Spanish Language Learners Research Articles

Peer Response with Process-oriented, Standards-based Writing for Beginning-level, Second Language Learners of Spanish

In an attempt to increase second language (L2) learners’ understanding of the benefits associated with the process approach to writing and, more specifically, to gain their appreciation of how their peers might contribute to the quality of their writing, in this study peer revision was modified between two groups of lower-level proficiency L2 students. The modification to peer revision was predicated on an attempt to more closely align L2 writing instructional practice with the spirit of the National Standards for Foreign Language Education (2006). Identical surveys were administered to separate groups of learners before and after the alteration. They revealed a positive shift in learners’ attitude in regard to the writing process in general and, more specifically, in how they viewed assistance offered by their peers.

Integrating Spanish language training across a Doctor of Physical Therapy curriculum: a case report of one program's evolving model.

As the Hispanic population continues to expand in the United States, health professionals increasingly may encounter people who speak Spanish and have limited English proficiency. Responding to these changes, various health profession educators have incorporated Spanish language training into their curricula. Of 12 doctor of physical therapy (DPT) programs identified as including elective or required Spanish courses, the program at The University of Texas at El Paso is the only one integrating required Spanish language training across the curriculum. The purpose of this case report is to describe the development, implementation, and preliminary outcomes of the evolving educational model at The University of Texas at El Paso. The University of Texas at El Paso is situated immediately across the border from Mexico. Responding to the large population with limited English proficiency in the community, faculty began to integrate required Spanish language training during a transition from a master-level to a DPT curriculum. The Spanish language curriculum pillar includes a Spanish medical terminology course, language learning opportunities threaded throughout the clinical courses, clinical education courses, and service-learning. Forty-five DPT students have completed the curriculum. Assessment methods were limited for early cohorts. Clinically relevant Spanish verbal proficiency was assessed with a practical examination in the Spanish course, a clinical instructor-rated instrument, and student feedback. Preliminary data suggested that the model is improving Spanish language proficiency. The model still is evolving. Spanish language learning opportunities in the curriculum are being expanded. Also, problems with the clinical outcome measure have been recognized. Better definition of intended outcomes and validation of a revised tool are needed. This report should promote opportunities for collaboration with others who are interested in linguistic competence.

Teaching Spanish preK-16 in the US: then, now, and in the future

This article chronicles the teaching and learning of Spanish in the United States (US) preschool through college (preK-16) from the 1800s to the present day and beyond. National and local policies, initiatives, and practices are reviewed as well as program and curricular models and methodologies at each educational level: pre-kindergarten through elementary school; junior high, middle, and high school; college and university. From the 1800s until the 1980s, teaching and learning Spanish was steeped in tradition, incorporating predominantly grammar translation and reading great works of literature. Some exceptions to instruction included the Berlitz method and the audiolingual methods. An enrollment crisis in the 1970s propelled change in instructional delivery. These innovations were guided by research that then informed the creation of local, state, and national policies and initiatives. More research needs to be conducted to understand how diverse types of learners can become proficient in Spanish. In addition, investigations must focus on what constitutes best practices for teachers to use to tap all learners' highest potential. Finally, the conclusion of this article reveals conditions and challenges that will influence the future of Spanish language teaching and learning in the US.

Attitudes and Motivations of Adult Spanish Language Learners: A Comparison of Heritage Language Learners and Second Language Learners

Research on background factors in adult language learners’ success has largely focused on first-time learners of a second language. In this study, we utilize a well-established second language learner model (the Socioeducational Model; Gardner, 1985a) to compare heritage language and second language learners in a first-semester college Spanish class. Participants (31 heritage language learners; 80 second language learners) completed a survey at the end of the semester assessing their ethnic identity, language backgrounds, attitudes and motivation toward learning Spanish. Course grades were collected as a measure of language learning success. Results indicate that heritage language learners and second language learners are similar on most background factors, but that the background factors predicting each group’s language learning success are quite different. Implications for our understanding of language learners and future research directions are discussed.

Heritage language learners in linguistics courses: at a major (but fixable) disadvantage

Most heritage language learners (HLLs) of Spanish cannot produce grammatical terminology, simple grammatical analysis, and/or simple grammatical items on demand. Possible causes are: the naturalistic manner in which language was acquired, lack of opportunities to learn basic concepts in beginning courses (because they were skipped), or the belief by some instructors that over-emphasising the mastering of grammatical rules may be negative for this population. This study examines and compares the level of verbalisable metalinguistic knowledge (understood as the ability to identify grammar terminology and provide grammatical rules) among HLLs (n = 9) and foreign language learners (FLLs) (n = 43) present at the beginning and at the end of an introductory Hispanic linguistics course (third year of college). Results show that although HLLs start with a considerable disadvantage over FLLs – which is not overcome in the short period of time of the course – they still improve at the same pace as FLLs, which has important implications for curriculum development.

