Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Spanish as a Foreign Language (SFL)'

This dissertation reports on an investigation of corrective feedback provided by instructors to learners in sixteen online asynchronous and synchronous interactions. The overarching objective of this study was to examine the provision of corrective feedback in computer-mediated communication (CMC) environments. This study also sought to examine the frequency of corrective feedback types and the relationship between learner error and corrective feedback provision. Finally, this study investigated what types of corrective feedback led to repaired learner responses.Over the course of one university semester, the instructors and students in four second-semester Spanish courses participated in bulletin board and chat room discussions and a detailed analysis of the transcripts revealed that instructors do provide learners with corrective feedback in online asynchronous and synchronous environments. The results also reveal that corrective feedback is more prevalent in the asynchronous environment than in the synchronous environment. A total of six corrective feedback typesexplicit correction, recasts, metalinguistic feedback, clarification request, elicitation, and repetitionwere found in these environments. All corrective feedback types were present in the asynchronous environment while repetition was not observed in the synchronous environment. The results indicate instructors overall preference for explicit correction in the asynchronous environment and preference for recasts in the synchronous environment. In the synchronous environment, different types of learner errors are followed by different types of corrective feedback. Recasts most often follow grammatical and lexical errors, while an opportunity to negotiate form is most often provided for multiple errors.

[ES] La instrucción de género denominada narrativa personal de no ficción o memorias, junto con el método de enseñanza Harkness en la expresión escrita del español como lengua extranjera, demostrará en el contexto particular de una universidad americana en España y en Estados Unidos un desarrollo superior de esta habilidad y desempeño. A la autora de esta tesis le gustaría contribuir a una tan esperada presencia de la escritura del español como L2 en la literatura de investigación. Este estudio trata de desarrollar en las clases de ELE para estudiantes americanos nuevos métodos que logren despertar el deseo, ya que no existe en este contexto la necesidad, de aprender español. A partir de la experiencia en la enseñanza del español a estudiantes universitarios y de secundaria estadounidenses, por un lado, en Estados Unidos como requisito obligatorio por parte de la universidad para el crédito en lenguas extranjeras y, por otro lado, en programas académicos estadounidenses de inmersión en España (en ambos casos siguiendo los libros y el método impuesto por las universidades) es común que estudiantes y profesores estén insatisfechos. La intención es demostrar que con la pedagogía Harkness y la enseñanza de la expresión escrita a través del género ensayo personal, es posible crear un currículo académico donde se obtienen claras mejoras en el aprendizaje final. Además, crea un ambiente donde los estudiantes están motivados y felices de aprender un segundo idioma. Se podría llevar a cabo la construcción de género y de la pedagogía basada en el género en un primer plano socio-contextual, de manera que permitan a los alumnos de ELE ver el contenido en términos de lenguaje desde el principio, en lugar de tener que integrarlos más tarde. Los programas de estudios universitarios de ELE tienen a su disposición la configuración de su destino, la calidad de su programa y el de los aprendizajes de sus alumnos. El objetivo se habrá logrado si el estudio ha convencido a los lectores de que los programas universitarios de ELE pueden revitalizarse aplicando una orientación humanística, al mismo tiempo, basada en el lenguaje.
[CA] L'orientació cap al gènere denominat non-fiction de la narrativa personal o Memoirs juntament amb el mètode Harkness d'ensenyament en l'expressió escrita d'ELE, en el context particular d'una Universitat Americana a Espanya i als Estats Units, demostrarà un desenvolupament més elevat de aquesta habilitat i del seu rendiment. L'autora d'aquesta tesi desitjaria contribuir a una llargament esperada presència de l'escriptura de l'espanyol com a L2 en la literatura d'investigació. Aquest estudi tracta de desenvolupar en les classes d'ELE per a estudiants americans nous mètodes que aconsegueixin despertar el desig, ja que no existeix en aquest context la necessitat, d'aprendre espanyol. Basat en l'experiència en ensenyar a estudiants universitaris americans espanyol, d'una banda, als Estats Units com a requeriment obligatori per part de la universitat de crèdit en llengües estrangeres i, de l'altra, en programes acadèmics americans d'immersió a Espanya (en els dos casos seguint els llibres i el mètode que imposen les universitats) és comú el desistiment i descontentament per part dels estudiants i professors. La intenció és demostrar que amb el mètode d'ensenyament Harkness juntament amb l'ensenyament de l'expressió escrita a través del gènere de l'assaig personal és possible crear un contingut acadèmic on no només s'obtenen clares millores de l'aprenentatge final, sinó que s'arriba a crear un ambient on els estudiants estan motivats i contents d'aprendre una segona llengua. Es podria dur a terme la construcció de gènere i de la pedagogia basada en el gènere en un primer pla soci-contextual, de manera que permetin als alumnes d'ELE veure el contingut en termes de llenguatge des del principi, en lloc d'haver de integrar-los posteriorment. S'haurà obtingut l'objectiu si l'estudi obté lectors convençuts que es poden revitalitzar programes universitaris d'ELA mitjançant l'aplicació d'una orientació humanista, a el mateix temps, basada en el llenguatge.
[EN] The gender instruction called the non-fiction personal narrative or memoirs, together with the Harkness method of teaching in the written expression of Spanish as a Foreign Language, will demonstrate in the particular context of an American University in Spain and in the US a higher development of this ability and performance. The author of this thesis would like to contribute to a long-awaited Spanish writing presence as L2 in the research literature. This study tries to develop in SFL classes for American universities and students' new methods that manage to awaken the desire since there is no need in this context to learn Spanish. Based on the experience in teaching Spanish to American university and high school students, on the one hand, in the United States as a mandatory requirement by the university for credit in foreign languages and, on the other hand, in American academic programs of immersion in Spain (in both cases following the books and the method imposed by the universities) it is common for students and teachers to be dissatisfied. The intention is to demonstrate that with the Harkness pedagogy and the teaching of written expression through the personal essay genre, it is possible to create an academic curriculum where clear improvements are obtained in the final learning. Besides, it creates an environment where students are motivated and happy to learn a second language. The construction of gender and gender-based instruction could be carried out in a socio-contextual foreground to allow SFL students to see the content in terms of language from the beginning, rather than having to integrate them later. SFL's university study programs have at their disposal shaping their destiny, the quality of their program, and that of their students' learning. The objective will have been achieved if the study has convinced readers that SFL university programs can be revitalized by applying a humanistic, at the same time, language-based orientation.
García Montes, P. (2021). Application of Genre and the Harkness Pedagogy for the Advanced Development of Writing Skills in Spanish in Foreign Language Courses [Tesis doctoral]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/171795
TESIS

Esta tesis, que quiere ser transdisciplinaria, combinando las ciencias del lenguaje, las ciencias de la educación y la sociolingüística, se centra en cuatro áreas principales: la política del plurilingüismo en las instituciones educativas, el aprendizaje y la adquisición de LE (el Francés Lengua Extranjera: FLE, y el Español Lengua Extranjera: ELE), el tratamiento del error y el feedback correctivo (FC) en la producción escrita, así como las pistas de optimización didáctica para promover la educación plurilingüe y el FC. Los resultados de este trabajo de investigación muestran que, a nivel nacional, el objetivo del plurilingüismo en las instituciones educativas está muy lejos de ser alcanzado en Francia y en España, como lo demuestra el análisis de las cifras y las estadísticas publicadas por los dos Ministerios de Educación en el año académico 2014-2015, dejando ver una situación poco ventajosa del francés en España y del español en Francia frente al dominio del inglés, aunque es innegable que el ELE presenta en este sentido mejores resultados que el FLE. A nivel local, es decir en el marco del aula, la investigación-acción realizada en clase de FLE y de ELE se ha centrado en el análisis de diferentes tipos de FC escrito (directo, indirecto, reformulativo, metalingüístico, electrónico y mixto) a través de un proceso en tres etapas: redacción / comparación con el FC / reescritura. Se trataba de descubrir el impacto de cada FC experimentado en ambos sistemas educativos y de realizar una síntesis de la retroalimentación correctiva más eficaz en Francia y en España, con el fin de desarrollar el estadio de interlengua de los alumnos. Los datos y los resultados de la investigación muestran que la práctica de algunos tipos de FC, según diferentes modalidades de agrupamiento de aprendices (individual o por parejas), ha tenido un impacto directo en el proceso de aprendizaje / adquisición de la LE, tales como el FC directo en los alumnos de Secundaria de FLE y de ELE, el FC metalingüístico en tándem en los aprendices hispanófonos de Bachillerato, el FC mixto en los aprendices francófonos de Instituto y los estudiantes de ambos países. En cambio, otros FC no han provocado la asimilación de nuevos conocimientos por parte de los aprendices; a saber el FC indirecto, sobre todo en los alumnos españoles de ESO, el FC metalingüístico en tándem en los aprendices francófonos de Instituto, el FC metalingüístico individual en los aprendices de habla español, el FC indirecto en los estudiantes de ambos lados de los Pirineos. Esto ha dado lugar a que numerosas reglas gramaticales permanezcan todavía inertes. De ahí, la presencia recurrente de errores no rectificados en la producción escrita de los alumnos. El estudio finaliza proponiendo algunas recomendaciones susceptibles de ser ampliadas o modificadas, con el fin de lograr el "plurilingüismo" tan proclamado por las instancias europeas y optimizar el FC en clase de FLE y de ELE.

