Spanish Textbooks Research Articles

Pestalozzi in Hell: The Response of Conservative and Reactionary Spanish Catholicism to the Figure of Pestalozzi during the First Third of the 20th Century

The creation in Spain, in 1898, of the History of Education as an academic disdpline for the education of teachers (and the consequent publication of the first Spanish text-books on it), as well as the commemoration, in 1927, of the centenary of Pestalozzi's death, together with the conflicts between secularism and Catholicism, gave rise to very diverse and opposed appropiations and receptions of Pestalozzi's figure and works. The analysis reveals the radical position of conservative and reactionary Catholicism and its opposition to the mythification, enthronement and lay sanctification of the Swiss educator undertaken by other ideological sectors.

Twentieth-Century Spanish Textbooks: A Generational Approach

The evolution of Spanish textbooks studied within a qualitative format reveals a transformation from auxiliary into dominant classroom literature. Computerized pedagogical data show distinct generational text-style trends from 1860 to 1998. These trends chronicle a common engine of change and conflict in standardization movements and the production of generational text-styles. The historiography briefly summarizes twentieth century textbook generations and key players who effected changes in textbook style.

Focusing on Form While Conveying a Cultural Message

Recent research has demonstrated that form-based practice within a communicative context leads to higher levels of linguistic accuracy and performance than when practice is uncontextualized. As a result, current foreign language textbooks offer many more contextualized activities than in the past. Culture, however, is one type of content that often appears separate from grammar, as if it were not an integral part of the language. An examination of the cultural content in grammar exercises of recent college-level Spanish textbooks suggests a small trend toward the integration of cultural content with form-based practice. Teachers can supplement their texts' offerings by creating form-focused activities with cultural content and by expanding cultural activities with grammar practice.

Enhancing Beginning Language Courses Through Content‐Enriched Instruction

ABSTRACT In the traditional foreign language curriculum, content‐based instruction (CBI) is postponed until at least the second year of study when, it is perceived, learners have the necessary linguistic repertoire with which to begin to deal with content. The author's analysis of 12 first‐year college‐level Spanish textbooks reveals that, in general, little cultural or real‐world information is provided to beginning learners. The purpose of this paper is to describe a variation of CBI for beginning‐level language learners called content‐enriched instruction (CEI). In CEIan emphasis is placed on cultural and real‐world information. Vocabulary, grammar, and content are integrated to reflect a specific theme or converge to represent a specific topic. Learners use Spanish to acquire new information and to relate new content knowledge to their own lives. All new information is designed to meet appropriate linguistic, cognitive, and affective needs of the learner. To illustrate the uses and benefits of CEI, the author describes a unit lesson plan for six class periods and offers suggestions on how to implement CEI.

Pronouns of Address in Spanish‐Language Textbooks: The Case for vos

ABSTRACT The voseo is a frequently used second person singular form of address in many New World varieties of Spanish. Unfortunately, most textbooks of Spanish regularly treat the use of til, usted, ustedes, and vosotros, but ignore vos. This article includes a survey of 37 first‐year secondary and postsecondary Spanish textbooks for their coverage of the voseo. All texts were carefully analyzed via a page‐by‐page survey of explanations, tables of contents, readings, marginal glosses, and indexes. Results of the survey revealed that only 16 percent of the analyzed texts included any reference to the voseo. The article also makes recommendations for the inclusion of the voseo in future textbooks of Spanish and in class instruction. Indeed, the vos may be considered as the simple addition of one more vocabulary item that could improve students' communicative competence in Spanish.Several factors support an increased attention on vos: our students have contact with a number of native speakers who regularly use vos. This contact is between our students and Central and South Americans both as immigrants in the United States and through contact with native speakers when our students travel and study in Central and South America. Therefore, the ever‐increasing contact with dialect speakers exhibiting vos requires increased attention to this important form of address in pedagogical materials and class lessons at all levels.

