Cooperative or collaborative learning: Is there a difference in university students’ perceptions?

The hypothesis that the same educational objective, raised as cooperative or collaborative learning in university teaching does not affect students’ perceptions of the learning model, leads this study. It analyses the reflections of two students groups of engineering that shared the same educational goals implemented through two different methodological active learning strategies: Simulation as cooperative learning strategy and Problem-based Learning as a collaborative one. The different number of participants per group (eighty-five and sixty-five, respectively) as well as the use of two active learning strategies, either collaborative or cooperative, did not show differences in the results from a qualitative perspective.

The redemption of the past. On a main motif in Walter Benjamin’s work

The following paper examines Walter Benjamin’s reflection on the category of “redemption”, mainly developed in the theses On the concept of History. To this end, we will try firstly to reconstruct Benjamin’s critique of “fate”, as it unfolds in the twenties on the field of right, economy and, especially, history. The critique of the expiatory logic of “fate” – developed in essays such as Fate and Character, Critique of violence or Capitalism as religion – will then allow us to disclose the “dialectical” structure of redemption, whereby Benjamin mobilizes his previous theory of knowledge against the doctrine of progress.

El dinero fuente de pecados en el Inferno de Dante y en la traducción de Pedro Fernández de Villegas (Burgos, 1515)

El trabajo se centra en el análisis de los pecados relacionados con el dinero en el Inferno de Dante y en la primera traducción castellana de la primera cantiga de la Commedia, obra del arcediano de Burgos Pedro Fernández de Villegas. La traducción, compuesta en coplas de arte mayor y acompañada de un enciclopédico comentario, se publicó en 1515. Particular atención se dedica a la reflexión sobre el problema del mal uso del dinero que Villegas desarrolla en la glosa de los cantos en que con más vigor se levanta la voz de Dante para denunciar la gravedad del pecado de la sed de riquezas. Se analiza la postura del traductor español ante el tema comparándola no sólo con la de Dante sino también con la de Cristoforo Landino, autor del Comento sopra la Comedia, obra exégetica que se publicó por primera vez en Florencia en 1481 y que representó el punto de referencia privilegiado de Villegas.

Las comedias húngaras de Lope de Vega: una cadena de intertextualidad y reescritura

Dentro del conjunto de comedias dedicadas a la historia de Hungría, Lope de Vega cuenta con tres comedias con numerosas similitudes: El príncipe melancólico, El cuerdo loco y La sortija del olvido. Este trabajo examina las relaciones de intertextualidad y reescritura en las tres obras, así como algunos aspectos del desarrollo de la comedia palatina lopesca.

Teaching morphology trough communicative approach and cooperative learning in Secondary Education: practical proposal

We will be presenting the following practical proposal that will consist of two sessions implemented with different courses of Secondary Education (ESO) of the Colegio Círculo Católico (Catholic School Group), located in the city of Burgos. Each session lasts 55 minutes. These sessions focus on the morphology of the Spanish language. Its design has been carried out by keeping in mind the theoretical basis of the communicative approach and cooperative learning.

El ritual en los "Textos de las Pirámides": sintaxis, texto y significado

Este trabajo pretende explorar la dimensión ritual en los Textos de las Pirámides, el corpus de literatura religiosa extensa más antiguo de la humanidad. La naturaleza variada de sus componentes textuales ha impedido que los egiptólogos comprendan en profundidad las complejidades de la colección y los contextos originales en los que estos textos (ritos) aparecieron. La aplicación de la teoría del ritual, principalmente la aproximación de la sintaxis ritual, ofrece a los investigadores un marco excelente de análisis e interpretación del corpus, su estructura y función. Sujeto a las reglas de la sintaxis ritual es posible exponer los múltiples niveles de significado en el corpus para la resurrección y salvación del difunto.

