Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: enseñanza/aprendizaje de la gramática

Resumen:

Research has underscored the separate role of output to promote processing instruction (PI) effects in language learning. Yet, there is a need to scrutinize the interplay between structured output (SO) and unstructured output (USO) within PI to understand how innovative combinations may enhance ultimate educational attainment. The present quasi-experimental study investigated the possible effects of PI with/without SO and USO on learners' short-term and long-term automatic and non-automatic explicit knowledge of English passive structure. A homogeneous sample of 115 Intermediate learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) in intact groups was selected and randomly assigned to four experimental groups (PI, PI+SO, PI+USO, and PI+SO+USO). We administered parallel timed and untimed grammaticality judgment tests (GJT) to measure...

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Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: futuro

Resumen:

Future-time expression provides an interesting test-case for the acquisition of variation in Spanish, since several forms convey the future, including morphological future (e.g. iré 'I will go'), periphrastic future (e.g. voy a ir 'I am going to go'), and present indicative (e.g. voy 'I go'). Research has considered to what extent learners select these forms in variable contexts, but investigations have not included pedagogical interventions, despite calls for instruction informed by variation. This study investigates the effects of an explicit classroom intervention in which 54 participants received either the university curriculum's standard instruction on morphological future formation; deductive instruction regarding general usage rates for future-time forms and the effects of independent variables from previous research (i.e....

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Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: factores afectivos

Resumen:

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The majority of recent research studies show the emotional state of language learners at the onset of the Covid-19. Although the language students themselves identified issues limiting their learning, such as lack of interaction, lack of motivation and feedback, isolation, problems with the Internet, language teachers have admitted their concerns about students learning and confessed to being flexible, tolerant, and more humane. Today, there is a need to follow up on those student issues regarding their language learning beyond the Spring of 2020. This paper sheds light on the evolution of life, emotions, and wellbeing of the students, and their language learning beyond the rapid...

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Tipo: artículo

Metodología: revisión bibliográfica

Temas: metodología de investigación

Resumen:

Scholars and community members have long utilized participatory action research (PAR) to strategize local efforts to address real-world problems across various disciplines, including education. Applied linguistics and language education have also embraced and echoed the PAR tenets that situate the locus of knowledge production within local communities, aiming to co-construct ethical praxis for socially just change. However, there are few methodological syntheses of PAR studies in additional language education, despite ongoing calls to promote such a democratic research methodology to effect societal change. Aiming to bring greater methodological clarity regarding PAR in language education research, this article reviews methodological issues, synthesizing PAR in theory and PAR in practice. Drawing on a methodological review approach,...

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Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: marcadores discursivos

Resumen:

Research on how foreign language learners use discourse markers (DMs) has largely centered on English, with limited attention to functional category development in other languages such as Spanish. At the same time, the relationship between study-abroad (SA) experience and proficiency in shaping DM usage remains inadequately understood. This study analyzes how proficiency (B1 versus B2 levels) and SA experience (with versus without) relate to Chinese learners' use of functional DM in Spanish. More specifically, the study employs a between-subjects design with two oral tasks, and the collected DM data were classified into four functional categories: Estructuradores de la Información (EST, information-structuring markers), Conectores (CON, connective markers), Operadores Argumentativos (OA, argumentative operators), and Marcadores...

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Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: expresión escrita

Resumen:

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This study aimed to investigate to what extent working memory capacity (WMC) and emotional intelligence (EI) contribute to second language (L2) writing as assessed through measures of syntactic and lexical complexity and linguistic accuracy. Seventy-seven adult learners of Spanish took part in the study and performed two writing tasks, one about an emotional topic and the other one about a non-emotional topic. They also completed a self-reported measure of EI, the Trait Meta-Mood Scale, and three memory tasks, the Math Span Test, the Corsi Block-Tapping Task, and the Stroop Task. The results showed a negative correlation between emotional repair and visuospatial short-term memory...

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Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: adquisición de segundas lenguas

Resumen:

This study addresses the acquisition of second language (L2) Spanish grammatical gender by native speakers of two typologically different languages: English (n = 39) and Russian (n = 37). We aim to explore if the presence or absence of gender features in the first language (L1) influences the acquisition of Spanish grammatical gender. Participants completed an acceptability judgment task consisting of 40 sentences with grammatical and ungrammatical Spanish Determiner Phrases (DPs). They included masculine and feminine Ns (Nouns) with transparent or opaque endings. Our findings show that (1) both groups are sensitive to gender non-matching structures, although L1 Russian speakers gave the lowest scores to ungrammatical structures in Spanish; (2) higher rating scores to masculine matching DPs point to the use of masculine as default by...

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Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: enfoque por tareas

Resumen:

Task modality (oral vs. writing) has been found to affect the production, nature and resolution of the language-related episodes (LREs) produced by adult learners in collaborative interaction, a finding also attested in very recent and still limited research with young learners, a population that deserves greater attention in the literature. Besides, previous research has not yet considered the incorporation of LREs in the final output of both oral and written tasks. Nor has it controlled for the differential levels of accuracy that the oral vs. the written modality demand, or the opportunity for revising the output equally in both modalities. Besides, little is known about learners' motivation towards tasks of different modality. This article fills these gaps by examining the effect of task-modality on the production of LREs by 10-...

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Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: diferencias individuales

Resumen:

Grit is among the individual difference (ID) variables that have recently come to the attention of researchers investigating second language acquisition. While some empirical evidence has been accumulated, it is clearly scant and limited, also because of the fact that many studies have looked into domain-general grit rather than this attribute as related to learning second or foreign languages. The present article seeks to fill this gap by reporting the findings of a study which has investigated the relationships among grit and a number of other ID factors, that is, domain-general grit, intended effort, language learning enjoyment, and language learning curiosity, as well as background variables, such as age, gender, year of study and experience in learning the target language. Correlational analyses, regression analyses, independent...

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Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: español como lengua de herencia

Resumen:

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This study investigates how Spanish heritage language (SHL) learners, and second language (L2) learners cognitively and socially engage with texts through collaborative digital annotations. Conducted in two advanced online writing courses with forty students, the study employed Perusall, a social annotation platform, to examine reading behaviors and peer interactions. Quantitative analysis revealed both similarities and differences in strategy use: while both groups demonstrated equal levels of interaction, SHL learners favored Evaluating and Connecting strategies, suggesting reflective, experience-based engagement, whereas L2 learners more frequently used Questioning and Translating strategies, indicating a more...

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