Cette thèse qui se veut transdisciplinaire, alliant les sciences du langage, les sciences de l'éducation et la sociolinguistique, se centre sur quatre axes principaux : la politique du plurilinguisme dans les institutions éducatives, l'apprentissage et l'acquisition des LE (le Français Langue Etrangère : FLE, et l'Espagnol Langue Etrangère : ELE), les erreurs et le feedback correctif (FC) à l'écrit, les pistes d'optimisation didactique pour promouvoir l'éducation plurilingue et le FC. Les résultats de ce travail de recherche montrent que, à l'échelle nationale, l'objectif du plurilinguisme dans les institutions éducatives est très loin d'être atteint en France et en Espagne, comme en témoigne l'analyse des chiffres et des statistiques publiés par les deux Ministères de l’Éducation Nationale durant l'année académique 2014-2015, laissant transparaître la situation peu avantageuse du français en Espagne et de l'espagnol en France face à la prédominance de l'anglais, bien qu'il soit indéniable que l'ELE présente de bien meilleurs résultats que le FLE. A l'échelle locale, c'est-à-dire au niveau de la classe, notre travail de recherche-action autour du FLE et de l'ELE s'est centré sur l'analyse de différents types de FC expérimentés à l'écrit (direct, indirect, reformulatif, métalinguistique, électronique et mixte) à travers une démarche en trois étapes : rédaction / comparaison avec le FC / réécriture. L'objectif était de découvrir l'impact de chacun des FC à l'étude dans les deux systèmes éducatifs considérés, et de réaliser une synthèse de la rétroaction corrective s'avérant la plus efficace en France et en Espagne, en vue de faire évoluer le stade d'interlangue des apprenants. Les données et les résultats de la recherche montrent que la pratique de certains types de FC, suivant différentes modalités de regroupement d'apprenants (individuel ou en binôme), a eu une incidence directe dans le processus d'apprentissage / acquisition de la LE, tels que le FC direct chez les collégiens de FLE et d'ELE, le FC métalinguistique en binôme chez les lycéens espagnols, le FC mixte chez les lycéens français et les étudiants des deux pays. En revanche, d'autres FC n'ont pas entraîné l'assimilation de nouvelles connaissances par les apprenants, à savoir le FC indirect, surtout chez les collégiens hispanophones, le FC métalinguistique en binôme chez les lycéens francophones, le FC métalinguistique individuel chez les lycéens hispanophones, le FC indirect chez les étudiants de part et d'autre des Pyrénées. C'est ainsi que de nombreuses règles grammaticales restent encore inertes. D'où la présence récurrente d'erreurs non rectifiées dans les productions écrites de tous les apprenants. L'étude conclut en proposant quelques recommandations susceptibles d'être étoffées, voire modifiées, ayant pour finalité le « plurilinguisme » tant proclamé par les instances européennes et l'optimisation du FC en classe de LE
This thesis, which aims at adopting a transdisciplinary approach by combining the Language Sciences, Education Sciences and Sociolinguistics, focuses on four main ranges: the politics of the plurilingual education, the learning and acquisition of a foreign language (French as a Foreign Language: FFL, Spanish as a Foreign Language: SFL), error treatment and corrective feedback (CF) in writing, as well as the didactic optimization tools directed to promoting both plurilingual education and CF. The results of this piece of research show that the nationwide goal of fostering plurilingualism is far from being reached in France as well as in Spain, as evidenced by the figures and statistics issued by both respective Ministries of Education for the academic year 2014-2015, which attest to the underprivileged status of the French language in Spain and that of the Spanish language in France compared with English language, even though it cannot be denied that SFL teaching delivers, in this regard, better results than FFL teaching. On a local scale, at the classroom level, the methodological approach of action-research carried out in different FFL/SFL classrooms has focused on the analysis of different types of written corrective feedback (direct, indirect, reformulative, metalinguistic, electronic and mixed) throughout a process split into three phases: writing task / comparison between the aforementioned task and the provided corrective feedback / rewriting task. The objective sought was both to bring to light the impact of CF on both education systems and to elaborate an abridgment of the most effective CF in France and Spain in order to develop the students' interlanguage stages. As shown by the data and results of the research, the practice of some types of CF, according to different classification methods for learners (individual, pairs), has had a direct impact on the foreign language learning/acquisition process through the direct CF in secondary school students (both FFL and SFL), the metalinguistic CF in tandem partners amongst Spanish-speaking students undertaking the Spanish Baccalaureate and the mixed CF amongst the French-speaking high school students and the students of both countries. Nevertheless, other types of CF have been proven to be ineffective to insure assimilation by learners such as the case of the indirect CF, especially amongst secondary-school Spanish students, the metalinguistic CF in tandem partners amongst French-speaking high school students, the individual metalinguistic CF amongst Spanish-speaking learners and the indirect CF amongst students on both sides of the Pyrenees. This has brought about the specific conservatism of plenty of grammar rules. Hence, the recurring presence of errors left uncorrected by students in their writing tasks. The study concludes with some recommendations liable to being broadened or modified, with the objectives of reaching the much proclaimed "plurilingualism" by the European institutions and of optimizing the CF in the FFL/SLF classrooms
Esta tesis, que quiere ser transdisciplinaria, combinando las ciencias del lenguaje, las ciencias de la educación y la sociolingüística, se centra en cuatro áreas principales: la política del plurilingüismo en las instituciones educativas, el aprendizaje y la adquisición de LE (el Francés Lengua Extranjera: FLE, y el Español Lengua Extranjera: ELE), el tratamiento del error y el feedback correctivo (FC) en la producción escrita, así como las pistas de optimización didáctica para promover la educación plurilingüe y el FC. Los resultados de este trabajo de investigación muestran que, a nivel nacional, el objetivo del plurilingüismo en las instituciones educativas está muy lejos de ser alcanzado en Francia y en España, como lo demuestra el análisis de las cifras y las estadísticas publicadas por los dos Ministerios de Educación en el año académico 2014-2015, dejando ver una situación poco ventajosa del francés en España y del español en Francia frente al dominio del inglés, aunque es innegable que el ELE presenta en este sentido mejores resultados que el FLE. A nivel local, es decir en el marco del aula, la investigación-acción realizada en clase de FLE y de ELE se ha centrado en el análisis de diferentes tipos de FC escrito (directo, indirecto, reformulativo, metalingüístico, electrónico y mixto) a través de un proceso en tres etapas: redacción / comparación con el FC / reescritura. Se trataba de descubrir el impacto de cada FC experimentado en ambos sistemas educativos y de realizar una síntesis de la retroalimentación correctiva más eficaz en Francia y en España, con el fin de desarrollar el estadio de interlengua de los alumnos. Los datos y los resultados de la investigación muestran que la práctica de algunos tipos de FC, según diferentes modalidades de agrupamiento de aprendices (individual o por parejas), ha tenido un impacto directo en el proceso de aprendizaje / adquisición de la LE, tales como el FC directo en los alumnos de Secundaria de FLE y de ELE, el FC metalingüístico en tándem en los aprendices hispanófonos de Bachillerato, el FC mixto en los aprendices francófonos de Instituto y los estudiantes de ambos países. En cambio, otros FC no han provocado la asimilación de nuevos conocimientos por parte de los aprendices; a saber el FC indirecto, sobre todo en los alumnos españoles de ESO, el FC metalingüístico en tándem en los aprendices francófonos de Instituto, el FC metalingüístico individual en los aprendices de habla español, el FC indirecto en los estudiantes de ambos lados de los Pirineos. Esto ha dado lugar a que numerosas reglas gramaticales permanezcan todavía inertes. De ahí, la presencia recurrente de errores no rectificados en la producción escrita de los alumnos. El estudio finaliza proponiendo algunas recomendaciones susceptibles de ser ampliadas o modificadas, con el fin de lograr el "plurilingüismo" tan proclamado por las instancias europeas y optimizar el FC en clase de FLE y de ELE