Contextual Variation in L2 Spanish: Voicing Assimilation in Advanced Learner Speech

Abstract The present study examines whether, and to what degree, regressive voicing assimilation of Spanish /s/ (as in rasgo/rasgo/ [ˈraz.ɣ̞ o]) occurs in the speech of advanced second language (L2) learners of Spanish. Acoustic analyses of L2 productions of /s/ in the voicing context (preceding a voiced consonant) and in the non-voicing context (preceding a voiceless consonant) elicited from a contextualized picture-description task revealed a contextual voicing effect in the speech of only a limited number of the advanced L2 speakers. The low occurrence of the assimilation process even amongst the advanced learners may be attributed in part to the variable nature of voicing in the input and to the complexity of the process (i.e. subject to different stylistic, linguistic, and social factors). The study also provides a phonetic description of the variants of L2 Spanish /s/ and finds that when voicing does occur, it is phonetically similar to native Spanish voicing in terms of the phonetic contexts in which voicing occurs, patterns of durational differences of /s/ according to voicing, and the variable nature of its occurrence.

Spanish-Language Learners and Latinos: Two Community-Based Projects

The growing U.S. Latino dispersal is allowing for more interactions between students of Spanish and native Spanish speakers. By working with Latino community members, Spanish instructors help meet the standards for foreign language education developed by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. This article describes 2 projects. In the first, students of Spanish and Latinos come together. Students tutor adult Latinos in ESL, math, and GED and citizenship preparation courses, whereas Latinos help students develop their conversational skills. In the second project, students visit local Latino businesses to make cultural comparisons and learn how Latinos enrich the community.

Tense or Aspect?: A Review of Initial Past Tense Marking and Task Conditions for Beginning Classroom Learners of Spanish

This essay contributes to the research on the emergence of tense/aspect morphology by reviewing the results and task conditions of studies supporting either the Aspect Hypothesis (AH) or the Default Past Tense Hypothesis (DPTH) for second language (L2) learners of Spanish. The AH has found that past marking emerges based on inherent aspectual categories (Andersen 1991; Andersen and Shirai 1994), and the DPTH proposes (Salaberry 1999, 2002, 2003, 2008; Salaberry and Ayoun 2005) that beginning learners of Spanish with first language (L1) English initially use perfective past marking as a default tense marker. The present study reviewed the results and task conditions of studies of beginning classroom learners of Spanish with L1 English that support either hypothesis. The review shows that many learners go through a stage of marking preterite regardless of lexical aspect particularly in tasks requiring an explicit focus on forms or in impersonal narratives. On the other hand, beginning learners show prototypical associations of preterite marking with telic predicates in open-ended tasks or personal narratives, and stronger associations of imperfect marking with state verbs especially in personal narratives.

The Use of Discourse Markers in Spanish Language Learners’ Written Compositions

The present paper reports on the use of discourse markers in short compositions written by Spanish language learners. The aim is to explore how frequently discourse markers appear in written productions of foreign language learners and to verify which kind of markers they mostly use. A learners’ corpus of approximately 26 500 words has been compiled for this study. By comparing the results of the language learners with the texts composed by a control group of Spanish native participants, we want to shed light on which types of discourse markers seem more or less evident to acquire and which problems learners seem to encounter in expressing discourse cohesion.

‘More than being in a class’: adolescents’ ethnolinguistic insights in a two-way dual-language program

Much of the debate regarding outcomes of various types of dual-language programs has focused on linguistic and academic results, and with good reason: improving the educational outcomes of language minorities and supporting societal multilingualism are vital goals. More rarely explored, however, are these programs’ ethnolinguistic outcomes: the ways in which they provide students with insights into themselves, language, language learning processes and others. This study uses interview and audio data to examine ways in which adolescents reported learning about themselves, language and its learning and others through participation in an extracurricular high school program for Spanish-dominant English language learners (ELLs) and English-dominant Spanish language learners (SLLs). Findings suggest the program provided opportunities for adolescents’ recognition and ratification of peer ethnolinguistic identities, understanding of language-in-use as an ethnolinguistic phenomenon, awareness of language learning through language-in-use and appreciation of students’ own and others’ ethnolinguistic resources. Patterns of learning were largely consonant with students’ sociolinguistic positioning in schools as language minority or majority speakers. Implications for research and educational practice are discussed.

