Spanish As A Foreign Language Research Articles

Attitudes to Spanish language variation. A study on Portuguese students of Spanish as a Foreign Language

Abstract Drawing on data collected via a web-based survey, this study investigates the attitudes of SFL (Spanish as a Foreign Language) learners in Portugal towards four Spanish varieties. A verbal guise experiment was designed to collect students’ perceptions of language variation. The sample comprised 196 undergraduate students from the School of Arts and Humanities of the University of Lisbon (Portugal). The results show that Portuguese students of SFL have a clear preference for the Castilian variety, as it obtained the highest rates in all domains (power, personal qualities, and status). Unexpectedly, factors such as participants’ age or sex did not influence the answers given.

The Chinese Intercultural Competence Scale and the External Factors of Spanish as a Foreign Language

The current study aimed to assess the intercultural competence (IC) of Chinese students of Spanish as a foreign language (SFL) using Chen's (2019) Chinese Intercultural Competence Scale (CICS), as well as to investigate which external factors influence the acquisition of IC in the field of SFL. The quantitative data from the study show that the participants' IC level was neither high nor low. Their level of IC was affected by age, study abroad experience, frequency of using Spanish, and positive intercultural experiences, but not by gender, college year, or number of foreign languages spoken. The findings have implications for intercultural educators and teachers of foreign languages.

Building a pedagogic spellchecker for L2 learners of Spanish

AbstractIn 2016, Lawley proposed an easy-to-build spellchecker specifically designed to help second language (L2) learners in their writing process by facilitating self-correction. The aim was to overcome the disadvantages to L2 learners posed by generic spellcheckers (GSC), such as that embedded in Microsoft Word. Drawbacks include autocorrection, misdiagnoses, and overlooked errors. With the aim of imparting explicit L2 spelling knowledge, this correcting tool does not merely suggest possible alternatives to the detected error but also provides explanations of any relevant spelling patterns. Following Lawley’s (2016) recommendations, the present study developed a prototype computer-based pedagogic spellchecker (PSC) to aid L2 learners in self-correcting their written production in Spanish. First, a corpus was used to identify frequent spelling errors of Spanish as a foreign language (SFL) learners. Handcrafted feedback was then designed to tackle the commonest misspellings. To subsequently evaluate this PSC’s efficacy in error detection and correction, another learner Spanish corpus was used. Sixty compositions were analysed to determine the PSC’s capacity for error recognition and feedback provision in comparison with that of a GSC. Results indicate that the PSC detected over 90% of the misspellings, significantly outperforming the GSC in error detection. Both provided adequate feedback on two out of three detected errors, but the pedagogic nature of the former has the added advantage of facilitating self-learning (Blázquez-Carretero & Woore, 2021). These findings suggest that it is feasible to develop spellcheckers that provide synchronous feedback, allowing SFL learners to confidently self-correct their writing while saving time and effort on the teacher’s part.

Didactics of written argumentation with Spanish as a Foreign Language (SFL) students at university level in Algeria.

The general objective of this research is to investigate the impact of a program focusing on the development of argumentation techniques on the improvement of critical essays by SFL students at the University of Algiers 2. A quasi-experimental pretest-posttest study was carried out, where the indicators of textual levels obtained by the students were evaluated and compared, both before and after a learning intervention. The study involved 126 students studying SFL at the University of Algiers 2, whose essays were analyzed using Parodi and Núñez's (1999) analysis guidelines, in order to evaluate the students' argumentative competence at the three levels of microstructure, macrostructure and superstructure. Once the results were analyzed, statistically significant differences were observed in the indicators of the macrostructure, and superstructure. Furthermore, an improvement in the post-test means is observed in the indicators of these microstructure. Lastly, the intervention program strengthened students' argumentative abilities, which had a significant effect on their critical essays.