[ES] El objetivo de esta tesis doctoral es el diseño de una propuesta sobre un corpus de términos lingüísticos interculturales latinoamericanos, desarrollado en un sitio web, denominado Lingüística Andina. Este recurso digital se crea como una herramienta didáctica en donde se fusionan los conceptos, las respectivas traducciones y la semántica de vocablos, contenidos en las obras literarias latinoamericanas leídas por el estudiante de ELE de nivel avanzado, con la finalidad de fortalecer las competencias lectoras en este idioma. En lo que respecta al aspecto metodológico del estudio, este pertenece al tipo exploratorio, ya que hubo la necesidad de recopilar un corpus de términos propios del habla vernácula andina con los que se diseñó un glosario de términos y se creó una taxonomía digital; procedimiento que, hasta la actualidad, no había sido realizado. Bajo este contexto, el enfoque de esta investigación es cualitativa, ya que se centró en la búsqueda bibliográfica y documental de los conceptos y aspectos relevantes de la diversidad cultural latinoamericana que se encuentran reflejados en las expresiones lingüísticas de las novelas andinas escogidas para el presente estudio, Huasipungo y Los perros hambrientos, pertenecientes a Ecuador y Perú, respectivamente. Estas son naciones multiétnicas y multiculturales, con reconocimiento de sus festividades, arquitectura, medicina, gastronomía, vestimenta y espiritualidad. Adicional a esto, se aplicó una entrevista a tres expertos en lingüística, con el propósito de conocer cómo esta pluralidad se expone dentro de las aulas de las clases, especialmente, en las de educación superior. Por otro lado, el estudio participa de un enfoque cuantitativo, puesto que se aplicó una encuesta a los estudiantes de ELE, para medir su percepción sobre la utilidad de la taxonomía digital del habla intercultural en la América española y su uso efectivo para comprender el contenido de las novelas indigenistas que leen dentro del salón de clases. Entre los resultados se destaca que, de acuerdo a la percepción de los estudiantes de ELE, el conocimiento de términos lingüísticos andinos de las obras literarias leídas, los llevó a una mejor comprensión del contenido de las novelas indigenistas. Además, los estudiantes universitarios extranjeros del nivel avanzado de español, que adquirieron conocimientos de la lingüística latinoamericana en territorio andino, han podido vivenciar y valorar la cultura del país en donde aprenden el idioma.
[CA] L'objectiu d'aquesta tesi doctoral és el disseny d'una proposta sobre un corpus de termes lingüístics interculturals llatinoamericans, desenvolupat en un lloc web, anomenada Literatura Andina. Aquest recurs digital es crea com una eina didàctica en on es fusionen els conceptes, les respectives traduccions i la semàntica de la terminologia de les obres literàries llatinoamericanes llegides per l'estudiant d'ELE de nivell avançat, amb la finalitat d'enfortir les competències lectores en aquest idioma. Pel que fa a l'aspecte metodològic de l'estudi, aquest pertany al tipus exploratori, ja que hi va haver la necessitat de recopilar un corpus de termes propis de la parla vernacla andina amb els quals es va dissenyar un glossari de termes i es va crear una taxonomia digital; procediment que, fins a l'actualitat, no s'havia realitzat. Sota aquest context, l'enfocament d'aquesta investigació és qualitativa, ja que es va centrar en la recerca bibliogràfica i documental, dels conceptes i aspectes rellevants de la diversitat cultural llatinoamericana que es troben reflectits en les expressions lingüístiques de les novel·les andines escollides per al present estudi, Huasipungo i Els gossos famolencs, pertanyents a Equador i Perú, respectivament. Aquestes són nacions multi-ètniques i multiculturals, amb reconeixement de les seves festivitats, arquitectura, medicina, gastronomia, vestimenta i espiritualitat. Addicional a això, es va aplicar una entrevista a tres experts en lingüística, amb el propòsit de conèixer com aquesta pluralitat s'exposa dins de les aules de les classes, especialment, en les d'educació superior. D'altra banda, l'estudi participa d'un enfocament quantitatiu, ja que es va aplicar una enquesta als estudiants d'ELE, per mesurar la seva percepció sobre la utilitat de la taxonomia digital de la parla intercultural a l'Amèrica espanyola i el seu ús efectiu per comprendre el contingut de les novel·les indigenistes que llegeixen dins el saló de classes. Entre els resultats es destaca que, d'acord amb la percepció dels estudiants d'ELE, el coneixement de termes lingüístics andins de les obres literàries llegides, els va portar a una millor comprensió del contingut de les novel·les indigenistes. A més, els estudiants universitaris estrangers del nivell bàsic de català, que van adquirir coneixements de la lingüística llatinoamericana en territori andí, han pogut experimentar i valorar la cultura de país on aprenen l'idioma.
[EN] The objective of this doctoral thesis is to design a proposal on a corpus of Latin American intercultural linguistic terms, developed on a website called Andean Literature. This digital resource is created as a didactic tool where the concepts, the respective translations and the semantics of the terminology of the Latin American literary works read by the advanced level ELE student are merged, in order to strengthen reading skills in this language. Regarding the methodological aspect of the study, this belongs to the exploratory type, since there was a need to compile a corpus of terms typical of Andean vernacular speech with which a glossary of terms was designed and a digital taxonomy was created; procedure that, until now, had not been performed. In this context, the focus of this research is qualitative, since it focused on the bibliographic and documentary search for the concepts and relevant aspects of Latin American cultural diversity that are reflected in the linguistic expressions of the Andean novels chosen for the present study, Huasipungo and The Hungry Dogs, belonging to Ecuador and Peru, respectively. These are multi-ethnic and multicultural nations, with recognition of their festivities, architecture, medicine, gastronomy, clothing, and spirituality. In addition to this, an interview was applied to three linguistics experts, with the purpose of knowing how this plurality is exposed within classrooms, especially in higher education. On the other hand, the study participates in a quantitative approach, since a survey was applied to ELE students, to measure their perception of the usefulness of the digital taxonomy of intercultural speech in Spanish America and its effective use to understand the content of the indigenous novels they read in the classroom. Among the results, it should be noted that, according to the perception of the ELE students, the knowledge of Andean linguistic terms of the literary works read, led them to a better understanding of the content of the indigenous novels. In addition, foreign university students of the advanced level of Spanish, who acquired knowledge of Latin American linguistics in the Andean territory, have been able to experience and appreciate the culture of the country where they learn the language.
Godoy Zúñiga, ME. (2021). Lingüística intercultural latinoamericana como propuesta de fortalecimiento de las competencias lectoras del español como lengua extranjera [Tesis doctoral]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/163654
TESIS

NASCIMENTO, Maria Valdênia Falcão. Representação social, avaliação e léxico: um olhar sobre o discurso de professores e tutores do Curso de Licenciatura Letras/ Espanhol da Universidade Federal do Ceará. 2012. 229f. Tese (Doutorado) – Universidade Federal do Ceará, Departamento de Letras Vernáculas, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Linguística, Fortaleza-CE, 2012.
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The present work is the result of reflections on the social representation that both Spanish as foreign language pre-service teachers and instructors have about assessment. The main goal consists of investigate how the assessment is an instrument of social representation of multiple dimensions (cognitive, discourse, linguistics, and social). The analysis of the organizational semantics of the lexicon, which is embedded in discourse manifestations, allows for the understanding of assessment as content knowledge. The study addresses the following questions: (1) How do instructors and pre-service teachers view assessment in the pre-service context? (2) Which social representation of assessment emerges in the discourse of instructors and pre-service teachers when asked about assessment? (3) What are the key lexical items of social representation constructed by the participants involved? The analysis is based on the Theory of Social Representation, especially that of Moscovici (1976, 2009) and Jodelet (2001), on the Critical Discourse Studies proposed by Van Dijk (2003, 2008), and on the studies of Coracini (2003), Moita Lopes (2007) and Bordón (2004) in Applied Linguistics. Data were generated by semi-structured interviews and free word association techniques. The methodology employed for data analysis was content analysis, based onBardin’s (2010) propositions. Two teaching environments were considered: face-to-face and distance education. Results indicate that the participants have two perspectives of assessment: (1) as predominantly a verification of learning, based on instruments such as exams, seminars and portfolios; and (2) as a fundamental part of teaching and learning that serves as a “regulator” of the process. However, in the discourse of the participants, the evaluation process is not considered an important mechanism of control and exclusion, which indicates a lack of critical understanding of the sociological and ideological aspects involved in assessment. In broad terms, results indicate that assessment needs to be considered as an important issue in the preparation of pre-service teachers, and new alternatives of assessment should be discussed, studied and implemented. Furthermore, this study contributes to other studies that investigate how language and social representation mutually shape and affect each other.
Este trabalho resultou de nossas indagações a respeito da representação social de professores e tutores sobre a avaliação em um contexto de formação de professores de espanhol como língua estrangeira. O principal objetivo consistiu em investigar como a avaliação constitui-se um objeto de representação social considerando-se suas múltiplas dimensões (cognitiva, discursiva, linguística e social) e como, por meio da análise da organização semântica do léxico, presente nas manifestações discursivas dos sujeitos ao se posicionarem sobre o tema, pode-se mapear o significado construído para a avaliação enquanto objeto de conhecimento. Entre os questionamentos suscitados, visamos responder às seguintes questões: 1. De que forma os professores se posicionam acerca da avaliação num contexto de formação de professores de língua estrangeira? 2. Que representação social sobre a avaliação está presente nas manifestações discursivas dos professores ao se posicionarem sobre o tema? 3. Que itens lexicais, produzidos pelos sujeitos, podem ser tomados como vetores da representação social construída? Para o alcance dos objetivos propostos, baseamo-nos numa articulação entre a Teoria das Representações Sociais, particularmente os postulados de Moscovici (1976, 2009) e Jodelet (2001); os Estudos Críticos do Discurso propostos por van Dijk (2003, 2008), e, ainda, a Linguística Aplicada, com os trabalhos Moita Lopes (2007) e Bordón (2004). Os dados foram gerados por meio da técnica de associação livre de palavras e por entrevistas semiestruturadas. Para a análise dos dados foi empregada a metodologia da análise de conteúdo, de acordo com as proposições de Bardin (2010), considerando-se o exame dos posicionamentos presentes no discurso docente em torno da avaliação, tanto na modalidade presencial quanto na semipresencial de ensino. As análises realizadas evidenciaram que os sujeitos concebem a avaliação em duas direções: 1.como predominantemente circunscrita a uma concepção de avaliação como mera verificação da aprendizagem, centrada na aplicação de instrumentos como provas, seminários e portfólios e 2. como parte fundamental e inerente ao processo de ensino e aprendizagem, cuja função é “regular” esse processo. No entanto, o funcionamento do processo avaliativo como mecanismo de controle e de exclusão não aparece como uma questão importante nos discursos dos sujeitos, ficando ao largo uma compreensão crítica dos fatores ideológicos e sociológicos que perpassam tanto o discurso sobre a avaliação, como as condições em que essa é produzida. Em linhas gerais, o presente estudo oferece relevantes elementos para se pensar alternativas e caminhos para eventuais transformações das práticas de avaliação e sobre sua relevância na formação de futuros professores de línguas, além de fazer avançar a contribuição dos estudos que investigam a relação entre linguagem e representação social, tendo em vista a forma como estas se afetam mutuamente.