Who Soy Yo? : The Creative Use of “Spanglish” to Express a Hybrid Identity in Chicana/o Heritage Language Learners of Spanish

Who Soy Yo?:The Creative Use of “Spanglish” to Express a Hybrid Identity in Chicana/o Heritage Language Learners of Spanish Ana Sánchez-Muñoz This study explores various linguistic strategies that characterize what is commonly referred to as “Spanglish”; namely, code-switching, code-mixing, borrowings and other language contact phenomena commonly employed by Chicana/o bilinguals. The analysis of linguistic features is based on creative pieces of writing produced by Chicana/o (and other Latina/o) college students in a class of Spanish for Heritage Learners. The functions and uses of Spanglish are examined within the students’ written discourse. It is argued here that Spanglish is a way for the students to deal with complex linguistic and ethnic identity issues in a creative manner. In a way, the use of Spanglish creates another of level of meaning where the hybridity of the Chicana/o experiences are negotiated. In this sense, Spanglish is a way to construct and reconstruct a third space of Chicana/o identity, a linguistic nepantla. Chicanas/os and Spanglish The term Chicana/o was originally a derogatory term applied to the descendants of Mexican people in the United States. This term was later adopted as a term of ethnic pride and political consciousness during the civil rights movements of the 1960s. To identify oneself as Chicana/o as opposed to Mexican-American or Latino or Hispanic means reasserting a unique ethnic and sociopolitical bond. It means claiming a unique culture not just a “mixture” of two colonial pasts but rather something unique with its own history, aesthetics, music, and also with its unique linguistic expression. The Chicana writer Gloria Anzaldúa writes about this in her opus magnum Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza: “We don’t identify with the Anglo-American cultural values and we don’t identify with the Mexican cultural values. We are a synergy of two cultures with various degrees of Mexicannes or Angloness” (1999: 85). The term Spanglish is used frequently but is not easy to define since different people employ it to mean diverse things. Spanglish is sometimes used to refer to the varieties of Spanish or English spoken by Chicanas/os and other Latinos is US communities. Often, Spanglish is used to mean code-switching, that is, the moving back and forth between two languages in a single communicative exchange. Some researchers stay away from the term claiming that it confuses different linguistic realities, while others embrace the term proudly. Because of the controversial nature of the word “Spanglish,” I usually employ the terms “Chicana/o Spanish” or “Chicana/o English” or code-switching between these two. Chicanas/os have a Spanish-linguistic heritage. To what degree Spanish is spoken and maintained varies greatly from community to community and from family to family. Most Chicanos in the communities I researched in Southern California are bilingual, although English is the dominant language. Speakers can function in Spanish, but their Spanish is a variety characterized by contact with English. Contact Features Among the linguistic phenomena that develop in language-contact situations, the transfer of features from one language into another is a common strategy used by bilinguals to cope [End Page 440] with the task of using two different linguistic systems. Chicana/o Spanish is characterized by transfer due to the intense contact with English in the United States. Among those contact features, lexical transfer is particularly salient. This study analyzes cases of lexical transfer classified as single-word switches to English (items that preserve English phonology) and single-word borrowings (items adapted to Spanish phonology). In this latter group, we differentiate between loans (the transfer of forms with their meanings for example troca “truck”), and calques (the transfer of meanings only; for example carpeta for “carpet” or “rug” with the meaning from English of “carpet”). Heritage Language Learners and “Spanglish”: Carving a Linguistic Nepantla The data presented in this study comes from the written creative pieces produced by Chicana/o heritage learners of Spanish. The students in this class are second generation Latinos (born in the United States) who identify themselves as Chicanas/os. These learners are bilingual but lack literacy skills in Spanish. They come to class with...

The effect of construction frequency and native transfer on second language knowledge of the syntax–discourse interface

ABSTRACTThis article investigates knowledge of discourse-conditioned left dislocations in the interlanguage competence in Spanish and English second language learners. Although Spanish clitic left dislocation (CLLD) and English topicalization are functionally very similar, they differ in that the former but not the latter requires the dislocated phrase to be clitic doubled. In contrast, the fronted focus (FF) construction is functionally and syntactically similar in the two languages. Two experimental studies investigated knowledge of the syntactic form and discourse appropriateness of CLLD and topicalization, using knowledge of FF as a baseline. English-native learners of Spanish were successful in acquiring CLLD as well as FF. However, Spanish-native learners of English demonstrated no knowledge of English topicalization even at near-native levels of proficiency, whereas they did well on the transferable FF. These results are examined in the light of the interface hypothesis. It is argued that construction frequency in the input and transfer from the native language, but only those two factors together, can explain the experimental results.