ACEPTACIÓN DEL VOSEO VERBAL Y PRONOMINAL ENTRE CHILENOS Y APRENDIENTES DE ESPAÑOL COMO LENGUA EXTRANJERA

This study highlights the importance of understanding the forms of voseo in Chile in learners of Spanish as a foreign language (SFL) through reflection on the pragmatic use of the language. This understanding is not easy because of the evolutional nature of voseo, and the diversity of functions of this phenomenon. The study aims to compare the pragmatic judgments on the Chilean voseo between natives and learners of SFL, which was carried out based on the didactic potential that implies understanding the voseo uses. A questionnaire allowed us to observe choices related to the acceptance of the voseo in different situations, considering pragmatic variables among Chileans and SFL learners. After comparing the responses of both groups of participants, a disparity was observed in the acceptance levels of native and non-native speakers, though also a tendency to be cautious with voseo among learners who had spent more time in Chile. At the same time, there was a correlation in judgments regarding voseo as a phenomenon that can show both closeness (verbal) and contempt (pronominal)

Developing An Intercultural Competence Instrument In Foreign Language Teaching Context: A Study Of Chinese Students Of Spanish As A Foreign Language

The present study aims to develop an intercultural competence (IC) instrument for Chinese students of Spanish as a Foreign Language (SFL). In order to do so, we took steps to modify the statements and confirm the validity of the IC instrument. The new instrument was validated by using exploratory factor analysis through a self-report methodology. The results showed that the instrument possessed adequate validity and reliability. The 28-item scale identified seven personal traits for the development of intercultural competence: attentiveness and willingness to interact; respect for cultural differences; interaction confidence; interaction enjoyment; non-verbal communication and behavior; cultural elements; and non-verbal aspects in verbal communication. The internal consistency of the scale was found to be adequate. Therefore, the newly constructed scale is valid and reliable for use in Chinese cultural settings.

BRUJAS, PRINCESAS, OGROS Y DRAGONES: LA ENSEÑANZA DE LA LENGUA A TRAVÉS DEL CUENTO POPULAR. WITCHES, PRINCESSES, OGRES AND DRAGONS: TEACHING THE LANGUAGE THROUGH FOLKTALES

Folktales and Fairy Tales have been useful for centuries to give voice to the dreams, aspirations and concerns of all peoples. These cultural samples are an extraordinary ally for the study of Spanish as a Foreign Language, acting as a link between the culture of origin and the target language. This article presents a project in which students from a Master’s Degree in Teaching Spanish as a Foreign Language (SFL) and students from Spanish courses from different institutions worked collaboratively in recovering oral tradition stories. Its objective was to develop intercultural competence in the SFL classroom and, later, to create teaching materials.

The Lexical Availability of “Daily Activities” in Learners of Spanish (SFL)

The objective of the present work, which focuses on the teaching and learning of Spanish vocabulary, is to present the lexical availability of Slovene students of Spanish as a foreign language (SFL) in the semantic category “daily activities”. The quantitative and qualitative differences and similarities of lexical availability output in this semantic category, as obtained by two groups of informants of different levels of SFL, are compared: 100 high school students (approximate level B1) and 100 university students (approximate level B2 +). The results obtained from this sample are compared with those of a study carried out by Sánchez-Saus Laserna (2011), which presents a sample of 322 SFL informants of different mother tongues in the same semantic category. This category, which is not one of those traditionally used in the studies of lexical availability, has been chosen since the lack of other grammatical categories than nouns is one of the main problems that has been attributed to the studies of lexical availability, which makes it impossible to closely reflect the vocabulary that SFL students know. Likewise, it is intended to check if the associations correspond to the grammatical category of the stimulus (in this case the verbs), since other semantic categories are indicated by the nouns. We intend to check the validity of the following hypotheses: 1)     The production of lexical availability of high school students with less knowledge (B1) of Spanish is lower than that of university students (B2 +). 2)     There is a qualitative similarity between the results of the two groups of Slovene SFL students. 3)     For the most part, the associations correspond to the same grammatical category indicated by the cue words of the semantic category; in this case the verbs. 4)     There is quantitative and qualitative similarity between the results of the present study and those of Sánchez-Saus Laserna (2011).

