BELIEF AND THE LINGUISTIC ATTITUDE OF CAPANEMENSE

Despite not using the Spanish language, Brazil borders with several countries that speak this language. The State of Paraná, for instance, has nineteen districts bordering with Paraguay and Argentina. In this geographical context is inserted Capanema city, whose multi-ethnic environment not only promotes the exchange of goods but also culture, beliefs, customs, and especially the language. This work takes as its investigation object the speech of Capanemenses with the aim of verifying the positive and negative views of these subjects regarding the multiple languages ​​and varieties with which they live on today. Following the mentalist methodology (LÓPEZ MORALEZ, 1993), the collected data analysis through interviews in locus showed that, compared to Argentines, most Capanemenses presents a positive attitude, both in relation to the Argentine people properly said, as their mother tongue, seen in a prestigious way by the interviewees. As for Paraguayan, a significant amount of informants showed not see them in a positive way, presenting a justification for this refusal the difference in culture, indigenous origin, low technology and education, as well as the language issue - Guarani, Jopará. On the other hand, the German people’s seen as introverted by their lack of emotion, but responsible in everything they do. The German language has not been evaluated positively by the Capanemenses, as it’s considered difficult and awkward. Finally, we note that, believing that Italian culture and language are close to the one existing in Brazil, due to Latin ascendancy, respondents react favorably on the Italians, people judged by Capanemenses as joyful and spontaneous. Keywords: beliefs and linguistic attitudes, language prejudice, languages in contact, Capanema.   

ANÁLISE ENTONACIONAL DA LEITURA DE JORNALISTAS CHILENOS E ESPANHÓIS - SEMELHANÇAS E DIFERENÇAS NO NÚCLEO

This paper proposes to make an intonational comparison of the tonemes found in the Chilean and Spanish news broadcast reading, making a phonetic description and a phonological analysis.  The analysis is done from intonative phrases, which are limited by the complete sentence limited pauses.  Acoording to our point of view, intonative phrases are divided into three groups: continuative intonative phrases, internal intonative phrases and terminative intonative phrases, according to their position in the complete sentence.  Its objective is to find the convergent and divergent points between the two Spanish language varieties.  Its corpus is constituted of 12 sentences, recorded from the Chilean international channel TVN and  SpanishTVE, in 2001 August.  Twelve sentences are analyzed in total, six for each geographical origin, which were read by TV presenters when they read the news on the news broadcast.  The analysis are based on the Pierrehumbert's Autosegmental-Metric theory (AM) (1980), adapted to Spanish language by Sosa (1999).  As a result, not only the same tonal attribution for all the cases was found, but important differences when it comes to F0 behavior.  When considering the duration, also many differences were not found according to the predominant tendency; nonetheless, important differences related to the percentual value were observed.  As an example, we can consider terminative intonative phrases, where the observed pattern is L*L% both in Chile and Spain, but with soundless cases in the Spanish stressed vowel and post-stressed one, but just one case of a descendent movement in the Chilean stressed one.  Considering the duration, there is an increase  from the stressed from the pre-stressed and from the post-stressed to the stressed, but in different proportions: the increase is more perceived in the Chilean stressed vowel and in the Spanish post-stressed one.

Sign language in Spanish television. Study on reception

The present article analyses the preferences of the deaf who use sign language and are users of the TV interpretation service to sign language, as well as the characteristics with which TV channels provide that service in television in Spain. The objective is to establish whether the way in which the aforementioned accessibility service is provided matches the preferences of users or differ from them. The analysis presents the opinion on this service of the deaf that use the Spanish sign language as their first language for communication. A study has also been conducted on the programmes broadcast with sign language during week 10-16/03/2014. The main data collected reveal that the deaf are dissatisfied with broadcasting times. They ask for news programmes with sign language, they would rather have the interpretation carried out by deaf people who use sign language and they prefer that the interpreter is the main image on screen. Concerning the analysis of the programmes broadcast, the study shows that the majority of programmes with sign language are broadcast at night, they are entertainment programmes, the interpretation is carried out by hearing people who use sign language and that their image is displayed in a corner of the screen.

Language-universal Sensory Deficits in Developmental Dyslexia: English, Spanish, and Chinese

Studies in sensory neuroscience reveal the critical importance of accurate sensory perception for cognitive development. There is considerable debate concerning the possible sensory correlates of phonological processing, the primary cognitive risk factor for developmental dyslexia. Across languages, children with dyslexia have a specific difficulty with the neural representation of the phonological structure of speech. The identification of a robust sensory marker of phonological difficulties would enable early identification of risk for developmental dyslexia and early targeted intervention. Here, we explore whether phonological processing difficulties are associated with difficulties in processing acoustic cues to speech rhythm. Speech rhythm is used across languages by infants to segment the speech stream into words and syllables. Early difficulties in perceiving auditory sensory cues to speech rhythm and prosody could lead developmentally to impairments in phonology. We compared matched samples of children with and without dyslexia, learning three very different spoken and written languages, English, Spanish, and Chinese. The key sensory cue measured was rate of onset of the amplitude envelope (rise time), known to be critical for the rhythmic timing of speech. Despite phonological and orthographic differences, for each language, rise time sensitivity was a significant predictor of phonological awareness, and rise time was the only consistent predictor of reading acquisition. The data support a language-universal theory of the neural basis of developmental dyslexia on the basis of rhythmic perception and syllable segmentation. They also suggest that novel remediation strategies on the basis of rhythm and music may offer benefits for phonological and linguistic development.