The study considers the concept of bilingualism, the essence of which is the coexistence and interaction of two languages within one language environment, the learning of the Spanish language is analyzed, which ranks it as the second language in business after English one. Today, students of higher education institutions often choose Spanish as a second foreign language. Thus, knowledge of two foreign languages makes it possible quickly reach the international level of professional activity and master the intercultural communication of many countries.
У нашому дослідженні розглянуто дефеніцію двомовності, сутність якої полягає у співіснуванні і взаємодії двох мов у межах одного мовного середовища, здійснено аналіз вивчення іспанської мови, як другої іноземної мови, яка посідає друге у діловому середовище місце після англійської мови. Сьогодні студенти закладів вищої освіти найчастіше вибирають вивчення іспанської мови як другої іноземної мови. Отже, володіння двома іноземними мовами дають можливість швидко вийти на міжнародний рівень професійної діяльності та оволодіти міжкультурною комунікацією багатьох країн.

Thesis (M.A.)--West Virginia University, 2000.
Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains ix, 118 p. : ill. (some col.). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 62-67).

This study examines proposals made during planning talk—a speech act that has received little attention in previous literature—to determine the applicability of the stages of second language (L2) pragmatic development posited by Kasper and Rose (2002). Although Kasper and Rose suggest that formulas play a prominent role in L2 pragmatic development, few studies have considered the applicability of their stages to a non-formulaic speech act. The current study investigated proposal production in the planning talk of 69 participants: 46 learners of Spanish enrolled at five levels of instruction in a seven-week Spanish immersion program, 12 native Spanish speaking instructors in the same program, and 11 native English speaking undergraduate students at the same institution enrolled during the academic year. The L2 learners worked in groups of two or three as they planned three different role-plays during the seventh week of instruction. The native speakers met with the researcher in groups of two or three to complete the same role-plays in their first language (L1). A total of 1809 proposals and 351 supporting moves were produced in approximately four hours of planning talk. Analysis of transcriptions focused on the realization of the head-act strategies, deictic centering, internal and external modification, and the influence of the conversational context on the production of proposals. Results of this cross-sectional analysis suggest that learners do not pass through a formulaic stage when producing proposals in planning talk. The results also suggest that the learners' production of proposals exhibits a u-shaped curve as they adhere to L1 English norms at intermediate levels of proficiency before reflecting L1 Spanish norms at more advanced levels of instruction. L1 English influence was observed in the level of directness of the head-act strategies, the use of deictic centering, internal and external modification, and the influence of the conversational context. Results point to a new framework involving three universal stages of L2 pragmatic development in which L1 influence and pragmatic expansion are more salient.

Dissertation (Ph. D.)--University of Akron, Dept. of Curricular and Instructional Studies, 2005.
"August, 2005." Title from electronic dissertation title page (viewed 12/18/2005) Advisor, Susan Kushner Benson; Committee members, Susan Colville-Hall, Catharine Knight, Lynn Smolen, Matt Wyszynski; Department Chair, Walter Yoder, Jr.; Dean of the College, Patricia Nelson; Dean of the Graduate School, George R. Newkome. Includes bibliographical references.

This dissertation investigates the acquisition of Spanish diphthongs by adult native speakers of English. The following research questions will be addressed: 1) How do adult native speakers of English pronounce sequences of two vowels in their L2 Spanish at different levels of acquisition? 2) Can OT learnability models, specifically the GLA, account for the pronunciation of L2 diphthongs? If so, what constraints do learners use and how do these constraints interact? If not, what other model(s) might offer an improved analysis of L2 diphthongs? Participants completed two production tasks, a Nonsense Word task and a Question & Answer task. The participants were divided by level of acquisition – Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced – and there was a Native Speaker Control group. After the data was collected, F2 values and duration of vowel sequence were measured and used to categorize the pronunciations as monophthongs, diphthongs, or hiatus. It was found that the use of diphthongization increased with level of acquisition in the data for the Question & Answer task. Data from the Nonsense Word task did not reveal the same pattern; instead, the level of diphthongization was more or less equal across all levels of acquisition and with the Native Speaker Control group. The OT account was able to explain most of the data in this study. The GLA proved successful in demonstrating how constraints interact in the pronunciation of L2 diphthongs. However, there were L2 pronunciations for which OT could not account. It is suggested that linguistic models based on lexical frequency may offer insight into how to account for these pronunciations.

El objetivo de esta monografía es tratar de determinar en qué medida y de qué manera cuatro manuales didácticos suecos de español como lengua extranjera (ELE), usados en la enseñanza en el nivel de bachillerato, tratan aspectos pragmáticos. Además, evaluaremos el potencial y la relevancia de la información metapragmática y las actividades relacionadas a los aspectos pragmáticos para el proceso de adquisición de una competencia tanto metapragmática como pragmática. En este estudio se parte de la noción de la competencia pragmática como una destreza orientada a saber crear y comprender significados en la interacción de manera eficaz (Thomas, 1995), que supone, más que los conocimientos lingüísticos en una interacción intercultural, los conocimientos extralingüísticos (cf. Bravo, 2005). La hipótesis de partida de este trabajo postula que los manuales no explican a fondo por qué cierto lenguaje se utiliza en ciertos contextos y que el contenido pragmático sería poco variado y difícil de asimilar y que los ejercicios no estarían diseñados principalmente para desarrollar la competencia pragmática. Hasta cierta medida se puede decir que los resultados de esta investigación confirman la hipótesis: los manuales podrían efectivamente ser más exhaustivos en cuanto a los temas que abarcan, asimismo podrían variar y explicar más a fondo aquellos temas. No obstante, parece haber un esfuerzo de incorporar actividades comunicativas e información extralingüística, sin embargo, hace falta una conceptualización y progresión en cuanto a cómo tratar estos temas como el propósito principal. Ni siquiera se ofrecen en las guías del profesor modelos didácticos o información adicional, y por lo general, no se combina la información metapragmática en los manuales con actividades complementarias que pretenden desarrollar las destrezas comunicativas.
The purpose of this paper is to try to determine to what extent and in what way four Swedish textbooks on Spanish as a foreign language (SFL) treat pragmatic aspects, as well as to evaluate the potential and relevance of the metapragmatic information and activities related to pragmatic aspects provided by the textbooks, for the development of pragmatic awareness and competence in Spanish. This study parts from the notion of pragmatic competence as a skill of knowing how to create and understand meanings in interaction effectively (Thomas, 1995), which in intercultural interaction probably requires extra-linguistic knowledge more than language skills (cf. Bravo, 2005). The hypothesis postulated at the beginning of the study was that the manuals would not fully explain why certain language is being used in certain contexts, that the pragmatic content would be scarcely varied and rather difficult to assimilate and that the exercises would not be designed primarily to develop a pragmatic competence. To some extent it can be said that the hypothesis is confirmed: the manuals could have been more comprehensive in terms of the topics covered, they could also have varied and explained those issues further. Despite the fact that there seems to be an effort to incorporate extra-linguistic information and communicative activities, the results indicate that there is a lack of emphasis on or progression on how to treat these issues. For example, there are no didactic models or suggestions in the teacher’s guide, nor is additional information provided elsewhere; usually the metapragmatic information is not combined with any activities, and the activities that aim to develop communicative skills are not combined with further metapragmatic information.

