Huellas de la escritura materna en el español escrito como L2

Siguiendo los Nuevos Estudios de Literacidad y utilizando técnicas etnográficas (observación, entrevistas), criticamos varios aspectos de la concepción cognitiva de la “lectura en idioma extranjero” y proponemos una alternativa más sociocultural, que incorpora las particularidades reseñadas, que ofrece una visión más realista y completa y que pone el acento en el alfabetismo crítico. A partir de entrevistas a hablantes competentes del español como L2, que fueron alfabetizados en una lengua materna tipológicamente muy diferente y con un sistema de escritura distinto, exploramos el efecto que tienen las prácticas literarias escolares, en varias culturas, en el aprendizaje del español como segunda lengua.

La traducción del manga al español: Cuestiones lingüísticas, metodológicas y técnicas.

El trabajo trata la traducción del manga al castellano (cuestiones lingüísticas, metodológicas y técnicas): las características principales del japonés, el proceso de traducción, los métodos y las opciones de adaptación empleados por las editoriales españolas, y la compatibilidad de escritura en equipos españoles. Finalmente, incluye un ejemplo real de traducción.

Materials and supplementary materials used to teach vocabulary in the English class

This study is based on the analysis of the use of supplementary materials to teach vocabulary by second language teachers in Primary Education. The study consists of two analyses: the first one is a quantitative analysis based on 33 questionnaires answered by different second language teachers of Primary Education. The other, is a qualitative analysis in which the teacher’s subjective opinion on vocabulary learning techniques is presented. The study covers these main aspects: material use, effectiveness, children’s motivation, main criteria to teach vocabulary and the children’s role in their vocabulary learning.

In what ways a CLIL lesson planning different from an EFL course plan ?

Des del 1995 el Consell Europeu ha promogut l’aprenentatge d’una segona llengua a través d’una altra àrea en el que coneixem per CLIL (Contingut i Llengua Integrats en l’Aprenentatge) o en altres paraules: “una activitat en la qual l’aprenentatge d’una llengua estrangera és utilitzada com una eina per l’aprenentatge d’una àrea no linguística en la qual llengua i contingut tenen un mateix paper” (Marsh, 2002). Tot I així, “ensenyar una àrea a través d’una llengua estrangera no és el mateix que la integració de llengua i contingut”. CLIL comporta altres implicacions metodològiques pel que fa a la planificació, estratègies didàctiques i particularment al rol del docent. De fet, són aquests factors els que componen l’èxit o el fracàs en l’implementació de CLIL. i per aquest motiu pretenc analitzar i descriure les diferències entre una sessió de CLIL i una de llengua anglesa. Aquesta investigació és un estudi de cas que vol oferir una mirada a les diferències entre una unitat de CLIL i una de llengua anglesa portades a terme en un grup de 3r de primària a l’escola de Sant Miquel dels Sants (Vic) pel que fa a la planificació, les estratègies i actuacions del docent.

Sobre las fronteras retóricas del español escrito

El artículo explora la presencia de elementos culturales y retóricos procedentes de la lengua nativa (L1) de un autor en sus escritos en segunda lengua (L2). Se resumen y comentan varias investigaciones de la Retórica Contrastiva, los Nuevos Estudios de Literacidad y la Traductología, que analizan las estrategias usadas por autores y traductores para ocultar o mostrar aspectos de su L1 en sus escritos en L2. También se analizan dos casos de escritura académica (de un latino que escribe en inglés y un quechua que lo hace en español), que aportan ejemplos de extralimitaciones en la corrección y de ocultación de rasgos culturales relevantes. Esos datos y las teorías permiten reflexionar sobre la gestión de la retórica y la cultura en los textos de los plurilingües, tanto desde una óptica de la construcción de la identidad como de la corrección de textos en clase.

L'avançament de la introducció d'una llengua estrangera: un fugida cap enrera?