Preterite/Imperfect Half-Truths: Problems with Spanish Textbook Rules for Usage

Preterite/Imperfect Half-Truths: Problems with Spanish Textbook Rules for Usage

Awareness of Text Structure: Is There a Match Between Readers and Authors of Second Language Texts?

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to investigate the types of rhetorical structures that beginning‐level Spanish students encounter in their textbook reading materials. The intent was to determine if there was a match between the types of structures that English‐speaking students are most typically able to demonstrate awareness of and the the types of structures used by authors of reading materials found in Spanish textbooks. Also considered in the investigation was the issue of authentic texts and how they were the same or different than texts specifically written for textbook purposes. Finally, an analysis of words used to signal text patterns was done both for the authentic passages as well as those that were artificially constructed. Fifteen textbooks used to teach Spanish as a foreign language were selected randomly for inclusion in the study and from those 15 books, 39 passages were analyzed.

Trends in the Use of illustrations in University Spanish Textbooks

Trends in the Use of illustrations in University Spanish Textbooks

Attending to Learner Reactions to Introductory Spanish Textbooks

Attending to Learner Reactions to Introductory Spanish Textbooks

Language and Culture in Secondary Level Spanish Textbooks

vide students with a knowledge of the language and culture of the target group. Language lessons are usually arranged so that students are presented with linguistic forms (e.g., grammatical structures, vocabulary, verb morphology) and communicative functions (e.g., asking for directions, greetings, apologizing, expressing personal opinions) in an organized manner. Specific aspects of language are often placed in the context of social situations such as shopping in a market, visiting a family, or going on a trip. Culture is sometimes presented within the framework of themes illustrating what and how the natives eat, dress, work, play, and live their daily lives. In some instances, examples of conventional behaviors are included to show the

Language and Culture in Secondary Level Spanish Textbooks

Language and Culture in Secondary Level Spanish Textbooks

Mexican, Puerto Rican, and Cuban Ethnic Groups in First‐Year College‐Level Spanish Textbooks

The Modern Language JournalVolume 71, Issue 2 p. 125-137 Mexican, Puerto Rican, and Cuban Ethnic Groups in First-Year College-Level Spanish Textbooks VÍCTOR ARIZPE, VÍCTOR ARIZPESearch for more papers by this authorBENIGNO E. AGUIRRE, BENIGNO E. AGUIRRESearch for more papers by this author VÍCTOR ARIZPE, VÍCTOR ARIZPESearch for more papers by this authorBENIGNO E. AGUIRRE, BENIGNO E. AGUIRRESearch for more papers by this author First published: Summer 1987 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4781.1987.tb01593.xCitations: 7AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume71, Issue2Summer 1987Pages 125-137 RelatedInformation

Mexican, Puerto Rican, and Cuban Ethnic Groups in First-Year College-Level Spanish Textbooks

Mexican, Puerto Rican, and Cuban Ethnic Groups in First-Year College-Level Spanish Textbooks

An Analysis of State Adopted Foreign Language Textbooks Used in First‐ and Third‐Year High School Spanish Classes

ABSTRACT: At all stages and levels of foreign language instruction, teachers and students rely heavily on the core textbook. Research, however, has neglected the systematic evaluation and description of these texts. Using the Annehurst Curriculum Classification System as a tool for classifying, describing, and analyzing first‐ and third‐year high school Spanish textbooks, this study provides information about the curriculum characteristics of these textbooks and determines what differences exist among the texts evaluated. The characteristics or dimensions are: experience, intelligence, motivation, emotion/personality, creativity, sociability, verbal expression, and auditory, visual, and motor perception. Results of this study indicate that these textbooks are consistently “deficient” on nearly all of the dimensions examined. Similarity of characteristics among first‐ and third‐year Spanish textbooks suggests that the broad spectrum of cognitive and affective needs inherent in learners is not being met.

