Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: traducción

Resumen:

Rooted in socio-constructivism, the present article investigates the effects of type of collaborative translation on Spanish L2 development, triangulating data from task performance, learning outcomes, and learners' perceptions. Thirteen dyads of college students participated in a within-subjects repeated-measures experimental study, translating authentic texts in two ways: collaborating from the get-go and after working alone first. Results showed that while participants translated more lexical items accurately when working together from the get-go, both types of collaborative translation propelled similar learning gains in lexis and grammar. Of the two, only lexical learning was retained after one week. Participants, contrary to results, reported a clear preference for working alone first, which they perceived as more conducive to...

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Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: comprensión oral

Resumen:

Repeated listening—listening to a passage several times for content and information—is considered an effective strategy to improve listening comprehension, but so far, no study has reported how much understanding increases with each repetition. This study is exploratory in nature and analyzes quantitatively how much 48 students with different degrees of listening ability understand after each repeated listening. The study shows that although the amount of total comprehension relates to learners' listening ability (low, medium, high), comprehension gains—new information understood after the first and second repetition—do not relate to learners' listening ability. The data indicate that understanding increased at a similar rate after the first repetition, 14% more, and after the second repetition, 9.3% more, in the three groups. These...

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Tipo: artículo

Metodología: trabajo teórico

Temas: traducción

Resumen:

Translation for language learning has reemerged during recent years as an additional asset for foreign language instruction. In this time, the professional practice and training of translation has moved to a technological paradigm in which virtually all translation activities are computer mediated and this complex activity is conceptualized as human-computer interaction. Translation is therefore now inseparable from the physical computer, translation technologies, tools and resources found online and the interconnectedness provided by the Internet. This article reviews these technologies in the context of Spanish language learning. For these purposes, three main areas of interest are discussed and placed in the context of language learning. First of all, the role of machine translation (MT) both as an assistance in reading and writing...

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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.

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

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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...

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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...

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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...

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Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: literatura

Resumen:

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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...

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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...

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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'...

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