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: 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

Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: español académico

Resumen:

En los últimos 30 años, los géneros textuales del ámbito académico se han clasificado y seleccionado para su estudio según diferentes criterios de área de circulación, experiencia previa de los autores y lectores, o su relevancia en la comunidad académica, entre otros. Los análisis empíricos muestran que existen diferencias macro y microlingüísticas que caracterizan las producciones desde el punto de vista de la gramática y pragmática discursiva. Estos rasgos diferenciales, como las diversas maneras de estructurar el discurso, citar, asignar un título, glosar o ejemplificar, parecen guardar relación con las culturas universitarias de origen. Esta investigación recoge un panorama completo de los rasgos textuales que se han estudiado en los últimos años en las lenguas académicas, centrándose en aquellas que han sido analizadas...

Ver ficha completa

Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: español académico

Resumen:

This study explores the literacy development of students who speak Spanish as a heritage language and who participate in mandatory, peer-to-peer tutoring sessions outside of the classroom. We explore students' academic development as well as their self-positioning as heritage speakers in a bilingual academic setting. Drawing on Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), we analyze the written production of seven bilingual students enrolled in a Native Speaker Program at a large, public university. We focus on the development of their academic language through the support of a heritage language tutor and explore the role of the peer tutor as a facilitator in this process. Additionally, we employ Appraisal Theory to analyze interviews in which the same participants explore their bilingual identities and how they position themselves...

Ver ficha completa

Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: español académico

Resumen:

In the 21st century, international mobility of university students is at an all-time high due to the proliferation of international exchange agreements between institutions around the globe as well as the increased popularity of long-established reciprocal programs. Consequently, courses in language for academic purposes (LAP) have multiplied in recent times to prepare students linguistically to study academic content in an L2. However, in Spanish-speaking universities there are pragmatic and cultural conventions that foreign students need to recognize in order to function appropriately and successfully during their period of study. This article presents the results of an international survey completed by university teachers of L2 Spanish in nine countries in North and South America, Europe, and Asia. The aim of the questionnaire was...

Ver ficha completa

Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: evaluación

Resumen:

Examinar la confiabilidad y consistencia de los evaluadores de pruebas escritas de un examen de certificación de lenguas es indispensable para garantizar que los examinados son evaluados de forma justa y equitativa. En el caso del español, dado que no se cuenta aún con un examen de lengua con fines académicos administrado internacionalmente, resulta necesario llevar a cabo investigaciones en este sentido. El estudio que aquí se presenta tuvo como objetivo indagar qué tan confiables y consistentes son los resultados que otorgan los evaluadores de la prueba escrita de un examen de español con fines académicos diseñado por una universidad hispana. Seis evaluadores calificaron los textos producidos por 100 candidatos no hispanohablantes mediante una rúbrica analítica. Posteriormente, utilizando el programa Many-Facet Rasch Measurement (...

Ver ficha completa

Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: español académico

Resumen:

Este trabajo estudia la competencia discursiva de 23 estudiantes de nivel universitario que se encuentran realizando una estancia de intercambio en la Universidad Pablo de Olavide de Sevilla (España). Para ello, se compiló un corpus de 23 narraciones relacionadas con la materia de Historia y se procedió a su análisis. Durante el estudio se pudo comprobar que en los textos aparecían todas las funciones discursivas superiores prototípicas de la narración histórica y, por tanto, del lenguaje académico en español. Por otra parte, se ha constatado que el esfuerzo del estudiantado para conseguir la mejor construcción textual, y su focalización en el contenido más que en la forma, implica en gran parte de los casos un detrimento del subsistema morfosintáctico, lo que puede llegar a distorsionar el verdadero nivel de dominio discursivo que...

Ver ficha completa

Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: pronunciación

Resumen:

Despite substantial advances in the field of instructed second language acquisition (SLA) with regard to our understanding of second language (L2) pronunciation development and pedagogy, many language instructors continue to report a lack of confidence in incorporating pronunciation instruction (PI) into their classes. This survey study examined 100 Spanish instructors' perceptions of the usefulness of various types of knowledge, skills, and approaches to PI, as well as their confidence in those domains, and the extent to which their previous training in teaching methods was related to their ratings of usefulness and confidence. After running principal components analyses to identify factors in the survey data, we fit mixed-effects models to each factor, then delved more deeply into some descriptive trends to offer recommendations for...

Ver ficha completa

Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: creencias y actitudes de los estudiantes

Resumen:

This mixed-methods study investigates the use of synchronous video computer-mediated communication (SVCMC) in a U.S. university—s Spanish-as-a-foreign-language curriculum. Using the SVCMC platform TalkAbroad, the university—s Spanish program required second-year students to participate in five, 30-minute, SVCMC conversations with Spanish first language (L1) speakers. Students then reflected on their SVCMC conversations by replaying the recorded audio from those sessions and transcribing passages of their conversations. Using an interactionist perspective, this research explores the utility of: (1) the SVCMC conversations, and (2) the subsequent listening/transcription activity by examining students' reported noticing of linguistic items (e.g. L1 speaker vocabulary, grammar, etc.). Additionally, we report students' general perceptions...

Ver ficha completa