The age at which school children begin instruction in the foreign language has been brought forward on two main grounds: (1) young children are better language learners than older children, and (2) bilingualism brings cognitive advantages to children. Both statements are critically analysed in this paper. First of all, recent research findings show that the advantage that younger learners show in a naturalistic language learning situation (or through school immersion) disappears in a formal language learning situation with very limited exposure to the target language. Secondly, the positive effects on cognitive development that have been revealed through research correspond to situations of balanced bilingualism, that is, situations in which children have a high command of the two languages. In contrast, children¿s command of the foreign language in our context is very limited and hence far from the situation of balanced bilingualism (or trilingualism) that is said to bring positive cognitive effects.

En torno a los efectos de la edad en el aprendizaje escolar de una lengua extrangera

The purpose of this article is to treat a currently much debated issue, the effects of age on second language learning. To do so, we contrast data collected by our research team from over one thousand seven hundred young and adult learners with four popular beliefs or generalizations, which, while deeply rooted in this society, are not always corroborated by our data.Two of these generalizations about Second Language Acquisition (languages spoken in the social context) seem to be widely accepted: a) older children, adolescents and adults are quicker and more efficient at the first stages of learning than are younger learners; b) in a natural context children with an early start are more liable to attain higher levels of proficiency. However, in the context of Foreign Language Acquisition, the context in which we collect the data, this second generalization is difficult to verify due to the low number of instructional hours (a maximum of some 800 hours) and the lower levels of language exposure time provided. The design of our research project has allowed us to study differences observed with respect to the age of onset (ranging from 2 to 18+), but in this article we focus on students who began English instruction at the age of 8 (LOGSE Educational System) and those who began at the age of 11 (EGB). We have collected data from both groups after a period of 200 (Time 1) and 416 instructional hours (Time 2), and we are currently collecting data after a period of 726 instructional hours (Time 3). We have designed and administered a variety of tests: tests on English production and reception, both oral and written, and within both academic and communicative oriented approaches, on the learners' L1 (Spanish and Catalan), as well as a questionnaire eliciting personal and sociolinguistic information. The questions we address and the relevant empirical evidence are as follows: 1. "For young children, learning languages is a game. They enjoy it more than adults."Our data demonstrate that the situation is not quite so. Firstly, both at the levels of Primary and Secondary education (ranging from 70.5% in 11-year-olds to 89% in 14-year-olds) students have a positive attitude towards learning English. Secondly, there is a difference between the two groups with respect to the factors they cite as responsible for their motivation to learn English: the younger students cite intrinsic factors, such as the games they play, the methodology used and the teacher, whereas the older students cite extrinsic factors, such as the role of their knowledge of English in the achievement of their future professional goals. 2 ."Young children have more resources to learn languages." Here our data suggest just the opposite. The ability to employ learning strategies (actions or steps used) increases with age. Older learners' strategies are more varied and cognitively more complex. In contrast, younger learners depend more on their interlocutor and external resources and therefore have a lower level of autonomy in their learning. 3. "Young children don't talk much but understand a lot"This third generalization does seem to be confirmed, at least to a certain extent, by our data in relation to the analysis of differences due to the age factor and productive use of the target language. As seen above, the comparably slower progress of the younger learners is confirmed. Our analysis of interpersonal receptive abilities demonstrates as well the advantage of the older learners. Nevertheless, with respect to passive receptive activities (for example, simple recognition of words or sentences) no great differences are observed. Statistical analyses suggest that in this test, in contrast to the others analyzed, the dominance of the subjects' L1s (reflecting a cognitive capacity that grows with age) has no significant influence on the learning process. 4. "The sooner they begin, the better their results will be in written language"This is not either completely confirmed in our research. First of all, we perceive that certain compensatory strategies disappear only with age, but not with the number of instructional hours. Secondly, given an identical number of instructional hours, the older subjects obtain better results. With respect to our analysis of data from subjects of the same age (12 years old) but with a different number of instructional hours (200 and 416 respectively, as they began at the ages of 11 and 8), we observe that those who began earlier excel only in the area of lexical fluency. In conclusion, the superior rate of older learners appears to be due to their higher level of cognitive development, a factor which allows them to benefit more from formal or explicit instruction in the school context. Younger learners, however, do not benefit from the quantity and quality of linguistic exposure typical of a natural acquisition context in which they would be allowed to make use of implicit learning abilities. It seems clear, then, that the initiative in this country to begin foreign language instruction earlier will have positive effects only if it occurs in combination with either higher levels of exposure time to the foreign language, or, alternatively, with its use as the language of instruction in other areas of the curriculum.

