Revista Española de Lingüística Aplicada/Spanish Journal of Applied Linguistics - Volume 31, Issue 2, 2018

Abstract

Previous research on heritage speaker (HS) bilingualism suggests, not without controversy, that certain properties of HSs’ grammars, mainly discursive properties, can result in divergent grammatical outcomes in adulthood be it as a result of incomplete acquisition or attrition. This study contributes to this line of research by examining whether HSs’ word order configurations with Spanish double object constructions reflect compliance with the pragmatic (End-Focus Principle) and syntactic related factors (End-Weight Principle) that regulate word order in Spanish. To this end, two groups of HSs with different proficiency levels in Spanish as well as a bilingual and a monolingual control group, all of Mexican origin, completed an acceptability judgment task. HSs’ performance on this task shows that their knowledge of the discursive nuances associated with constituent order remains as robust as their knowledge of the syntactic factors associated with this phenomenon. Our findings therefore suggest that this linguistic domain may not be subject to so-called incomplete acquisition or L1 attrition.

Abstract

This study is a mixed-method, cross-sectional study that compares the acquisition of request modification in the productions of two secondary school groups (15–16 years old) in two school programs: content and language integrated learning (CLIL) and traditional mainstream (non-CLIL). A total of 192 requests were gathered from both groups by means of an elicitation instrument (a Written Discourse Completion Test – WDCT). The requestive pragmatic moves (external and internal modifiers and request strategies) were analysed according to their pragmatic functions (softeners and aggravators) and a data-driven taxonomy of request modification was elaborated in line with previously developed taxonomies (Blum-Kulka et al., 1989; Alcón Soler et al., 2005) for the data analysis. The results showed that both groups share similarities typical of foreign language learners. Nonetheless, significant statistical differences between them indicated that the CLIL group had a fuller repertoire of request modification strategies, yet their sociopragmatic knowledge is questioned.

Resumen

El presente estudio pretende analizar la inclusión de los contenidos visuales y musicales culturales en la enseñanza del español como lengua extranjera. El marco teórico del estudio sitúa los códigos visual y musical en el marco de la competencia semiológica y de las inteligencias múltiples y se ofrecen claves interculturales para su descodificación. Se analiza un cuestionario sobre el dominio de estos códigos por parte de dos grupos de alumnos: hablantes de español como lengua extranjera y hablantes de español como lengua nativa. Los resultados del grupo de nativos sirven para poder proponer una selección de contenidos visuales y musicales apropiados para el aula de español como lengua extranjera, según su frecuencia y popularidad en la lengua y cultura meta. Los resultados del estudio indican que en el ámbito del español para extranjeros, el conocimiento de contenidos visuales y musicales culturalmente codificados no depende del nivel de español de los alumnos.

Abstract

This paper explores the discourse functions of certainly and its Spanish equivalents in the genre of newspaper opinion discourse. Certainty markers seem to have a presence intrinsic to the opinion genre and, therefore, are expected to “exhibit a certain uniformity across languages” (Dafouz, 2008, p. 110). Whereas the non-correspondence between certainly and ciertamente soon becomes apparent, the results of earlier studies (Ramón, 2009; Carretero, 2012) might well lead to the hypothesis that the PPs sin duda and desde luego realize in Spanish opinion articles the same discourse functions as certainly does in English newspapers. Drawing on naturally-occurring linguistic data from a corpus of English and Spanish opinion texts (C-OPRES), this study (1) investigates the non-correspondence between cognates and (2) explores the aforesaid research hypothesis. Finally, a translation corpus is used (P-ACTRES) to address the complex relationships between seemingly equivalent words, filling in the gaps of the contrastive analysis. The findings reveal a partial overlap between certainly and its Spanish counterparts as epistemic markers or in concessive contexts; whereas there are also significant differences in the distribution of other discourse functions, mainly regarding the emphasizing use of certainly and the grammaticalization of its so-called equivalents in Spanish as textual and/or interpersonal discourse markers.

Resumen

El presente estudio investiga la posibilidad de que exista relación entre la edad de inicio de adquisición de una L2 y el nivel de competencia fonológica alcanzado en inmigrantes francófonos residentes en España que aprenden español como L2. Los participantes fueron 20 aprendices francófonos de español con diferentes edades de inicio de adquisición y 6 nativos como grupo de control. Se evaluó el grado de acento extranjero en la pronunciación de los informantes a través de un panel de jueces nativos. Para el análisis de los resultados, los informantes fueron clasificados en dos grupos en función de su edad de inicio de adquisición. El análisis de los datos obtenidos muestra la existencia de una relación entre la edad de inicio de adquisición de la L2 y el nivel de competencia fonológica alcanzado. Sin embargo, el análisis de los resultados revela también la existencia de un aprendiz tardío que presentó un nivel de competencia fonológica similar al nativo, sugiriendo que es posible para los aprendices francófonos tardíos alcanzar un nivel de dominio de la pronunciación del español similar al nativo. Los resultados del estudio no son consistentes con la hipótesis de que las diferencias entre niños y adultos en la adquisición de la pronunciación de la L2 se deben a la superación de un periodo crítico (Abrahamsson, 2012; Asher y García, 1969; Granena y Long, 2012; Oyama, 1976).