Student Engagement in an EFL/SFL Speaking LMOOC during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Influence of Learners’ Social, Affective and Cognitive Dimensions

It is empirically demonstrated that Language Massive Open Online Courses (LMOOCs) contribute to the development of learners’ foreign language (FL) competences. Thus, it is not surprising that these courses have experienced exponential growth over the last decade, being English as a foreign language (EFL) one of the most demanded subjects by LMOOC learners. However, LMOOCs face low learner engagement rates, which might be influenced by learners’ proximal and distal variables. The present study contributes to the understanding of learner engagement in an English as a FL (EFL) and Spanish as a FL (SFL) speaking LMOOC during the COVID-19 pandemic. First, it aims to understand to what extent learner engagement in the course varied during the pandemic emergency period. Second, it aims to identify the aspects of the course that promoted learner engagement, related to learners’ cognitive, affective and social dimensions. The research context is TandemMOOC, an EFL/SFL speaking LMOOC offered annually by the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Spain). Participants of the study were 2,585 enrolled learners in the TandemMOOC edition of 2019 or 2020. The study followed a mixed-method approach. First, data on learner participation was retrieved from the course system. Second, a post-course questionnaire with closed and open-ended items was administered to learners of the latter edition. Descriptive statistics on quantitative data and content analysis on qualitative data were carried out. Subsequent integration of findings showed that learner engagement in TandemMOOC increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, and revealed that aspects of the course linked to learners’ social dimension were the most engaging ones.

Use of Language Learning Strategies by Indian Learners of Spanish as A Foreign Language

Learning a foreign language in a non-native context is both a challenging and difficult task. This learning encompasses many processes and follows different trajectories. One of the offshoots of these processes is the strategies used by the learners in their learning route. During the last forty-five years, the research in the learning strategies field has grown many folds and has contributed to our understanding of how the learners use these tools in their learning path. This article examines some of the common language learning strategies (LLS) employed by the students while learning Spanish as a foreign language (SFL) at two major Central Universities of India. The present study is carried out by using a mixed-method under the descriptive framework in which the common learning strategies have been analyzed and discussed. In terms of the higher proficient group, the result shows no statistically significant differences in the use of LLS, on the contrary, concerning the year of study, there were statistically significant differences in the use of LLS among the three groups. Finally, regarding the effectiveness of the use of LLS among the participants, the results underlined a need for explicit or implicit strategic training.

Video-Conferencing English–Spanish eTandem Exchange

This study analyzed eTandem video-conferencing exchanges between five pairs of university students of English as a foreign language (EFL) and Spanish as a foreign language (SFL). The exchanges, which involved discussion of seven tasks, took place on a weekly basis. Drawing on an interactionist perspective (Ellis et al., 2001a; Loewen, 2005), the study explored the impact of incidental noticing on subsequent language learning. Data were collected from two sources: transcripts of all the video-conferencing sessions and immediate and delayed post-tests. Drawing on Loewen’s (2005) framework of analysis, the transcripts revealed that students generated a total of 915 focus-on-form episodes (FFEs). As measured by the post-tests, participants recalled over half of the targeted FFE linguistic items. In contrast to previous studies (Loewen, 2005; Shekary & Tahririan, 2006), where successful uptake was a predictor for L2 learning, the present study revealed that the only significant predictor was deferred timing. More generally, the present study supports the claim that eTandem video-conferencing is a useful activity for promoting L2 acquisition.