English Grammar Terminology as an Obstacle to Second Language Learning

eign languages is that students do not seem to possess the vocabulary to talk about the grammar structures of their own language. We ask why some students have considerable difficulty with what appear to be simple, clearly-stated grammar explanations and we worry that so much time is spent explaining and illustrating grammar terminology that little remains for less structured, more communicative practice. Traditionally, time spent in the native language on clarification of simple grammar points has been considered remedial instruction; it has been taken for granted that students would have learned such things about their own language and be able to transfer that knowledge. However, students may never have had the opportunity to learn what many foreign language teachers and textbooks tend to assume they have learned about their own language. Most beginning (university) language textbooks are based on certain basic assumptions about the nature of the student's knowledge of English: 1) the native language of the student is standard American; 2) the student's knowledge of English includes a certain (although unspecified) level of understanding of grammar structures; 3) the structures have that may be used to identify and describe them. An inspection of currently-used textbooks in French, Spanish, and German indicates that these common labels include

A Deeper Look at the Grammar and Some Implications of SER and ESTAR + Locative in Spanish

The article y ESTAR + locativos en espafiol (Hispania, March 1984) presents a semantic and syntactic study of Spanish constructions containing SER and ESTAR with locatives. The principal aim of that article is to explain the difference between constructions such as: ?D6nde es la catedral? and 1'D6nde estd la catedral?, a difference which is clearly sensed by native speakers, even though they might find it impossible to explain the difference. Indeed, even in the theoretical literature, the difference between these two constructions has not received satisfactory explicit formulations. In fact, many textbooks of Spanish and, consequently, many speakers of Spanish as a second language simply ignore the existence of constructions containing SER + locative. Typically, the problem of accounting for such constructions is entirely circumvented by the statement of a blanket rule, according to which locatives require the use of ESTAR, i.e., constructions such as ?D6nde estd la catedral? are the only ones permitted in Spanish. As convenient as it may be, this approach to SER/ESTAR + locatives is an expedient which flies in the face of plain facts of Spanish usage. The fact is that native speakers can be frequently heard to utter sentences such as:

A Forgotten Insurrection of the Seventeenth Century: The Catalan Peasant Rising of 1688

The largest popular uprising to occur anywhere in Spain in the course of the seventeenth century was the so-called revolt of the segadors of 1688-89 in Catalonia. Though the existence of the rising is noted in some Spanish textbooks it goes wholly unrecognized in standard histories.' The reason for this is a dangerously misplaced emphasis on key events, in this case an undue concentration on the year 1640 in Catalan history, to the exclusion of its aftermath and consequences. The revolution of 1640 was not an ending but a beginning: the crucial questions it raised were to torment every thinking Catalan up to the even more decisive revolt of 1705, when Catalonia set out on a path which led to the permanent loss of its independence. A very important part in the chain of events leading from 1640 to 1705 was played by the 1688 risings. There was a major social revolt in Catalonia in 1640, of which we know a little.2 For our present purposes, the most interesting aspect to note about 1640 is the almost wholly united front which all social classes presented against the policies of Olivares. Despite the great gulf separating the interests of the peasants from the nobles, most Catalans agreed on a firm rejection of Castilian pretensions in the principality. A generation after the recovery of Barcelona from the French in 1652 the situation had changed considerably. Catalonia had less cause to be grateful to France. Not only had France had to neglect the Catalans; the principality itself had been carved up by the Treaty of the Pyrenees (1659) whereby France secured Roussillon and part of Cerdagne.3 Considerable hardship was caused to those

The Audio-Lingual Approach to the Teaching of Spanish Pronunciation and Writing: A Close Look