De Irlanda a Iberia: notas para a tradución de Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin do inglés ao galego

La cuestión del género fue trabajada dentro de los estudios de traducción de diversas formas, incluyendo la asignación de género en la lengua meta, la traducción de lenguaje marcado de género y la traducción feminista. En este trabajo se estudia el uso o ausencia de marcas de género y de la praeterio a la hora de afrontar una traducción al gallego de la autora irlandesa Eiléan Ní Chuillanáin, feminista y nacionalista. Ambas situaciones se reflejan conscientemente en sus poemas de manera significativa. A través de ejemplos prácticos seleccionados, se reflexiona sobre la necesidad de tener en cuenta que la traslación de sus textos a una lengua que obligatoriamente establece elecciones lingüísticas entre el femenino y el masculino, debe hacerse respetando el sentido de la autora. Esto supone, para quien traduzca, compartir la perspectiva feminista y nacional de la autora familiarizándose con el marco y condicionantes de su obra poética.

"Unha espía no Reino de Galicia" de Manuel Rivas: O humor e a construción da identidade nacional galega

Este estudo analiza como Manuel Rivas aproveita a ambigüidade do concepto de estereotipo para crear una identidade cultural galega. En Unha espía no Reino de Galicia (2004), Rivas propón que a imaxe paródica do galego e o conxunto de trazos estereotipados que se lle asignan non son un elemento alleo a cultura galega, senón que é un trazo integral da dialéctica da súa identidade nacional. Desta maneira, ó feito diferencial galego, ademais da lingua, a unidade territorial, o celtismo, ou a emigración, habería que engadir a capacidade do galego de parodiar o seu propio discurso nacional.

El diminutivo en el español de Santo Domingo

Esta investigación analiza el uso del sufijo diminutivo en un corpus oral de jóvenes de la República Dominicana. El material procede de la transcripción de veinte entrevistas orales realizadas en los años noventa en Santo Domingo. En este estudio se realiza un análisis de las ocurrencias documentadas, su morfología, sus preferencias en cuanto a la selección de las clases de palabras que se toman como base para la formación de diminutivos, sus posibles valores semánticos y comunicativos, y, por último, se determina la frecuencia de uso del diminutivo en función del sexo de los hablantes.

Correlation between anxiety and academic self-concept in interpreter trainees

This paper focuses on two basic issues: the anxiety-generating nature of the interpreting task and the relevance of interpreter trainees’ academic self-concept. The first has already been acknowledged, although not extensively researched, in several papers, and the second has only been mentioned briefly in interpreting literature. This study seeks to examine the relationship between the anxiety and academic self-concept constructs among interpreter trainees. An adapted version of the Foreign Language Anxiety Scale (Horwitz et al., 1986), the Academic Autoconcept Scale (Schmidt, Messoulam & Molina, 2008) and a background information questionnaire were used to collect data. Students’ t-Test analysis results indicated that female students reported experiencing significantly higher levels of anxiety than male students. No significant gender difference in self-concept levels was found. Correlation analysis results suggested, on the one hand, that younger would-be interpreters suffered from higher anxiety levels and students with higher marks tended to have lower anxiety levels; and, on the other hand, that younger students had lower self-concept levels and higher-ability students held higher self-concept levels. In addition, the results revealed that students with higher anxiety levels tended to have lower self-concept levels. Based on these findings, recommendations for interpreting pedagogy are discussed.

Item and task difficulty in a B2 reading examination: perceptions of test-takers and CEFR alignment experts compared with psychometric measurements

The article presents a study of a CEFR B2-level reading subtest that is part of the Slovenian national secondary school leaving examination in English as a foreign language, and compares the test-taker actual performance (objective difficulty) with the test-taker and expert perceptions of item difficulty (subjective difficulty). The study also analyses the test-takers’ comments on item difficulty obtained from a while-reading questionnaire. The results are discussed in the framework of the existing research in the fields of (the assessment of) reading comprehension, and are addressed with regard to their implications for item-writing, FL teaching and curriculum development.

