The demand for Spanish for specific purposes (SSP) university courses in the United States has prompted widespread curricular change in language departments over the last two decades (Klee, 2015; Sánchez‐López, 2013). However, many instructors lack the tools and training needed to design SSP curricula that meet learners’ communicative needs in such contexts. Moreover, little SSP research to date has taken a task‐based approach to identifying learners’ specialized needs (Long, 2015), which can provide much‐needed support to instructors who are nonexperts in the particular domain of interest. The current study reports on a small‐scale, multiphase needs analysis carried out to design a university business Spanish course. In Phase 1, a small sample of business graduates and professionals generated a list of 40 target tasks in the domains of reading, writing, listening, and speaking that were relevant to their particular work. In Phase 2, 54 university business majors rated the frequency and difficulty of each task on a 40‐item Likert‐type questionnaire. During Phase 3, the researchers analyzed and grouped target tasks identified in the needs assessment to create five major target task types that informed course objectives and classroom tasks.

A strand of task‐based interaction research has emerged to better understand the effects of heritage language (HL) and second language (L2) learners’ peer collaboration on interactional moves (e.g., language‐related episodes [LREs], self‐repairs) and linguistic focus. To extend this line of research, this study compared 14 HL–L2 and 16 HL–HL advanced learners’ peer interactions across face‐to‐face (FTF) and written synchronous computer‐mediated communication (SCMC) modes. Each dyad completed 2 decision‐making/collaborative writing tasks in Spanish across both interaction modes. Results revealed that interaction mode had a large effect on the extent to which HL–L2 and HL–HL pairs produced self‐repairs and initiated LREs. That is, both pair types initiated more LREs in FTF mode, and self‐repaired non‐target‐like utterances more extensively in SCMC mode. As for pair types, HL–L2 pairs significantly resolved more lexis‐focused episodes in FTF mode, and HL–HL pairs only produced self‐repair episodes in SCMC mode. HL–L2 and HL–HL dyads addressed linguistic items (e.g., morphosyntax) rather equally across interaction modes. Our findings are discussed in light of the differences in prior language‐learning experiences of HL and L2 learners.

Manipulating cognitive demands on second language (L2) tasks, along with the provision of recasts and its effects on L2 development, has motivated recent inquiry within task-based research. However, empirical evidence remains inconclusive as to the impact of task complexity, and it is unknown how it may affect heritage language (HL) development. To address this issue, this study tested 81 adult HL and L2 learners of Spanish. Participants in the experimental conditions completed either a simple or a complex version of a monologic computerized task that delivered written recasts as corrective feedback but differed according to intentional reasoning demands. Participants completed three oral and written assessment tasks to measure development of the Spanish subjunctive in adjectival clauses. Results revealed that the simple group demonstrated greater gains, especially in written production. L2 learners and the HL simple group benefitted more from task-based instruction in comparison to the HL complex group. Findings have implications for the role of prior language experience and task outcomes.

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Task-based research has investigated the learning opportunities (e.g. language related episodes) that emerge during heritage and second language learner interactions during writing tasks. However, to date, it is unknown how these peer interactions involving heritage language learners contribute to written texts. Further, given the rise of social technologies in educational settings, a need exists to examine how interactions in digital platforms affect the production of written texts. To address these issues, 13 heritage-second language learner and 16 heritage–heritage learner pairs enrolled in advanced Spanish content courses completed two distinct versions of writing tasks. Participants were instructed that they were hired as business consultants for clothing and cellphone companies in Spain. While each participant wrote her or his own version, the pairs had to interact to compose formal business letters in Spanish to the CEO of each company justifying the hiring (Task A) or laying off (Task B) of employees. The main results first revealed that heritage–heritage pairs produced more syntactically complex business letters, as evidenced by a greater ratio of syntactic subordination along with a minor trend of greater morphosyntactic accuracy. Second, synchronous computer-mediated communication interactions led to a higher production of syntactic coordination, especially for the heritage-second language pairs. Findings are discussed in light of the interplay between learner factors and task environment.