The Relationships between Vocabulary Learning Strategies and Vocabulary Size among Adult Spanish Foreign Language Learners

The aim of this study is to investigate the relationships between the type of vocabulary learning strategies (VLS) adult Spanish foreign language (FL) students use at different levels of proficiency and their vocabulary size. A total of 475 college students enrolled in Spanish courses at the beginning, intermediate, and advanced proficiency levels participated in this study. The data were analyzed through quantitative methods using two measuring instruments: a vocabulary learning questionnaire used to discover students’ VLS preferences, and a vocabulary test used to estimate participants’ Spanish vocabulary size. Analyses of the data suggest that a significant relationship exits between the use of certain types of learning strategies and vocabulary size among advanced, more experienced learners, but not among beginning- or intermediate-level students. Findings suggest that less experienced Spanish FL learners may be less effective at managing their own vocabulary learning. Possible reasons are addressed.

Using Web-based Instruction to Promote Active Learning

This article reports classroom research on learners' perspectives on Web-based instruction that utilizes the Blackboard course management system. The Web-based instruction aims to provide and support collaborative learning while fostering learners' autonomy and accountability. The article also provides a description of the course design along with task-based activities. The results drawn from the questionnaires and final oral interviews show that the experience of using Web-based learning has changed the way students view the role of Internet technology in the development of their Spanish language learning. In addition to the reinforcement of learners' writing and communication skills, Web-based learning empowers learners to be actively involved in the process and to be responsible and accountable for their own learning.

Integrated Use of Videodisc for Intensive Spanish Language Learning

Typically, the use of video materials in a language classroom is adjunctive rather than integral to the textbook and the instructor's procedures. Utah State University has reversed this pattern in its intensive Spanish program by using video simulations of real-life experiences as the basis for classroom procedure in lieu of following a textbook. The classroom becomes student-centered, rather than instructor-centered, through a problem solving group endeavor. This fundamentally inductive learning procedure is stimulated by the ready accessibility to students of experiencias on videodisc in the classroom itself. Both Utah State University and the National of the Humanities have provided grant support to this program.

Sixteenth-Century Italian, French, Spanish and English Language Learning Material. A Bibliographical Study

This bibliographical study offers a list of the first printed language manuals in Western Europe expressly designed to teach a particular foreign language to speakers of a particular tongue. Hence, the study lists references to sixteenth-century grammars, dictionaries and language handbooks with the possible linguistic combinations of Italian, French, Spanish and English, the first three being the most popular modern languages in sixteenth-century Western Europe and hence the most representative ones offering an insight into the foreign language learning map of the time. The bibliographical study is preceded by an introduction to the manner in which foreign tongues were taught and learned in the early modern period, and is completed by a selection of references to secondary sources that have been researched on each linguistic combination.

Colectivos con necesidades específicas, una nueva realidad universitaria

STUDENTS WITH SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS – A NEW CHALLENGE FOR UNIVERSITIES: A SUPPORT MODEL FOR SPANISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS WITH VISUAL IMPAIRMENTS
 Special educational needs is an umbrella term for different groups of people including students with learning difficulties or disabilities. Over the last few decades the education solutions for the disabled have evolved towards the inclusive model, recommended in the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities, which was ratified by Poland in 2012. The Convention establishes a new reality which needs attention almost immediately by the Institute of Roman Philologies of the Jagiellonian University of Cracow, due to the matriculation of a student with visual disability. Having analysed different options, it has been decided to offer the necessary support under the form of a new academic subject entitled Assistance to the disabled in educational environments, organised and developed in co-operation with the Disability Support Service of the Jagiellonian University. The final evaluation has proved that the subject is a success and benefits all the people involved. The added value of the project is the training of the first group of Spanish teachers in Poland who know how to teach visually disabled learners. In this way the situation which, at first, was a problem has turned into an opportunity. Taking into consideration the results achieved the programme will continue during the following academic years.

Castellanización e intenciones comunicativas en las crónicas de Indias

The Chronicles of the Indies are documents written by authors with different communicative intentions (government, military, or religious officials). Scholars have traditionally argued that, although the language policies of the Spanish crown promoted the Hispanicization of the Indians, these policies were not coherent in practice. Schools for Indians and contact with Spaniards were the two contexts in which the Spanish language was learned; however, the results were limited in both contexts. The aim of this article is to examine data on the interlanguage of the Indians of the sixteenth century according to different chroniclers and within these two types of educational context. Using six chroniclers with different communicative objectives, this research systematically defines the importance of these chronicles and the effect of the recommendations of royal decrees. A military author did not require evidence of Spanish-language learning testimonies to provide evidence for his account to receive the king’s favour or reward. Those chroniclers who were government or religious officials refer to interlanguage according to their perceptions of earthly or spiritual conquest. This research aims to distinguish the different characteristics of the various chroniclers and to verify in a unified and related manner the data contributed by other works.