Motivation and Vocabulary Breadth in CLIL and EFL Contexts. Different age, Same Time of Exposure

Numerous studies have found a positive connection between learners’ motivation towards foreign language and foreign language achievement. The present study examines the role of motivation in receptive vocabulary breadth (size) of two groups of Spanish learners of different ages, but all with 734 hours of instruction in English as a Foreign Language (EFL): a CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) group in primary education and a non-CLIL (or EFL) group in secondary education. Most students in both groups were found to be highly motivated. The primary CLIL group slightly overcame the secondary non-CLIL group with respect to the mean general motivation but this is a non-significant difference. The secondary group surpass significantly the primary group in receptive vocabulary size. No relationship between the receptive vocabulary knowledge and general motivation is found in the primary CLIL group. On the other hand, a positive significant connection, although a very small one, is identified for the secondary non-CLIL group. We will discuss on the type of test, the age of students and the type of instruction as variables that could be influencing the results.

Who is in charge? An L2 Discourse Intonation Study on Four Prosodic Parameters to Exert the Pragmatic Function of Dominance and Control in the Context of L2 Non-specialist Public Speaking

This paper reports the findings from a study of the learning of English intonation by Spanish speakers within the discourse mode of L2 oral presentation. The purpose of this experiment is, firstly, to compare four prosodic parameters before and after an L2 discourse intonation training programme and, secondly, to confirm whether subjects, after the aforementioned L2 discourse intonation training, are able to match the form of these four prosodic parameters to the discourse-pragmatic function of dominance and control. The study designed the instructions and tasks to create the oral and written corpora and Brazil’s Pronunciation for Advanced Learners of English was adapted for the pedagogical aims of the present study. The learners’ pre- and post-tasks were acoustically analysed and a pre / post- questionnaire design was applied to interpret the acoustic analysis. Results indicate most of the subjects acquired a wider choice of the four prosodic parameters partly due to the prosodically-annotated transcripts that were developed throughout the L2 discourse intonation course. Conversely, qualitative and quantitative data reveal most subjects failed to match the forms to their appropriate pragmatic functions to express dominance and control in an L2 oral presentation.

Receptive Vocabulary of CLIL and Non-CLIL Primary and Secondary School Learners

CLIL instruction has been reported to be beneficial for foreign language vocabulary learning since CLIL students show higher vocabulary profiles than students of their same age in traditional EFL contexts. However, to our knowledge, the receptive vocabulary knowledge of CLIL and non-CLIL learners at the end of primary and secondary education has not been examined yet. Hence, this study aims at comparing the receptive vocabulary size 79 CLIL primary learners with the receptive vocabulary knowledge of 331 non-CLIL learners at the end of primary and secondary school. Sex-based differences were also analysed. The 2k Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT) was used for the purposes of the study. Results revealed that learners’ receptive vocabulary sizes lie within the most frequent 1000 words, non-CLIL secondary school students throw better results than primary students but the differences between the secondary group and the CLIL group are not statistically significant. As for sex-based differences, we found no significant differences among the groups. These findings led us to believe that the CLIL approach offers a benefit for vocabulary acquisition since CLIL learners have been exposed to the foreign language for a shorter period of time and the results are quite similar to their non-CLIL secondary school partners.

Sherman Alexie’s "The Toughest Indian in the World": Amalgamating the Oral and the Written Traditions

This article argues that The Toughest Indian in the World (2000) by Native-American author Sherman Alexie combines elements of his tribal (oral) tradition with others coming from the Western (literary) short-story form. Like other Native writers — such as Momaday, Silko or Vizenor — , Alexie is seen to bring into his short fiction characteristics of his people’s oral storytelling that make it much more dialogical and participatory. Among the author’s narrative techniques reminiscent of the oral tradition, aggregative repetitions of patterned thoughts and strategically-placed indeterminacies play a major role in encouraging his readers to engage in intellectual and emotional exchanges with the stories. Assisted by the ideas of theorists such as Ong (1988), Evers and Toelken (2001), and Teuton (2008), this article shows how Alexie’s short fiction is enriched and revitalized by the incorporation of oral elements. The essay also claims that new methods of analysis and assessment may be needed for this type of bicultural artistic forms. Despite the differences between the two modes of communication, Alexie succeeds in blending features and techniques from both traditions, thus creating a new hybrid short-story form that suitably conveys the trying experiences faced by his characters.