Today's global culture makes communication through writing in a foreign language a most desirable tool to expand personal and professional relations. However, teaching writing is a complex, time-consuming endeavor in any language. Foreign language teachers at every level struggle to fit writing into an already full curriculum and need the most effective methods and tools with which to teach. Technology may provide a viable scaffold to support writing instruction for teachers and students. The purpose of this research was to determine any benefits of weekly/structured, in-class, computer-assisted grammar drill and practice on the composition quality and quantity of intermediate university Spanish learners. A related purpose was to determine whether students who participated in such practice would access a computer-based writing assistant differently during writing than students without the treatment. The research design was a nonequivalent groups pretest-posttest design. Fifty-two subjects' compositions were graded with both holistic and analytic criteria to analyze composition quality and quantity, and statistical analyses assessed interactions of treatment and effects. The computer-based Atajo writing assistant, which could be accessed during composition, had a logging feature which provided unobtrusive observation of specific databases accessed by each student. There were no statistically significant differences found between the two groups in overall composition scores or in subscale scores. Improvements across time were observed in composition performance for both the experimental and control groups. The implementation of computer-based grammar and vocabulary practice did show a small to moderate positive effect; that is to say, students who received weekly, structured computer grammar and vocabulary practice had higher scores for composition quality and quantity on the posttest measure and accessed the databases less than the control group. The consistent positive trends in the composition data results intimate that over a more extended period of time, computer-based grammar instruction might enhance the quality and quantity of written composition in the foreign language classroom.

This study offers an assessment of the non-native speech intelligibility of a group of English learners of Spanish at word level and in connected speech. Specifically, we aimed at analysing the impact of certain categories of phonemic errors, as well as three temporal variables of L2 speech (speech rate, pause frequency and pause duration) on intelligibility scores. In addition, the possible correlation between degree of intelligibility and certain individual factors (gender, level of proficiency, motivation, aptitude and L1) was also studied. Sixty evaluators, native speakers of Peninsular Spanish, transcribed different speech samples belonging to a group of 20 Key Stage 4 English learners of Spanish. The transcription of the different speech samples served to assess intelligibility at word level and in connected speech (sentence, passage and semi-spontaneous production). Results revealed an intelligibility loss at all levels of analysis, as well as a high correlation between intelligibility scores in the single word test and those obtained in connected speech. At a segmental level, deviations affecting vowels, especially unstressed vowels, seemed to play a more important role than inaccuracies affecting consonants. Moreover, correlation analyses underscored the importance of speech rate, pause frequency and pause duration for intelligibility loss. The predictability of our multiple-regression models was high for speech samples obtained at sentence and passage levels. However, multiple-regression models for speech samples obtained through the semi-spontaneous production task exhibited a more limited capability in predicting variation in students’ intelligibility scores. Results suggest the existence of additional variables affecting intelligibility at this level of analysis. All individual differences under study, with the exception of gender, were highly correlated with speech intelligibility. From a pedagogical perspective, it is argued here that any successful instructional treatment of speech intelligibility will depend on an appropriate integration of temporal aspects of speech within the time devoted to pronunciation instruction in the foreign language classroom.

Learning to read in a foreign language can be a difficult task for some students. For at-risk students, for example, students with learning disabilities, the process can be arduous and painstaking. This study explored and compared the reading strategies, preferred foreign language learning styles, perceived foreign language strategy use, actual strategy use and metacognitive awareness of at-risk students in a Modified Foreign Language Program (MFLP) of postsecondary Spanish with those of non at-risk students in a non-MFLP.

This study followed a mixed-method design consisting of two parts. In the first part, preferred learning style and perceived strategy use data were collected via the Learning Style Survey and Survey of Reading Strategies. The second part of the study consisted of 11 case studies based on semi-structured interviews and think-aloud protocols in which the participants completed a reading task in the target language.

The major findings for part one are: MFLP and non-MFLP students did not differ in terms of their preferences for sensory/perceptual stimuli. Both groups had a significant preference for Visual over Auditory and Tactile/Kinesthetic stimuli. MFLP and non-MFLP students did not differ significantly in their perceived use of foreign language reading strategies. Both groups indicated a statistically significant preference for the use of cognitive (PROB) strategies, then metacognitive (GLOB) strategies followed by support (SUP) strategies. The relationship between preferred learning style and perceived GLOB strategy use was significant only for the MFLP group.

The second part of the study consisted of a think-aloud protocol. The major findings are: Both groups used strategies that were in line with their preferred learning style. The MFLP participants, however, relied much more heavily on the use of visual input to help extract meaning from unknown context. While both groups reported a high use of PROB, only the non-MFLP students used them with any regularity during the reading task. The MFLP group relied heavily on the use of support strategies (e.g. dictionary) to extract unknown meaning during the reading task. Non-MFLP students combined metacognitive strategies with cognitive strategies far more frequently than MFLP students.

This investigation explores the way in which teachers contribute to the development of the language classroom culture, defined as "a dynamic system of patterns created, changed and maintained by the participants in accordance with their pedagogic and social status, expectations and responsibilities". It draws its data from classrooms of Spanish as a foreign language in the United States, and seeks to analyse: Characteristics of the social and institutional context of the teaches and their classrooms. Teachers' views on language teaching and learning, their classrooms and their own teaching. Verbal and nonverbal means employed by the teachers in their instruction, and more specifically during the transitions between the instructional stages that make up their lessons. Relationships between the views of the teachers and linguistic and nonlinguistic features of their behaviour in the classroom. The courses involved in the study were conducted by five different teachers during the academic year 1997-1998 in four high schools - three public and one private - and a private liberal arts college, all of them located in Central Pennsylvania, USA. Data were obtained from a combination of methods/instruments intended to capture as much as possible the dynamic nature of the processes taking place in the classroom setting. These methods/instruments were: Background description of the social and institutional context of the teachers and their classrooms based on (a) bibliographical sources including brochures, course catalogues, student handbooks, etc., (b) consultations with administrative staff, and (c) research journal. Three rounds of semi-structured interviews with each teacher. The last interview included stimulated recall. On-site observation of (a) the physical organization of the classroom, (b) the non-verbal features of the interaction between teachers and students, and (c) the non-pedagogic events taking place during the instruction. Retrospective analysis (based on tape and real-time records) of the verbal interaction between teachers and students during the instructional stages and sub-stages that make up the lessons. Teacher journals with information about teaching experiences and other matters relevant to the classroom environment and the development of the research project.

Second languages which are also called foreign languages are learnt beside native spoken languages and they are learnt in a systematic way (Hinkel, 2005). Spanish and English are widely spoken around the globe and they have improved a lot in Afghanistan, especially SPanish after Spanish military existence in teh country as part of ISAF after 2001 to Afghanistan and after the establishment of some private schools where Spanish is a part of curriculum. This school was built due to the interest of Spanish embassy. As the embassy got informed that there is the Spanish department, they immidiately got interested and wanted to establish a school in Afghanistan too where Spanish will be taught as one subject in this only one school in Kabul city. Since, there are mostly non-native speaking teachers with different teaching approaches in Kabul University; the researcher therefore, conducted this study to compares English and Spanish language teachers in the university and a private school. Moreover, students’ perceptions as regards learning a second language are explored as well as their experience and motives. Data for this research is collected with the help of ready-made questionnaire which was distributed to 20 English teachers, seven Spanish teachers at the university, five teachers of Kabul international school, 50 students of Spanish department and 50 students of Kabul international school. In addition to this, five classes were observed in university and five in private school, which helped the comparison of teachers’ perceptions and factual teaching performance in the class. It was found that there are both similarities and differences among teachers of English and Spanish teachers when teaching these foreign languages. In schools these languages are taught superficially and teachers lack professional knowledge while in the university vice versa. This research also found that nearly all the staff and students in Spanish department are grown up in urban areas and none of the students while only three out of 12 Spanish teachers have visited Spain. Half of the students in school were concerned about the impact of Spanish on Afghan society while students in the university and Spanish teachers had the counter idea. Moreover, it was found that in university students were given articles, assignments and topics from magazines and newspapers apart from daily lessons for the intention that students strengthen their Spanish language while this practice was hardly visible in school classrooms. In school Spanish language was taught on lecture based where students rarely found any chance for practice of the language and most of the time was allocated for the translation of Spanish.
TEMP Afganistan

In this thesis, a new methodology is proposed for investigating Spanish [s] lenition (sound weakening or loss) via morphological analysis instead of phonetics. Word-final [s] is a morphological plural marker in Castilian Spanish, but is rarely produced in Western Andalusian Spanish (WAS). It is often asserted in the literature that the loss of [s] in WAS requires plurality to be expressed fcvia alternative means. The results of this study rule out lexical and morpho-syntactic compensation for [s] lenition in WAS in several previously untested domains, and imply that there is no functional motivation in Modern Spanish driving a need for compensation for word-final [s] lenition on nouns or determiners. This investigation is built on a predictable calculation of the environments in which the loss of [s] may result in derived singular/plural homophony in WAS nouns. This is used to quantify potential semantic ambiguity. A frequency comparison of 27,366 WAS and Castilian nouns, across 60 specific Determiner + Noun phrase environments, finds no significant differences between the dialects in the type or token frequencies of numerically ambiguous nouns, nor in 98.7% of the tested phrase environments. When taken in context with studies excluding phonetic compensation in WAS, the current results suggest that the low semantic relevance of word-final [s] in Modern Spanish is a potentially far-reaching explanation for the variable manifestations of [s] lenition experienced in Spanish dialects across the world.

