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Volume 37, Issue 1
  • ISSN 0213-2028
  • E-ISSN: 2254-6774
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Abstract

Abstract

Universities across the USA are experiencing a decline in foreign language enrollment and in advanced Spanish courses (Looney & Lusin, 2019Lusin et al., 2023), with a trend of higher female enrollment (Brantmeier et al., 2019Chavez, 2001). Literature in Second Language Acquisition and Sociopsychology has studied how beliefs can influence a student’s thoughts and actions regarding their decision to enroll in a particular course (Mills & Moulton, 2017Omrod, 2011Taylor & Mardsen, 2014). The present study aims to investigate advanced Spanish learners’ awareness, beliefs, and attitudes toward four language learning skills and their differences by gender. Overall results indicated that participants from two different advanced Spanish courses had more positive beliefs and attitudes toward speaking and listening than reading and writing. Additionally, a higher proportion of female students had more positive beliefs toward the four skills than male students. Pedagogical implications and future directions on student uptake are suggested in this study.

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2024-01-18
2024-10-05

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Spanish enrollment decline and students’ beliefs and attitudes
Revista Española de Lingüística Aplicada/Spanish Journal of Applied Linguistics 37, 109 (2024); https://doi.org/10.1075/resla.21030.bal
/content/journals/10.1075/resla.21030.bal
/content/journals/10.1075/resla.21030.bal
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  • Article Type: Research Article
Keyword(s): actitudes; advanced Spanish; attitudes; awareness; beliefs; creencias; el habla; gender; género; la escogencia de un curso; la escritura; la escucha; la lectura; listening; nivel de español avanzado; percepción; reading; speaking; uptake; writing

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