La expresión del ofrecimiento y la petición en aprendices de español de L1 portugués

En esta investigación se analiza la adquisición de la competencia pragmática en el español L2 en una muestra de aprendices de L1 portugués, a través de dos actos de habla recíprocos: el ofrecimiento y la petición. Tras examinar la expresión de estos actos en dos muestras independientes de hablantes nativos de español castellano y de portugués europeo, se ha procedido al estudio contrastivo de la interlengua de 70 estudiantes portugueses de español como lengua extranjera (ELE) de niveles A2 y B2. Los datos obtenidos nos han permitido identificar las variaciones entre los dos niveles en el desarrollo comunicativo de los aprendices de ELE, comprobar las diferencias que existen entre el español L1 y L2, revisar las estrategias lingüísticas y pragmáticas que transfieren de la lengua nativa a la lengua meta y analizar los recursos que utilizan en el español L2 para la expresión de estos dos actos de habla.

Audiovisual translation (dubbing and audio description) as a didactic tool to promote foreign language learning

AbstractThis empirical study focuses on the use of Spanish clitic pronouns when they function as accusative or as dative clitics in the translation tasks performed by university students of Spanish as a foreign language (SFL). The participants were 35 Belgian Dutch-speaking students of SFL (Level B2) from the Department of Translation, Interpreting and Communication of Ghent University (Belgium), who are enrolled in the Translation course. They were asked to perform two tasks: (1) to create an audio description script in Spanish, and (2) to translate the English dialogues into Spanish from a sequence taken from the filmThe Help(Taylor 2011). The written texts they produced were compared to those written by 39 Erasmus Spanish native students, who carried out the same tasks. The results showed that the Belgian students produced significantly fewer clitic pronouns, especially in the case of dative clitic doubling, than those produced by the Spanish natives. As for the differences between the two modes of audiovisual translation, the findings revealed that the Belgians produced more accurate results in the interlingual than in the intersemiotic task. The results of our study also made it clear that more attention should be paid to the use of redundant clitic pronouns in the SFL classroom.

Coloniality, neoliberalism and the language textbook

Abstract In this article, we question the presumed presence of the textbook as sine qua non in languages education. Contextualising our discussion within Spanish as a foreign language (SFL) in higher education, we illuminate the overlapping ideological, historical and economic forces that frame and shape language practice through textbooks. In a field in which decolonial and poststructuralist approaches to language and languages education are gaining traction, the textbook thwarts theoretical and practical complexification of language beyond monolingual depictions of languages as ahistorical and context-free systems which unproblematically transport meaning across time and space. Furthermore, the status of the textbook as a producible and consumable item cannot be overlooked. On the basis of our critique, we conclude that the use of textbooks generates serious tensions in practice for those wishing to pursue emergent, emancipatory linguistic frameworks in languages education.

Aspects of integrating culture in the Spanish-as-a-Foreign-Language class

While there has been growing awareness among teachers that language learning/teaching and culture learning/teaching should occur together, the techniques and classroom activities for integrating culture in the FL classroom are still a matter of research and further testing. The present work explores some aspects of teaching culture in the Spanish-as-aForeign-Language (SFL) classroom, which may very well constitute suggestions for anyone approaching this subject matter. It is basically an account of my experience with different groups of students from Transilvania University of Brașov. I shall discuss the overall efficiency of the different techniques, specific activities, and teaching materials employed with my groups of SFL students, also pointing out some of the differences in the approach and challenging aspects of teaching culture to SFL students from different curricular areas and students with different linguistic competence of Spanish.

An analysis of repair practices in L2 Spanish listening comprehension materials with implications for teaching interactional competence

ABSTRACT Listening materials are commonly developed so students show their understanding of a specific oral discourse. Oral interactions provided in textbooks are resources in which different interactional practices are involved, repair practices being one of these. This article seeks to explore, first, the types of repair practices found in Spanish as a Foreign Language (SFL) textbook listening interactions and, second, the relationship between repairs and other characteristics of the interactions to determine to what extent SFL listening practices are appropriate resources to show examples of repair work and to develop the students’ Interactional Competence. Following a Conversation Analysis perspective, 109 repairs in 504 SFL audiotaped listening materials from 18 textbooks are analysed. The results show that repairs are not a common practice in listening materials, other-initiated self-repairs being the most common type of repair work. A disparity is also observed in establishing repair through listening materials depending on the textbook. Some of them include self-repairs together with other interactional features, such as overlapped turns, articulated pauses or response tokens, while other textbooks rarely present any repair work. These findings improve our understanding of the degree of authenticity of listening materials, which might help students develop their interactional competence.

