Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: pronunciación

Resumen:

Tras años de desatención en la metodología y en las aulas, la enseñanza y el aprendizaje de la pronunciación están viviendo un retorno a las aulas acompañados de un creciente interés en la investigación (Gil Fernández 2007, 2012). En Australia, en comparación con otras lenguas "especialmente las asiáticas" de mayor tradición en la educación, el español no ha gozado de una gran presencia y tampoco ha recibido la atención necesaria en la investigación pedagógica, incluidas las opiniones y necesidades de los docentes. En este artículo ofrecemos un estudio de las creencias y las actitudes de profesores australianos de español como lengua extranjera (ELE) en relación con la enseñanza de la pronunciación. Los datos proceden de profesores de varios niveles educativos y de diferentes estados o territorios australianos. En el estudio mostramos...

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Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: fraseología

Resumen:

A growing body of evidence suggests that second or foreign language learners stand a lot to gain from mastering a variety of multiword units, such as idiomatic expressions and collocations. Although most of the research on this formulaic dimension of language and its relevance for language learners has so far dealt with English, there are solid grounds for believing that formulaicity is part and parcel of natural languages in general, and that pedagogues should therefore give due attention to multiword units also in other target languages than English, such as Spanish. Contemporary textbooks for language learning have started to include a focus on lexical phrases generally and on collocations in particular, albeit mostly through decontextualized exercises where learners are required in one way or another to match words that form...

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Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: español para fines específicos

Resumen:

Existing medical Spanish curricula have improved language skills, but are incompatible with resident-physician schedules, and do not always integrate cultural education. A 2009 survey at our institution revealed that residents saw Spanish-speaking patients regularly and wanted a medical Spanish curriculum designed for them. Our objective was to improve medical Spanish and cultural competency among resident physicians at our institution. Kramsch's (1998) principle of combining language and cultural instruction, Gardner's (1983) theory of multiple intelligences, and the American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages 5Cs provided a framework for the self-directed curriculum, which consisted of nine-month long modules with online and in-person grammar, vocabulary, listening comprehension and conversation practice. We conducted pre...

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Tipo: artículo

Metodología: trabajo teórico

Temas: prosodia

Resumen:

Spanish and Finnish have a similar, syllable-timed, rhythm but very different stress and intonation patterns. Based on the "Frequency Code," whereby meanings of confidence and aggressiveness are associated with low pitch, and those of submission and smallness with high pitch, we establish a taxonomy of the functions and meanings of intonation with examples in Spanish and Finnish. These functions can be grammatical, attitudinal, pragmatic, and sociolinguistic. To teach intonation to Finnish L2 Spanish students of an advanced level, we raise their awareness through the comparison of the intonational patterns of the two languages and through inductive reasoning. Our proposal fosters a multimodal approach based on the imitation of native speech, on the visual representation of prosody through software like Praat, and on the use of...

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Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: vocabulario

Resumen:

This study examines the effects of word frequency and typographical enhancement (i.e., words in bold) on the learning of single words in Spanish L2 reading activities in a classroom setting. Learners read a text in which target words appearing in bold occurred one, five or 10 times. A parallel text was also provided in which those same words appeared un-bolded. Students were tested three times on both spelling and meaning of the target words: before, immediately after and two weeks after the reading activity. Results show that: (1) after five or 10 encounters, both spelling and meaning recognition skills increase; (2) words appearing in bold only lead to learning gains at a form recognition level immediately after the test is taken and do not contribute to the acquisition of meaning in the post-test; and (3) there is no interaction...

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Tipo: artículo

Metodología: propuesta didáctica

Temas: vocabulario

Resumen:

Con esta investigación, pretendemos ayudar a los profesores de español como L2 a seleccionar el léxico adecuado al nivel de sus estudiantes. El argumento de partida es de naturaleza cognitiva: si accedemos a los mecanismos que utilizan los hablantes nativos para organizar el vocabulario, escogeremos el léxico necesario para la comunicación. Primero, definimos la disponibilidad léxica y explicamos cómo se obtienen sus listas. Después, usamos la teoría de los prototipos para explicar la estructura que forman las palabras en la mente de los hablantes. Posteriormente, proponemos una adecuada selección léxica a partir del modelo Fuzzy Expected Value. Por último, reflexionamos sobre la importancia de trabajar con un vocabulario adaptado a la competencia de los estudiantes.

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Our research aims to provide SLT...

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Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: vocabulario

Resumen:

En la actualidad, la enseñanza y el aprendizaje de las colocaciones en el ámbito del español como lengua segunda o extranjera está recibiendo cada vez más atención. Las llamadas construcciones con verbos de apoyo constituyen una parte importante del conjunto de las colocaciones del español. El presente estudio se centra en la investigación del uso de este tipo de estructuras en las producciones escritas de aprendices francófonos de español de nivel intermedio (B2.1). Se atiende fundamentalmente a dos aspectos: (a) qué problemas se observan en la producción de este tipo de construcciones en la muestra estudiada; y (b) qué papel desempeña la lengua materna en el empleo de estas unidades por los aprendices y en la producción de errores. Los datos que se analizan provienen, por una parte, de textos producidos libremente y, por otra, de...

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Tipo: artículo

Metodología: trabajo teórico

Temas: prosodia

Resumen:

Based on previous research, this paper aims to provide the first steps towards a model for the teaching of Spanish prosody to Swedish learners by identifying main prosodic characteristics, referred to as Core Prosodic Features (CPFs), for the teaching of Spanish in a Swedish setting. The study addresses salient prosodic features of L1 Spanish in comparison to L1 Swedish, and discusses whether the Swedish L1 features are likely to be transferred into L2 Spanish. Another central issue of the paper is whether such transfer is likely to interfere with communication. Three Prosodic Core Features are identified: (1) focal-accent location, (2) vowel duration patterns, and (3) prosodic patterns in rising boundary tones.

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El presente trabajo propone establecer una primera etapa en el desarrollo de un modelo para...

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Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: enseñanza/aprendizaje de vocabulario

Resumen:

This article presents the results of a research project investigating how a student's ability to successfully learn vocabulary of four word classes (nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs) is affected by the activity through which it is practised. Two-hundred and ninety-two B1 SL students of Spanish were presented with one of three different activities requiring different involvement loads: (1) choosing the appropriate definition; (2) filling in gaps in sentences; and (3) writing sentences that include target words. The analysis shows that participants recalled and recognised more nouns and fewer adverbs—the only non-inflected word class. Additionally, sentence-writing is the activity through which learning new words is the easiest; and the least effective is the definition-choosing activity.

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Este...

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Tipo: artículo

Metodología: estudio empírico

Temas: factores afectivos

Resumen:

This study investigated differences in students' foreign language anxiety and foreign language self-efficacy related to skill-specific foreign language tasks (i.e., speaking, listening, reading, and writing) across five levels of university foreign language coursework. A total of 206 participants in 12 university Spanish classrooms (ranging from Beginning Spanish I to Intermediate Spanish II) were surveyed for this study. The findings revealed that students who have higher levels of skill-specific foreign language anxieties provided corresponding lower ratings on skill-specific foreign language self-efficacies. Analyses also revealed that students' ratings for foreign language anxiety for each foreign language-learning skill were not significantly different across the five levels of coursework. However, students' ratings of foreign...

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