The purpose of this paper is to express a reaction to a recent article in this journal by Juan Estarellas. In his discussion, Prof. Estarellas describes a case study on the teaching of Spanish pronuniation and sound-letter correspondence, and at the same time he identifies the audio-lingual approach as the primary source of student problems in these two areas.' The presence of pronunciation and spelling problems among beginning students of Spanish is readily acknowledged, and the gains recorded among the students on Professor Estarellas' experiment offer a persuasive argument in favor of early and intensive phonological and sound-letter training. However, the assertion that students in (presumably any and all) audiolingual Spanish programs are weak in these two areas, because the audio-lingual approach is inherently deficient is its provisions for such work, is open to serious question. A concern for accuracy and objectivity requires a critical examination of this allegation. If one were to look no further than Prof. Estarellas' several citations of audio-lingual adherents,2 it might appear that the method indeed ignores a careful approach to sound discrimination and sound-letter correspondence. It should be noted, however, that these citations date from the early to mid-sixties and do not necessarily represent current thought among many audio-lingual spokesmen. Further, it is just as important to consider the extent to which methodological principles are reflected in teaching materials (textbooks, etc.) and in the actual practices of classroom teachers as it is to quote the selected pronouncements of leading methodologists, however eminent they are. The position of this article, then, is that the audiolingual approach does in fact provide for careful training of the sort endorsed by Prof. Estarellas, that it (through text materials and other means) has so provided from the early years of the 1960's, that the audio-lingual principle of emphasizing language in meaningful units is in no way incompatible with either the means or the ends advocated by Prof. Estarellas, and that foreign language teachers almost never fit neatly into a single methodological niche. Consequently, the problems observed in a single school cannot be safely attributed to a teaching method alone. One of the best-known and most widely used audio-lingual Spanish textbooks in American secondary schools includes Spelling-Writing and Reading Drills in its first edition (1961), which deal with sound-letter instruction at the word-and phrase-level, with emphasis on the most troublesome points of native language interference.3 In addition, there are numerous pronunciation drills which focus on the most crucial potential problems encountered by American students, and which, the authors point out, reflect the findings of recent linguistic research.' The second edition (1969) of the same textbook furnishes in its teacher's edition even more extensive exercises for pronunciation and spelling. Pronunciation exercises are an integral part of each unit and include aural discrimination drills (Spanish vs. English, Spanish vs. Spanish) and repetition drills on both isolated words and complete sentences.5 Sound-letter correspondence is treated, too, beginning with the second unit.6 Although the exercises in both editions of this popular audio-lingual textbook undoubtedly differ in some respects from those developed by Prof. Estarellas, it should be clear that SHOP-TALK 99

Textbooks in Spanish and Portuguese: A Descriptive Bibliography 1939-1970

Textbooks in Spanish and Portuguese: A Descriptive Bibliography 1939-1970

The Subjunctive in Spanish: A Transformational Approach

1. Conventional treatment of subjunctive. In Spanish grammar textbooks, the treatment of the subjunctive is frequently divided into three sections dealing with noun clauses, adverb clauses, and adjective clauses, respectively. The student is usually presented with a separate rule for each clause type. In some textbooks, adverb clauses are further divided into two subclassifications: one type introduced by conjunctions which always take the subjunctive (e.g. para que, sin que) or the indicative (e.g. puesto que, ya que), and another type introduced by conjunctions which can take either depending upon the meaning of the sentence (e.g. donde, cuando).' There are two problems which arise from this approach: first, the student must learn three (or more) sets of rules, and second, he must learn to distinguish noun, adverb, and adjective clauses before he can apply them. Analyses of compound sentences which have been proposed recently within the transformational framework suggest that some of the complexity mentioned above is unnecessary. Specifically, it has been suggested that the adverb clause as a separate category does not exist at all and that some clauses with adverbial functions can be analyzed as adjective clauses, others as noun clauses. This paper will present a sketch of this analysis and its consequences for the presentation of the subjunctive 2. Adverb clauses as adjective clauses. I have argued that clauses introduced by donde, como, and cuando should be considered modified versions of relative clauses having antecedents such as lugar, modo, and tiempo. In my analysis the sentence (1) El libro estd donde lo pusiste is derived from (2) El libro estd en el lugar donde lo pusiste by deletion of the antecedent lugar. Sentence (2) is in turn derived from (3) El libro estdi en el lugar en que lo pusiste by rules which optionally substitute relative adverbs for relative pronouns in sentences of this type.2 Thus the clauses in (1) and (2) are viewed as having an essentially adjectival function, modifying the noun lugar, whether it is actually present, as in (2), or merely understood as in (1).