L'avançament de la introducció d'una llengua estrangera: un fugida cap enrera?

The age at which school children begin instruction in the foreign language has been brought forward on two main grounds: (1) young children are better language learners than older children, and (2) bilingualism brings cognitive advantages to children. Both statements are critically analysed in this paper. First of all, recent research findings show that the advantage that younger learners show in a naturalistic language learning situation (or through school immersion) disappears in a formal language learning situation with very limited exposure to the target language. Secondly, the positive effects on cognitive development that have been revealed through research correspond to situations of balanced bilingualism, that is, situations in which children have a high command of the two languages. In contrast, children¿s command of the foreign language in our context is very limited and hence far from the situation of balanced bilingualism (or trilingualism) that is said to bring positive cognitive effects.

L'avançament de la introducció de la llengua estrangera: una fugida cap enrere?

En aquest article es pretén traçar una anàlisi crítica, basada en els resultats de recerques empíriques, d'alguns arguments que s'han utilitzat per justificar aquest avençament, que s'ha presentat com una millora indiscutible de les reformes educatives del nostre país d'aquests darrers anys.

En torno a los efectos de la edad en el aprendizaje escolar de una lengua extrangera

The purpose of this article is to treat a currently much debated issue, the effects of age on second language learning. To do so, we contrast data collected by our research team from over one thousand seven hundred young and adult learners with four popular beliefs or generalizations, which, while deeply rooted in this society, are not always corroborated by our data.Two of these generalizations about Second Language Acquisition (languages spoken in the social context) seem to be widely accepted: a) older children, adolescents and adults are quicker and more efficient at the first stages of learning than are younger learners; b) in a natural context children with an early start are more liable to attain higher levels of proficiency. However, in the context of Foreign Language Acquisition, the context in which we collect the data, this second generalization is difficult to verify due to the low number of instructional hours (a maximum of some 800 hours) and the lower levels of language exposure time provided. The design of our research project has allowed us to study differences observed with respect to the age of onset (ranging from 2 to 18+), but in this article we focus on students who began English instruction at the age of 8 (LOGSE Educational System) and those who began at the age of 11 (EGB). We have collected data from both groups after a period of 200 (Time 1) and 416 instructional hours (Time 2), and we are currently collecting data after a period of 726 instructional hours (Time 3). We have designed and administered a variety of tests: tests on English production and reception, both oral and written, and within both academic and communicative oriented approaches, on the learners' L1 (Spanish and Catalan), as well as a questionnaire eliciting personal and sociolinguistic information. The questions we address and the relevant empirical evidence are as follows: 1. "For young children, learning languages is a game. They enjoy it more than adults."Our data demonstrate that the situation is not quite so. Firstly, both at the levels of Primary and Secondary education (ranging from 70.5% in 11-year-olds to 89% in 14-year-olds) students have a positive attitude towards learning English. Secondly, there is a difference between the two groups with respect to the factors they cite as responsible for their motivation to learn English: the younger students cite intrinsic factors, such as the games they play, the methodology used and the teacher, whereas the older students cite extrinsic factors, such as the role of their knowledge of English in the achievement of their future professional goals. 2 ."Young children have more resources to learn languages." Here our data suggest just the opposite. The ability to employ learning strategies (actions or steps used) increases with age. Older learners' strategies are more varied and cognitively more complex. In contrast, younger learners depend more on their interlocutor and external resources and therefore have a lower level of autonomy in their learning. 3. "Young children don't talk much but understand a lot"This third generalization does seem to be confirmed, at least to a certain extent, by our data in relation to the analysis of differences due to the age factor and productive use of the target language. As seen above, the comparably slower progress of the younger learners is confirmed. Our analysis of interpersonal receptive abilities demonstrates as well the advantage of the older learners. Nevertheless, with respect to passive receptive activities (for example, simple recognition of words or sentences) no great differences are observed. Statistical analyses suggest that in this test, in contrast to the others analyzed, the dominance of the subjects' L1s (reflecting a cognitive capacity that grows with age) has no significant influence on the learning process. 4. "The sooner they begin, the better their results will be in written language"This is not either completely confirmed in our research. First of all, we perceive that certain compensatory strategies disappear only with age, but not with the number of instructional hours. Secondly, given an identical number of instructional hours, the older subjects obtain better results. With respect to our analysis of data from subjects of the same age (12 years old) but with a different number of instructional hours (200 and 416 respectively, as they began at the ages of 11 and 8), we observe that those who began earlier excel only in the area of lexical fluency. In conclusion, the superior rate of older learners appears to be due to their higher level of cognitive development, a factor which allows them to benefit more from formal or explicit instruction in the school context. Younger learners, however, do not benefit from the quantity and quality of linguistic exposure typical of a natural acquisition context in which they would be allowed to make use of implicit learning abilities. It seems clear, then, that the initiative in this country to begin foreign language instruction earlier will have positive effects only if it occurs in combination with either higher levels of exposure time to the foreign language, or, alternatively, with its use as the language of instruction in other areas of the curriculum.