Recorded video meetings in virtual exchange: a new frontier for pre-service teacher reflection

This study examined a virtual exchange in which English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teacher candidates from Colombia were partnered with Spanish as a Foreign Language (SFL) teacher candidates from the United States. The eight (n = 8) participants interacted via videoconference for six weeks. Additionally, they watched recordings of their video meetings in order to reflect on their experiences and what they noticed about their interactions (Schmidt, 1990). Results from qualitative data showed participants’ awareness of their professional identity and professional development. Additionally, incorporating a reflective component, based on watching recorded synchronous sessions, into virtual exchange is shown to be a valuable tool for making connections between theory and practice.

Colocaciones gramaticales verbo + preposición en ELE: análisis contrastivo de la interlengua en aprendientes de nivel A2 y B1

Este estudio examina la frecuencia de colocaciones gramaticales verbo + preposición (ColGram v+p) en aprendientes anglófonos de Español como Lengua Extranjera (ELE) de nivel A2 y B1 bajo el modelo de Análisis Contrastivo de la Interlengua (ACI). Para ello, se implementa una tipología colocacional sustentada en un criterio de fijación intermedia de estas unidades. Los resultados muestran mayor frecuencia en el nivel B1, pero no en la variedad de unidades, y un mayor número de usos correctos que en A2. Respecto de las diferencias encontradas según el patrón sintáctico-semántico, las variables competencia, complejidad del patrón y temáticas aparecen como factores importantes para explicarlas en el contexto del corpus de aprendientes examinado. Este trabajo aporta al estudio de las ColGram v+p, y de otros tipos (sustantivo/adjetivo + preposición) en ELE.

La apertura del canon literario: la narrativa de Concha Alós para clases de C1 ELE

Literature together with cinema, theater, documentary, and music, is a useful instrument for teaching and learning – both guided and autonomous – of a foreign language. In this paper we present a didactic proposal addressed to students of Spanish as a Foreign Language (SFL) of level C1 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). Didactic intervention starts from the exploitation of some fragments of El Caballo Rojo, a novel published by Concha Alos in 1966. Likewise, this work is part of the recovery of texts forgotten by the canon and the vindication of an author absent from the History of recent Spanish Literature. In this way, the first part of the article reflects on the limitations of the literary corpus in relation to what is called literature written by women. In the second part, a didactic intervention for a SFL classroom will be articulated and developed.

Critical approach to intercultural education and foreign language learning and teaching: neoliberal gender ideologies in textbooks of Spanish as a foreign language

In line with the understanding of the role of critical pedagogy in intercultural
 language education, in this paper we focus on critical discourse and sociolinguistic analysis
 of contemporary textbooks of Spanish as a Foreign Language (SFL). We search for neoliberal
 gender ideologies in educational discourses targeting international audience of students
 of SFL. Even though new textbooks are said to promote the “feminization” of educational
 contexts (Gray 2010), we interpret them as sources of latent hegemonic influences favoring
 highly regulated and standardized neoliberal capitalist worldviews toward gender. Based
 on previous research of textbooks of SFL (Bori 2018; Kuzmanović Jovanović 2016), we
 herein present results of an instrumental qualitative case study (emancipatory focus group research) taking a critical stand toward neoliberal gender ideologies among predominantly female university students of Spanish at the Faculty of Philology, University of Belgrade who are exposed to the above outlined teaching and learning materials. Our objective is to create a new educational space in our SFL classrooms in which contextualized knowledge construction takes place leading to the maturation of SFL users and teachers, who are “capable of changing their reality in ways related to formal and informal educational settings” (Filipović 2015: 105).