Portuguese enrollments have been on a continuous rise at universities in the United States. Due to this increase it is important that teachers and department administrators understand what the motivations of Portuguese students are. This study reports on the findings of a survey conducted with lower-level Portuguese students at Brigham Young University regarding their motivations to study the language and compares these motivations with those of students of French, German, Italian, and Spanish. In addition, the study reports on students' perspectives on Portuguese in contrast to their perspectives on these other four European languages. Other issues considered include Portuguese students' native and foreign language backgrounds, their motivation to further pursue the study of Portuguese in the future, and their interest in two different varieties of the language, Brazilian and European Portuguese. Results revealed that only for Portuguese students were career plans the main motivation to study the language. Most Portuguese students already spoke Spanish fluently, either as a native or foreign language, and were also greatly motivated by the similarity between the two languages. Many Portuguese students were interested in pursuing their language studies in the future. Students reported being very interested in Brazilian Portuguese, but minimally interested in the European variety. Portuguese students' perceptions of the language were for the most part more positive than their perceptions of French, German, Italian, and Spanish, whereas non-Portuguese students' perceptions of Portuguese were mostly less positive than their perceptions of these other four European languages. Based on Portuguese and non-Portuguese students' responses to the survey questions, the study gives recommendations to promote the study of Portuguese as a foreign language at the post-secondary level.

This research is logged in the field of language acquisition, focusing on Spanish as a foreign language learnt at university level. It investigates how learning strategies are used by students to develop proficiency in Spanish over a three-year period (from the first year to the third year). Adopting a cognitive lens that places special attention to how linguistic knowledge is constructed, deconstructed and reconstructed, this study focuses on the language learning process, specifically on what the students do to learn a language. Taking into account that the learning of foreign language poses particular and distinctive challenges – as opposed to the learning of a second language – and using a multiphase design that combines sequential strands encompassing quantitative and qualitative techniques, this study finds that those who successfully complete all the Spanish courses are the ones who report significantly more use of metacognitive strategies in the first year. The study concludes by proposing a framework that helps to classify the role that the use of strategies play in learning a foreign language from a student’s perspective. This framework adds a new dimension and provides valuable information to similar types of studies. Considering the above-mentioned findings, the study recommends introducing first-year students to the potential value of using metacognitive strategies in foreign language learning, and suggests that lecturers should recommend more activities for students to engage in the language outside the classroom.
Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2017.
Modern European Languages
PhD
Unrestricted

The present dissertation, which contributes to the dearth of research on the acquisition of Spanish as a foreign language by Filipinos, is a pseudolongitudinal study of their Spanish interlanguage (IL) whose two-fold objective is to provide a descriptive analysis of their developing IL based on errors produced in their speech as influenced by language proficiency levels and crosslinguistic similarity of their other known languages, and to identify the thresholds of their IL based on the prompted and unprompted self-repair of these errors. Participants of the study were four groups of students learning Spanish in a Philippine university who have had 432 hours, 1,008 hours, 1,872 hours, and 2,160 hours of formal instruction in Spanish, respectively. They were recorded in their own classroom contexts and individually in order to build two complementing oral corpora for the analysis of their speech. For the gathering of monologic data elicitation procedures from the research project El desarrollo del repertorio lingüístico en hablantes no nativos de castellano y catalán (Tolchinsky & Perera, 2006), which form part of the larger research project Developing Literacy in Different Contexts and Different Languages (Berman & Verhoeven, 2002) was adopted. All 20 recorded classroom sessions and 40 monologic texts were transcribed according to the conventions of a transcription program. Errors were categorized according to their formal linguistic levels (Jarvis & Pavlenko, 2010), while prompted and unprompted self-repairs were identified as a result of classifying teacher feedback based on an adapted taxonomy of recasts and prompts (Lyster & Ranta, 1997). To respond to the objectives the following were analyzed: (a) the distribution of error types and subtypes in relation to the targetlanguage (TL) proficiency, (b) the frequency of attempts to self-repair these errors with and without the prompting of the teacher, (c) the rate of success of prompted and unprompted self-repairs in relation to TL proficiency, and (d) the effect of crosslinguistic similarity of previously learned languages and their corresponding proficiency levels on error production. Results showed that morphosyntactic errors were produced the most, followed by lexicalsemantic errors, and lastly, by phonetic-phonological errors, with each proficiency group producing such errors quite differently (e.g., omission of determiners is largely a characteristic of a beginner). Results likewise showed that while TL proficiency has a negative effect on the production of errors, it has no effect on the distribution of error types nor in the recognition of these errors. Teachers and students alike verbally recognized approximately 20% of the errors; teachers called out lexical-semantic errors the most, while students most independently recognized and successfully self-repair morphosyntactic errors. Of the recognized errors, about 60% of teacher-prompted errors and roughly 80% of independently recognized errors were successfully repaired. Albeit inconclusive, TL proficiency may have a positive effect on success in self-repair. By contrast, SL proficiency was observed to have a positive effect on the production of transfer errors, however, in the case of the multilingual learner, transfer mostly comes from the more objectively similar language and not from the language that he perceives to be more similar to the TL. The implications of these findings for future research and language pedagogy are outlined in the final chapter, which concludes the present dissertation.
Esta tesis, que contribuye a la carencia de estudios sobre la adquisición de los filipinos del español como lengua extranjera, tiene el doble objetivo de proporcionar un análisis descriptivo de su interlengua (IL) en desarrollo, partiendo de los errores encontrados en su producción oral influidos por el conocimiento de otros idiomas y el dominio de éstos; y de identificar los límites de su IL partiendo de las autorreparaciones. Se recogieron y transcribieron los datos de interacción en el aula (20 horas) y datos monológicos producidos (40 textos) por cuatro grupos de alumnos de español de una universidad filipina, que habían pertenecientes a los niveles A1-, A1+, B1- y B1+. Para responder a los objetivos, se analizaron los siguientes aspectos: (a) la distribución de los tipos y tipos de errores en relación con el dominio de la lengua objeto (LO), (b) la frecuencia de las autorreparaciones con y sin la ayuda del profesor, (c) la tasa de éxito de las autorreparaciones en relación con el dominio de la LO, y (d) el efecto de la similitud de lenguas previamente aprendidas y del nivel de dominio de dichas lenguas en la producción de errores. Los resultados indican que los errores morfosintácticos son los que aparecen con mayor frecuencia, seguidos, en este orden, por los léxico-semánticos y los fonético-fonológicos. También se observa que si bien el dominio de la LO tiene un efecto negativo en la producción total de errores, no determina la distribución de los tipos de error ni el reconocimiento de estos errores por parte de los aprendices. Por otra parte, los alumnos se autorreparon con más éxito en el caso de aquellos errores que son capaces de identificar por sí mismos en contraste con lo que ocurre con los detectados con la ayuda del profesor. Por el contrario, el dominio de otras lenguas y/o su cercanía tipológica con la LO tienen un efecto positivo en la producción de errores de transferencia. Es decir, cuánto más dominio y más similitud tiene, mayor es su influencia en la producción de errores. Se concluye el trabajo con una discusión de las implicaciones de estos hallazgos.