Taller de escritores: Grammar and Composition for Advanced Spanish (review)

Reviewed by: Taller de escritores: Grammar and Composition for Advanced Spanish Alison J. Ridley Bleichmar, Guillermo, and Paula Cañón. Taller de escritores: Grammar and Composition for Advanced Spanish. Boston: Vista, 2012. Pp. 240. ISBN 978-1-61767-100-5. Taller de escritores is a textbook designed for advanced Spanish language learners to develop their writing, reading, and speaking abilities in the target language. The text can be used in any third- or fourth-year college Spanish course focusing on conversation and composition, advanced grammar, or composition and reading. Each of the six chapters focuses on a different kind of writing: description, narration, the narrative essay, argumentation, exposition, and the academic paper. The culmination of each unit is a series of writing workshops that allow students to practice the various writing styles. The authors of Taller de escritores lead students gradually to the production stage of the writing process through a series of steps that help to build vocabulary, grammar skills, and confidence prior to the final writing exercises. The chapters begin with a photograph and a quote that serve to unleash the students' imagination and help them make a preliminary connection to the type of writing being addressed. For many beginning language learners, visual prompts are invaluable for building connections between words and context. At higher levels, this same technique can lead to richer language production on the part of the students. In brainstorming activities such as these, students will take more risks and be more fluid with vocabulary production, knowing that they are being encouraged to be as open and creative as possible. The lesson openers are followed by short readings in the styles of writing addressed in the chapters. The authors keep the readings brief in order to allow students to read them multiple times and from different perspectives. By managing the length of the selections, instructors are able to reinforce contextual reading rather than direct translation. Throughout the readings, valuable marginal annotations in Spanish deepen the students' understanding of the readings, the uses of grammar within the readings, and the types of writing being used. These marginal notes are an integral resource that helps students in the later writing workshops. Students are also given footnotes with translations of certain words that may hinder comprehension. These footnotes help students build new vocabulary without impeding contextual reading. The language workshops that follow the short readings are titled "Léxico," "Estructuras," and "Ortografía y puntuación." These workshops reinforce and expand students' knowledge of vocabulary, grammar and usage in context. The "Léxico" section introduces vocabulary that is related to the grammar exercises and the type of writing being addressed in the individual chapters. The "Estructuras" section is where the main grammar points of the chapters are addressed. The only potential drawback to this section is that, while the rest of the text is written in Spanish, the grammar explanations are written in English. For this level of instruction, students should be able to manage grammar explanations in the target language. Nevertheless, the exercises that accompany "Estructuras" are extremely well designed, building in difficulty from fill-in-the blank and matching exercises to exercises that require students to rewrite or compose sentences. This approach moves students from demonstrating a basic understanding of a grammar principle to being able to apply it in their own writing. In "Ortografía y puntuación," students learn, among other things, the rules for accentuation, how to form compound words, and when to use commas, colons, and semicolons. The exercises in this section also move students from an awareness and understanding of language skills to their actual application. The final section of each chapter is the writing workshop where students are given the opportunity to write in the style of the chapter. Instead of restricting students to one main writing exercise, the authors present three different writing activities, each with a slightly different focus. In each writing exercise, students are given a sample of the writing style in question, and then, using the skills they have developed in the preceding sections of the chapter, they brainstorm [End Page 564] their topic in a prewriting activity. They then write a rough draft and a...

The acquisition of interpretable features in L2 Spanish: Personala

This paper examines the acquisition of interpretable features in English second language (L2) learners of Spanish by investigating the personal preposition a in Spanish. The distribution of a in direct object NPs relates to the animacy/specificity of the NP, the animacy/agentivity of the subject, and the semantics of the predicate (Torrego, 1998; Zagona, 2002); i.e., personal a is conditioned by the interpretability of semantic features. Forty-nine English L2 learners of Spanish of three different proficiency levels, and 16 Spanish controls took part in a Completion Task and an Acceptability Judgement Task. These revealed that L2 learners of Spanish of all proficiency levels behaved differently from native speakers of Spanish. The L2 learners appear to have acquired some of the interpretable features (i.e., [±animate]), but show delays with others. Nonetheless, our data show partial convergence by advanced learners with the native speakers: some features are acquirable, while others may be less accessible and subject to developmental processes. In explaining our data we appeal to Lardiere's (2008, 2009) Feature Reassembly Hypothesis, but assess it critically and aim to develop it further by considering the complexity constraints in terms of the number of features involved and their configuration.