Abstract

This article discusses narratives of bilingualism told in parental group interviews conducted as part of the critical sociolinguistic ethnography carried out in public and semi-private bilingual schools of the autonomous region of Castilla-La Mancha (Spain). School stakeholders in this region are still adapting to the rapid implementation of bilingual programs in this region, which are transforming classroom linguistic practices and circulating discourses about bilingualism, bilingual education, and the bilingual subject. Among them, families are trying to reconcile their language desires and aspirations for English and bilingualism with the understanding of the type of bilingual education their children are receiving. By taking a social interactional approach to narrative combined with anthropological approaches to the study of conversational narrative, this article analyzes parents’ emotional and moral stancetaking in narratives of bilingualism. The narrative analysis will shed light on how families in Castilla-La Mancha are appropriating bilingualism as ideology and practice in the highly commodified global market of English.

Abstract

We examine variable past-time expression in urban Tucumán, Argentina, an understudied region representative of the set of Andean varieties included in Northwestern Argentinean Spanish. We analyze the present perfect (PP) and preterit in two contexts of data collection: a sociolinguistic interview and a contextualized preference task across a range of linguistic and social factors, such as temporal reference and speaker age. Oral results indicate that Tucumán has a higher frequency of use of the PP than has yet been documented in Latin American varieties and even Peninsular Spanish, previously argued to have the highest rate. Preference task results yielded somewhat lower PP rates, confirming that the PP is preferred in speech, whereas the preterit is more viable in written language. The current study documents the highest rate of use of the PP to date across a number of linguistic contexts, contributing to our knowledge of the processes of grammaticalization and task-related differences.

Abstract

A reading-to-write task is a complex cognitive activity. The aim of this study is to gain insight into the difficulties that advanced learners of Spanish as a foreign language for professional communication purposes experience when they have to perform a reading-to-write task. This insight will help to improve writing instruction and training for this particular type of students. In this study, 19 students of a one-year master’s programme in multilingual professional communication (level B2–C1 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, Council of Europe, 2001) were asked to carry out a reading-to-write task in Dutch, their mother tongue, and in Spanish at the beginning of the academic year. This task was repeated at the end of the academic year. On both occasions, the task was writing an informative synthesis of approximately 200–250 words using three digital source texts in Dutch and in Spanish pertaining to different text genres (i.e., a report from the European Union, a website, a newspaper article). The three source texts varied in lexical and syntactical complexity, content, style and discursive characteristics. All written products were evaluated by two independent raters. We found no general improvement in the reading-to-write task between the two moments, neither in the L1 nor in the L2. We did not find an improvement at sentence, text, or discourse level either. We will explore several explanations for this lack of improvement, based on theoretical models of foreign language acquisition and recent empirical writing research.

Abstract

This paper examines the collocational patterns of frequent verbs in medical research articles, and proposes a way to help non-native speakers of English learn word combinations frequently used in specific professional genres. We explore the correlations in the syntactico-semantic behavior and the collocational patterns of related verbs, in order to systematically teach recurrent word combinations.To this end, we present a corpus-based analysis of the collocational patterning of the verbs which belong to the same semantic frame in FrameNet, the frame EVIDENCE. These verbs were identified in 397 medical research articles from a pre-release version of the PERC (Professional English Research Consortium) corpus (3,155,118 tokens and 115,960 word types). The verbs examined, in approximate order of degree of increasing certainty, are suggest, argue, show, reveal, prove, demonstrate, substantiate, verify, confirm and corroborate. The results reveal that verbs that can be grouped into semantic and syntactic coherent sets also share combinatorial properties. We conclude that, rather than studying isolated verbs, making learners aware of these patterns of verb groups can greatly contribute toward efficient learning of the language of professional texts.

Resumen

Estudios sobre el modo de realizar las peticiones en los entornos presenciales señalan que, en situaciones en las que existe una distancia social grande entre los interlocutores, el hablante buscará salvaguardar la imagen del oyente y mitigar la imposición mediante el uso de estrategias de cortesía negativa o indirecta. En los entornos virtuales por el contrario, un número creciente de estudios señala que, ante la petición, los participantes tienden a emplear estrategias de cortesía positiva en vez de negativa o emplean la cortesía lingüística de un modo distinto al de los entornos presenciales. En este estudio presentamos un análisis de las peticiones y estrategias de cortesía empleadas por cuatro participantes en un proyecto de colaboración virtual en eTandem. Además de corroborar lo ya descubierto en estudios previos sobre el uso de la cortesía lingüística en entornos virtuales, los resultados parecen indicar que el modo de realizar la petición en este entorno no está determinado por la lengua y cultura propia sino que imita el modelo presentado por el compañero, además de tener en cuenta otros aspectos como la asimetría en la relación.

This article reviews La adquisición de la lengua española: aprendizaje, enseñanza, evaluación. Estudios en homenaje a Marta Baralo Ottonello978-9-87179-110-1