Master of Arts
Department of Modern Languages
Earl K. Brown
Considerable research exists on the various uses of modals of obligation in English, while the number of studies on Spanish modals is limited. The research of Fairclough (2000) looks at the variation and changes of the Spanish modals DEBER 'should' and TENER QUE ‘to have to’ spoken in Houston. Another study was conducted on modals and their variation in San Juan, Puerto Rico by Jose Santos (1994). However, most of the research does not include the verb NECESITAR 'to need'. This study examines and compares the uses of the modal verbs TENER QUE and NECESITAR. First, this paper presents previous research on modality, the changes and usage of modals in English, and the limited research on Spanish modals. Then the researcher examines the results of data collected using Twitter in order to determine for what main verbs TENER QUE and NECESITAR act as modal verbs, the frequency with which the Twitter users in the Spanishspeaking capitals in Central and South America use these verbs, and in what tense do these two modals occur most often. After discussing the results of the data collection, the study includes a brief discussion on the implications for teaching modals of obligation in Spanish to second language learners. This study finds overall that TENER QUE is preferred over NECESITAR. However, some verbs collocate with NECESITAR more than the average suggesting that patterns of collocations play a key role in determining the use of NECESITAR.

Dual tracks - for Foreign (FL) and Heritage languages (HL) - in Spanish language programs are becoming increasingly common in U.S. higher education institutions, although most only offer HL courses for intermediate and/or advanced learners. Few universities have incorporated specialized courses for receptive bilinguals into their programs. Contradictory arguments can be found in the HL education literature regarding the type of curriculum (FL or HL) that would best serve the pedagogical needs of these students (Carreira, 2004; Lipski, 1996; Potowski, 2005).This study attempts to offer insights into this discussion by examining the effects of these two types of curricula on the written and oral language development of three groups of learners: two groups of HL learners enrolled in HL and FL courses, and a group of FL learners taking the same FL courses. The purpose of this study is four-fold: 1) delineate a profile of receptive bilinguals; 2) measure changes in oral and written production and other language-related variables after one semester of instruction; 3) examine the students' level of satisfaction with the language curriculum; and 4) uncover linguistic differences between FL and HL learners. The data collection consisted of series of written and oral-elicitation tasks and online questionnaires at the beginning and end of the semester.The results showed that all groups made significant gains in writing fluency and complexity but only the HL group in the HL course significantly improved their writing accuracy. Both HL groups made greater gains in oral fluency and complexity than the FL group but the HL group in the HL course outperformed both groups in syntactic complexity gains. The HL group in the HL course showed the highest level of satisfaction and the greatest improvement in self-confidence and language attitudes but no differences in language use outside the classroom and self-evaluation of language abilities. The results offer implications for the inclusion of receptive bilinguals in HL programs, their language placement, and pedagogical and curricular practices most suitable for these students in the HL classroom.

Study abroad has been shown to improve students' linguistic and cultural competence, but students who gain their fluency abroad may struggle to adapt to the plethora of regional dialects they encounter in their studies and interactions after they've returned from their study abroad. The researchers of this study posited that learning Spanish in a domestic immersion context may improve a student's flexibility or tolerance for dialectal variation in regard to listening comprehension. Using a detailed survey and multi-dialectal listening assessment, the researchers examined the degree to which Spanish language learners, in this case 183 missionaries, were exposed to a variety of dialects, whether this exposure varied depending on region of study, and whether it affected their ability to comprehend a variety of accents. Significantly higher levels of variation were found in Spain, the U.S., and Canada, possibly due to the higher levels of Hispanic immigration to these regions. A comparison of Spain, the region with the highest average test score, and Mexico, the region with the lowest average test score, showed high practical significance (d=.8), suggesting that high levels of linguistic variation in the region of study may improve listening comprehension of multiple dialects. Pearson correlations between exposure to variation and listening test score were also positive. The researchers believe this is grounds for increased support of immersion programs both domestic and abroad, especially to areas such as Spain with high levels of linguistic diversity.

The case studies offered in this ethnography describe the learning experiences of 13 second and third grade students, six girls and seven boys, living in a medium-sizemidwestern town in the United States, who are taught Spanish as a foreign language once a week in 30 minute sessions during the 1995-6 school year. None of the children had any prior exposure to Spanish nor any additional exposure to Spanish outside the class I taught.The research investigates several areas of individual variety, including motivation, learning style, approach to vocabulary learning, classroom behavior, expectations, and listening and pronunciation skills.The study also investigates the impact of age and gender, as well as associations between the individuals' basic skills and L2 learning success.In addition, the study documents the teacher's experiences, observations, and insights during these classroom sessions. The researcher functioned as a participant-observer by teaching, recording, transcribing, and analyzing.The material for this study comes from hours of classroom teaching which were video- and audio-taped and from careful notes. The tapes and notes were transcribed and analyzed for patterns of learning behavior.A large number of observations resulted from this indepth study. One of the main findings of the study was that classroom management, emotional climate, and peer group influence are very closely interconnected. Learning was strongly related to cooperativeness and supportiveness in the two groups of girls but not seem to be so with the boys. There was no conclusive evidence that any one personality trait was more important than another in the long run. Overall scores on the CTBS were positively related to success in second language learning and were not negatively affected from one year to the next from the time taken out to study Spanish. There was no one area in the CTBS battery that could successfully predict foreign language aptitude; the best predictor seemed to be overall classroom success. Learning a foreign language was not particularly easy or automatic with this group; however, they did seem to have an aptitude and a willingness for repeating unfamiliar sounds.
Department of English

This dissertation examines how college students' participation in a Spanish service-learning course affected their perceptions of language culture and community. Findings demonstrate that students will potentially experience connections, disconnections, and reconnections when they interact with others in a Spanish service-learning experience. The connections that they form may motivate them to improve their skills and knowledge related to the subject matter. In this qualitative, practitioner action research study, I interviewed four students who were enrolled in my service-learning course. The narratives were analyzed using the Listening Guide (Gilligan et al., 2003) a feminist relational methodology.

When the students spoke of their experiences with language, culture, and community in interviews prior to taking the course, they used voices of powerlessness, rejection, observation, and separation. In the interviews that occurred after the service-learning experience, their voices spoke of empowerment, acceptance, participation, and inclusion. Cross-case analysis revealed that students formed relationships with the community, other students, and the instructor during the service-learning experience. Even if these relationships were short-term and limited, they often experienced the cycle of connection, disconnection, and connection of long-term relationships. Prior to the course, students spoke of previous experiences with language-exclusion and disconnections that they experienced because of their relational images of observation and separation. When they spoke of their service-learning experiences, they described multiple relational triangles (Hawkins, 1974; Raider-Roth & Holzer, 2009) and revealed their developed sense of empathy. This empathy demonstrates the connections they formed with other students and with the community members. Two students spoke of disconnections that occurred during the course, but these disconnections were outweighed by connections. These connections led them to desire more meaningful connections, which they realized could only happen by improving their language skills.

The implications of this study suggest that in a relational service-learning course, instructors no longer are only part of the relational triangle between the instructor, the student, and the subject matter; they also facilitate relationships between students, community partner organizations, community members, other volunteers, and the subject matter. The multiple relational triangles that they facilitate combine to form a relational hexagon. This relational understanding of service-learning has implications for instructors, the discipline, and the university.

According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau (2012), the United States is the world's fifth most populous Spanish-speaking country, with over 35 million Spanish-speakers. In addition, Spanish is the most widely taught foreign language in the United States, with more students enrolled in Spanish at the higher-education level than in all other modern languages combined, as detailed in a 2010 report from the Modern Language Association (MLA). How are these two realities connected? Is the United States' status as a top Spanish-speaking country reflected in Spanish as a Foreign Language (SFL) and Spanish as a Heritage Language (SHL) curricula at the university level? This case study of a large, Southwestern university, which is home to SFL and SHL programs among the largest in the country, explores that question using a two-tiered approach. First, Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) is employed to examine the ideological underpinnings of how spoken varieties of Spanish, with particular emphasis on U.S. Spanish, are presented in first-year and second-year university-level SFL and SHL textbooks used at the university. Second, focus groups of SFL and SHL instructors are conducted to gain insight into their beliefs and practices regarding language variety in the classroom. The study finds a systematic reinforcement of the ideology of a monolithic 'standard' Spanish in the SFL and SHL textbooks and curricula, with only cursory attention paid to regional varieties of Spanish and an oftentimes explicit de-legitimization of U.S. Spanish in particular.

This creative project consists of a course syllabus and materials based on the functional approach. It was designed for students of English at Universidade Federal do Para in Brazil.The first chapter is about the teaching-learning situation where the syllabus will be applied; the second chapter is the proposed syllabus; the third chapter consists of the teacher's manual; and the fourth chapter is the students' book.