Reseña : José Del Valle (ed.) (2013), A Political History of Spanish: The Making of a Language, Cambridge/New York, Cambridge University Press. [ISBN: 978-1-107-00573-0]

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Communicative competence in Spanish-English cross-cultural language education : some pedagogic strategies drawn from the national arts.

Resumen tomado de la publicación

Spontaneous language measures in monolingual preschool Spanish-speaking children. 'Medidas de evaluación del lenguaje espontáneo en niños hispanohablantes en edad preescolar'.

Resumen en español. Resumen basado en el de la publicación

Experimental study of textual development in Spanish students of English as a foreign language in segundo de bachillerato : features of written register in compositions of argumentative genre.

Esta investigación pretende, por un lado, describir y explicar los rasgos orales de las redacciones de los estudiantes españoles de inglés como lengua extranjera; y, por otro, intentar mejorar el estilo escrito de los textos de estos estudiantes a través de una intervención pedagógica.. Se diseña y aplica un tratamiento pedagógico a un grupo de estudiantes de segundo de bachillerato de Madrid. La instrucción se centra en hacerles conscientes de los recursos lingüísticos disponibles en inglés para la redacción de un texto. Se comparan las composiciones escritas por los estudiantes antes del tratamiento experimental con sus producciones posteriores, así como con un grupo de control del mismo instituto que no recibe ninguna instrucción. Se cotejan los textos en inglés con redacciones escritas en español por los estudiantes del grupo experimental. Asimismo, los textos escritos en inglés después del tratamiento experimental se comparan con redacciones de un grupo de estudiantes nativos de secundaria. Se analizan dos variables, para las que el estudio aporta sendos instrumentos de medida, la calidad y el grado de estilo escrito de los textos. La comparación de los textos escritos en español y en inglés de los estudiantes españoles del grupo experimental revela que las redacciones en la lengua materna son superiores en relación a su calidad pero no al grado de estilo escrito. Varios resultados estadísticos apuntan que el tratamiento recibido por el grupo experimental contribuye al desarrollo del grado de estilo escrito de los textos en inglés pero no mejora la calidad global de los mismos. Los resultados revelan que el grupo experimental es similar a los nativos en el grado de estilo escrito, aunque éste último supera a los estudiantes del inglés como lengua extranjera en la 'calidad' de los textos. Este estudio concluye que la impronta oral de las redacciones de los estudiantes de inglés como lengua extranjera puede deberse a la combinación de varios factores, la competencia discursiva en la lengua materna, la competencia lingüística/discursiva en la lengua objeto de aprendizaje, el conocimiento socio-cultural y lingüístico de adecuación contextual y el tipo de pedagogía en inglés como lengua extranjera.

Academic and professional writing in English : a study in the pedagogy of second language writing for Spanish university students.

Abarcar la enseñanza de la redacción en inglés como segunda lengua para fines académicos y profesionales en la universidad española. En primer lugar, se establece un marco teórico para la pedagogía de la redacción a base del entendimiento del texto escrito como nexo en una red compleja de relaciones sociales y negociaciones culturales. Luego se lleva a cabo un estudio de la práctica de la redacción en el contexto de la universidad española, con un análisis a fondo de los escritores y sus actitudes y expectativas, por un lado, y sus textos (un ensayo y un informe), por otro. Se analizan los textos usando técnicas cualitativas y cuantitativas. A partir de este estudio inicial, se diseña un proyecto de investigación-acción, en el que dos grupos paralelos de alumnos siguen dos programas diferentes en que se plasman dos aproximaciones distintas a la pedagogía de la redacción: el análisis textual, siguiendo la tradición del inglés para fines específicos y la escuela del género, y el análisis contextual, influenciado por los planteamientos y los procedimientos de la nueva retórica. Los textos resultantes son analizados mediante unas escalas detalladas de evaluación desarrolladas a base de los resultados del primer estudio. Los resultados de los dos programas son positivos, aunque el grupo de análisis contextual demuestra una mejora superior. Para concluir, se esboza una serie de principios que deberán servir de guía para el diseño de los futuros programas de redacción para universitarios españoles.

Implementing the Oral English Task in the Spanish University Admission Examination : an International Perspective of the Language. 'La implementación de la prueba de inglés oral en la Prueba de Acceso a la Universidad : una perspectiva internacional de la lengua'.

Monográfico con el título: 'Nuevas perspectivas en la sección de idiomas de la Prueba de Acceso a la Universidad'. Resumen basado en el de la publicación

Are discourse comprehension and cognitive processes influenced by the type of language language (English and Spanish)? A cross-language study based on elaborative inferences generation

Resumen basado en el de la publicación

Spanish/English primary integrated curriculum : language and literacy

Resumen basado en el de la publicaci??n

Students reflections on pedagogical translation in Spanish as a foreign language

Resumen basado en el de la publicaci??n

Language learning strategy use by Spanish EFL students : the effect of proficiency level, gender, and motivation

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Analisis Gramatical del Lenguaje Elicitado Nivel Sencillo: A Spanish translation of the Grammatical Analysis of Elicited Language: Simple Sentence Level

This paper presents a Spanish translation of the Grammatical Analysis of Elicited Language: Simple Sentence Level. Also included are some suggested changes in vocabulary and sentence structure for the Spanish version.