Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: enseñanza/aprendizaje de lenguas

Resumen:

Los contextos de aprendizaje se conforman como una de las variables más influyentes en la enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras. Tomando de muestra dos grupos de estudiantes angloparlantes de ELE de nivel medio-superior, uno en contexto de aprendizaje formal (escolarizado) y otro en contexto de estancia en un país hispanohablante, presentamos un análisis de la productividad de cada grupo en las tareas de fluidez categorial empleadas en la disponibilidad léxica y comparamos las redes semánticas que se construyen en el léxico disponible de cada uno, en dos centros de interés con configuración interna distinta (“los animales” y “la ciudad”). Los resultados muestran diferencias notables: una mayor productividad del grupo en contexto de estancia y unas redes de menor tamaño, más densas y con nodos más interconectados en el grupo en contexto...

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Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: enseñanza/aprendizaje de vocabulario

Resumen:

This study empirically investigated the application of a large language-model-driven artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot in self-regulated vocabulary acquisition among Chinese private college students. An 8-week experiment comparing AI-chatbot-assisted and conventional self-regulated vocabulary learning demonstrated that AI chatbot assistance could significantly improve vocabulary performance both across and within groups. Results revealed that the use of AI chatbot not only improved learning outcomes directly through personalized, self-paced learning but also indirectly by enhancing vocabulary learning strategy use and satisfying basic psychological needs. Notably, metacognitive strategy use fully mediated the relationship between perceived autonomy and vocabulary performance. Moreover, perceived autonomy moderated the effect of the...

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Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: vocabulario

Resumen:

The mental lexicon is a complex cognitive system representing information about the words/concepts that one knows. Over decades psychological experiments have shown that conceptual associations across multiple, interactive cognitive levels can greatly influence word acquisition, storage, and processing. How can semantic, phonological, syntactic, and other types of conceptual associations be mapped within a coherent mathematical framework to study how the mental lexicon works? Here we review cognitive multilayer networks as a promising quantitative and interpretative framework for investigating the mental lexicon. Cognitive multilayer networks can map multiple types of information at once, thus capturing how different layers of associations might co-exist within the mental lexicon and influence cognitive processing. This review starts...

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Tipo: artículo

Metodología: trabajo teórico

Temas: tecnología educativa

Resumen:

Given the strong influence of vocabulary knowledge on L2 learners’ text comprehension (Schmitt et al., 2011), assessing the vocabulary demands of foreign language (L2) input is a crucial challenge for both L2 educators and researchers. To do so, a well-established step for the design, selection, and empirical analysis of L2 input is to use tools for lexical profiling. This involves categorising a text’s vocabulary across levels in a word frequency list to estimate the vocabulary knowledge learners need in order to achieve satisfactory comprehension. However, current tools are mainly available for English and are built on word family-based frequency lists derived from broad corpora, which have been suggested to have more limited predictive power of learner knowledge than previously presumed (Schmitt et al., 2021). This article presents...

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Tipo: artículo

Metodología: revisión bibliográfica

Temas: comprensión oral

Resumen:

Research on the effects of second language (L2) listening strategy instruction (SI) has gained momentum in recent years (e.g. Vandergrift & Tafaghodtari, 2010). However, the reported results have been inconclusive and varied across studies. Synthesizing the results of quantitative research in this domain, the present meta-analysis sought to determine the overall effectiveness of L2 listening SI as well as to examine the extent to which the effectiveness of instruction is likely to vary as a function of a set of potential moderators (i.e. learning contexts, treatment types, methodological variables, and outcome measures). A comprehensive search identified 45 primary studies, contributing data from 51 independent samples on the effects of SI on L2 listening comprehension. The aggregated findings indicate a medium effect of listening...

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Tipo: artículo

Metodología: trabajo teórico

Temas: gramática

Resumen:

The paper offers a cognitively oriented approach to the Spanish subjunctive. This verb form is examined in light of Langacker’s grounding theory. In my understanding, the ground is defined as the communication situation with three inherently interrelated components: temporality, modality and evidentiality. The subjunctive is then analysed in relation to these three categories. Particular attention is paid to the evidential component of the ground and its relationship to the Spanish subjunctive. I define the contexts in which the subjunctive appears as grounding inhibitors. Consequently, the subjunctive is understood as a verb form lacking temporal, modal and evidential grounding (in opposition to the indicative, which denotes fully grounded processes).

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Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: lingüística cognitiva

Resumen:

This paper aims to explore the shortcomings and challenges of Applied Cognitive Linguistics (ACL) in L2 classrooms and research. It examines the main issues and presents a case study with three quasi-experimental classroom studies. These experiments taught the Spanish past simple tenses using approaches informed by Cognitive Linguistics and Communicative Language Teaching, plus a control group, through a pretest/posttest design. Results favored cognitive-pedagogical instruction, but only in one production task (Alonso-Aparicio & Llopis-García, 2019). Subsequent studies replicated and extended the first, with further changes in instruction and assessment design, but found no significant differences between experimental groups in the posttest. The discussion highlights the steps taken to ensure study success, pointing out...

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Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: gramática

Resumen:

Applied Cognitive Linguistics (ACL, henceforth) offers a vision of language closely tied to our experiences and views of the world, showing great promise for foreign language teaching and learning. Building upon this meaning-centered perspective, this paper discusses an interventional, quasi-experimental study assessing the effectiveness of incorporating animated images into materials for teaching comparative constructions in L2 Spanish. Conducted in three phases with varying participation rates (69 students in the first, 18 in the second, and 27 in the third), the study faced numerous factors that hindered data collection process and thereby influenced the results. Although the findings were not statistically significant, they suggest a slight improvement in post-test performance in both the experimental and comparison groups. While...

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Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: lingüística cognitiva

Resumen:

Second/foreign language grammar studies usually focus on the validation of grammatical conceptualizations with learners, sometimes overlooking the paramount need to test these conceptualizations against users’ judgements and corpus searches as a way of verifying the relevance, frequency and suitability of the items, examples or explanations before the experimental phases. This paper deals with three pre-experimental validation criteria employed to measure the pedagogical potential of Cognitive Grammar descriptions for the Spanish pluperfect: (1) learner corpus searches based on caes – Corpus de Aprendices de Español –, (2) native-speaker corpus searches by means of EsTenTen-18-subcorpus from Sketch Engine, and (3) language users’ judgements. This tense rarely receives enough attention in learning materials due to its apparent...

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Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: lingüística cognitiva

Resumen:

This review study focuses on the challenges faced when conducting effects-of-instruction research in Applied Cognitive Linguistics. It offers an overview of relevant research that has sought to demonstrate the effectiveness of a cognitive-based approach to second language (L2) pedagogy and provides illustrations from previous work in L2 Spanish by the author and colleagues of some of the factors that can influence findings in quasi-experimental research. More specifically, the study addresses some of the difficulties encountered in the design of materials and assessment tests, during the pedagogical intervention and the data collection and data analysis phases. These include choice of assessment, test effects, sample size, withdrawal, and time-on-task, among others. Along with these methodological issues, a discussion of possible...

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