Spanish
Ph.D.
A growing number of studies has shown that collaborative writing tasks facilitate second language (L2) development by providing learners with opportunities to focus their attention on language and to collaborate in the solution of their language-related problems (e.g., Choi & Iwashita, 2016; Storch, 2013; Swain & Lapkin, 1998; Williams, 2012). However, most of these studies have focused almost exclusively on L2 learners, and particularly on English as a second language learners. In an effort to address this gap and drawing from a sociocultural framework, this study investigated the interactions of Spanish heritage language (HL) learners and Spanish L2 learners enrolled in the same class. Twenty-four intermediate-level learners of Spanish, organized in four HL-HL, four HL-L2, and four L2-L2 dyads, participated in the study. As part of their regular class work, they completed four collaborative writing tasks in pairs. Participants were also asked to individually complete a pretest and two posttests. The tasks and tests were intended to elicit the present subjunctive in nominal and adjectival clauses. The interactions between each pair were recorded and coded for the nature of the relationships the learners formed (Storch, 2002) and the quantity and quality of learners’ deliberations about language choice, using Language Related Episodes (LREs) (Swain & Lapkin, 1998) as units of analysis. Results showed that the most common type of patterns of interaction the learners developed was collaboration. Moreover, three pairs displayed a dominant/passive pattern of interaction and two pairs an expert/novice pattern. Results also indicated that overall, participants produced slightly more LREs focused on form than LREs focused on lexis. Furthermore, results showed that whereas all pairs produced morphosyntactic LREs, they were more frequent in HL-L2 dyads. Lexical LREs occurred more often in L2-L2 dyads, and orthographic LREs occurred only in HL-HL dyads. With regards to learning gains, results revealed that six participants obtained high scores in all tests and did not show a score change from pretest to delayed posttest. Five of these participants were identified as HL learners. However, data also showed that 16 participants scored higher on their delayed posttest than they did on their pretest. Overall, considering that most dyads developed a collaborative pattern of interaction and achieved learning gains after task-based interaction, the data suggest that despite the differences in linguistic and cultural backgrounds, learners in mixed and matched pairs provided assistance to one another and produced LREs associated with the target structure. These findings have important pedagogical implications and thus, future studies need to investigate the best practices for teaching HL and L2 learners simultaneously and the types of tasks that encourage collaboration.
Temple University--Theses

Promoting global awareness is commonly cited as a main benefit of early foreign language education; however, little research backs this claim. This study explores a partial Spanish immersion preschool and how it shapes young children’s global awareness and knowledge of foreign languages and cultures. The study used a series of games, activities, and interviews to address the following three aspects of the classroom: (1) foreign language activities and language use, (2) how global awareness was portrayed by students and teachers, and (3) the beliefs, goals, and motivations of parents who chose to enroll their children there. The frameworks of translingualism and global education informed analysis of classroom observations, activities with children, and interviews with parents and teachers.

Findings indicated that children did show signs of early learning related to global awareness, though language and culture were not always the primary goals for parents and teachers at the school. Children’s literature and games allowed children to express their views and understanding about their learning about Spanish and other cultures in the classroom. They were able to talk about speaking Spanish in school and knew some words and phrases learned through exposure from the teachers in the classroom. Parents and members of the staff expressed their beliefs in the value of early second language exposure; however, primary needs of the children such as keeping them safe and developing a nurturing environment were always the priority. The findings will inform future development of language immersion programs for young children and give directors of such programs insights into what parents may hope for their children to learn regarding language and other cultural instruction.

Aquest estudi investiga la pèrdua (attrition) del castellà com a llengua estrangera en estudiants Erasmus holandesos i alemanys. S’investiguen tres tipus de dades: orals, lingüístiques i psicolingüístiques recollides de tres grups d’attriters i un grup de referència, a més de 5 persones de les quals s’han recollit dades longitudinals pel període d’un any. També s’ha explorat la importància de factors com el contacte amb la llengua, la longitud del període de pèrdua, l’actitud i la motivació i la competència inicial. Com a indicis de pèrdua de la llengua s’han trobat la reducció de la fluïdesa i de la diversitat lèxica i l’augment de les pauses plenes situades abans d’elements lèxics (substantius, verbs) en les dades orals; major temps de reacció i menor percentatge de respostes correctes en la tasca psicolingüística (picture naming). La competència inicial va ser la variable més important per a la predicció de retenció de llengua.
The present study explores the retention/attrition of Spanish as a foreign language in Dutch and German Erasmus students. Data from three different modes is analysed: oral, linguistic and psycholinguistic. In addition to cross sectional data, consisting of three attriting groups and a baseline group, it studies longitudinal data for 5 participants over the span of one year. The role of background and personal factors such as length of attrition, contact with the language, attitude and motivation and initial proficiency on the process of attrition is also investigated. Evidence for attrition is found at both linguistic (an increased number of disfluency markers, reduced lexical diversity and higher incidence of disfluency markers preceding lexical items in speech) and psycholinguistic level (slower reaction times and lower percent correct responses in a picture naming task). Although the results for the background variables are mixed, initial proficiency is established as the strongest predictor of retention/attrition.

The focus on human capital development in the republic of Trinidad and Tobago may be viewed as an instrumental economic imperative. This government position has brought with it changes to the educational landscape of the local primary school. Recognition of the impetus for improved trade within the region has brought with it a new curricular focus, that of a modern foreign language at the level of the primary school. It is generally noted that policies are often imported and implemented in the local context without an evaluation of their efficacy. This study thus considers the issue of the implementation of Spanish at the primary school level in a quest to describe the perspectives and experiences of educational stakeholders locally. The research questions that directed this study were 1) How is Spanish taught at the primary level in Trinidad? 2) What are the factors that impact on the initiative's implementation? 3) How do teachers, principals and curriculum officers perceive the introduction of the primary Spanish initiative? 4) How do teachers and principals describe their experiences of implementing the primary Spanish initiative? and 5)What are the students' perspectives on learning Spanish at the primary level? Given the study‘s overarching aim to determine how Spanish is delivered in Trinidadian primary schools, the research concentrated on the teaching-learning process as it was conceptualized and implemented by generalist primary school teachers. The study‘s objectives and research questions required a qualitative-dominant methodology within an interpretivist paradigm. A multiple case study was undertaken at two primary schools within the southern region of Trinidad. Data were collected through pre-observation and video-stimulated recall interviews with teachers, structured classroom observations, focus group interviews with students, interviews with principals and curriculum officers and a school questionnaire. The findings point to the critical success factors of available, qualified teachers, administrative support, resource readiness and clear policy direction as variables that impact on the initiative‘s successful implementation. On the other hand, the learners‘ infectious enthusiasm for the language heralds the opportunities that can be grasped from a successful, sustainable initiative.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Teachers College, Columbia University, 1993.
Typescript; issued also on microfilm. Sponsor: Jo Anne Kleifgen. Dissertation Committee: Clifford Hill. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 135-141).

The Spanish subjunctive has been the focus of much SLA research, largely because it poses difficulties for learners of Spanish whose L1 is English (e.g., Collentine, 1993; Stokes & Krashen, 1990; Terrell et al., 1987). Investigating the same feature in heritage learners of Spanish can provide more information about their linguistic development and also has the potential to inform our knowledge of the acquisition of the subjunctive in traditional FL learners. The present study investigates whether heritage learners recognize grammatical and ungrammatical modal choice in volitional constructions. These constructions have been selected because this use of the subjunctive does not vary by a speaker's dialect or by belief about the idea being expressed. Furthermore, given that theories of language attrition posit that the structures that are acquired earliest are the last to be lost (e.g., De Bot & Weltens, 1991) and that Spanish monolingual children acquire the subjunctive in volitional constructions first (Blake, 1980; 1983), heritage learners who have experienced some language attrition may still have knowledge of this feature. To investigate the effect that language attrition or incomplete acquisition may have on this knowledge, I also compared the SHL learners in the sample who were early bilinguals in English (those born in the United States or who immigrated before age 6) with those who were late bilingual (those who immigrated between ages 6 and 13). Students enrolled in Spanish for Heritage Learners (SHL) and Spanish as a Foreign Language (SFL) courses at three universities in the Northeast completed grammaticality judgment (GJ) and editing tasks, which contained examples of correct and incorrect mood choices, as well as distracter items. The GJ task also required participants to explain their judgments. The results indicate that SHL learners outperform their SFL peers on recognizing correct mood selection. No significant differences were found between early and late bilinguals. SHL and SFL learners tended to correct utterances that they had rejected of judged neutrally but gave different types of reasons for accepting utterances. There were several similarities between early and late bilinguals in terms of their reasons for their judgments of utterances.

Latino immigrant families are a population facing great risks which can severely impact their overall well-being. Evidence suggests that parent education and social support programs are an effective way for decreasing some of those risks. The purpose of this project was to identify a potential parenting program, seek potential funding sources to implement such program, and write a grant to fund the parenting program for Aurora Elementary School in the city of Los Angeles, California. The Strengthening Families Program was chosen after revision of best practices in parenting programs for Latino families found in the literature. The program is designed as a group with parenting education, social support, substance use prevention, and parent-child interaction components. The Joseph Drown Foundation was identified as the potential funding source. Social Work implications are discussed. The actual submission and/or funding of this grant was not a requirement for the successful completion of this project.