More evidence concerning the aspect hypothesis: The acquisition of English progressive aspect by Catalan-Spanish instructed learners

A robust finding of studies investigating the Aspect Hypothesis is that learners at early stages of acquisition show a strong preference for using the progressive aspect as associated with activity verbs. As they advance in their acquisition of the second or foreign language, learners move from this prototypical association to associations traditionally considered to be more peripheral (e.g.-ing with accomplishments or achievements). Within this framework, the goal of this paper is to provide further evidence from groups of learners with different proficiency levels with regard to the acquisition of progressive aspect by tutored learners of English who are bilingual Catalan-Spanish. This is done by eliciting data by means of two different task types and by looking at both tokens and types. Our results are consistent with previous research according to which-ing morphology is closely associated with durative lexical aspect, although not necessarily with activity predicates. The study also shows that the type of task has an influence on the frequency and the distribution of learners" progressive forms.

Los géneros discursivos desde la perspectiva del ELE

Afrontar el proceso de adquisición de una lengua extranjera supone unatarea global que culmina en el dominio de la misma en múltiples variablessituacionales. En el siguiente trabajo proponemos una incipientecaracterización de la conversación telefónica como subgénero discursivo quese enmarca en el ámbito del desarrollo de las destrezas orales. Pretendemoscon ello acotar un marco específico en el que las característicasinteraccionales propias de los textos conversacionales aparecen en algunosaspectos dislocadas, así como proponer una aplicación didáctica mediante laimbricación de este género textual con el uso de ciertos recursos cinematográficos en la clase de ELE.

Gramática aplicada a ELE: la perífrasis “ir a + infinitivo” y el futuro sintético

La presencia en español de dos construcciones —la perífrasis «IR A+Infinitivo» y lasformas verbales sintéticas terminadas en –rá— que pueden alternarse en determinadoscontextos como mecanismos para expresar la futuridad en español ha llevado a unageneralización en el uso de tales construcciones descuidando la vertiente pragmática delas mismas, y, en consecuencia, se ha tendido a ofrecer al estudiante de ELE unaconsideración básicamente gramatical de los usos de la perífrasis y del futuro sintético. Eneste sentido, el objetivo de nuestra propuesta busca establecer las principales divergencias de carácter pragmático que —creemos— deberían incorporarse a la explicación de estos contenidos gramaticales.

Cortosionismo: hablar por los cortos: propuesta didáctica para el uso del cortometraje en el aula de ELE

En este estudio se apuesta por utilizar el material audiovisual en el aula de español como segunda lengua, ya que este material actúa como un sustituto de la realidad en la clase y conecta con el mundo conocido por el aprendiente