of the data that multimodal competence, the ability to make use of and combine verbal and non-verbal modes of communication to construct and communicate meaning, can compensate for L2 students' linguistic deficiencies. The article...

Ver ficha completa