No abstract

No abstract

Studies on teachers’ beliefs about vocabulary learning and teaching have focused, so far, on English as a second language (L2), or foreign language (FL), in different contexts but little attention has been given to other L2s and FLs. In this study, 15 Spanish L2 instructors at large universities were interviewed in order to better understand where they stand when it comes to (1) the importance they give to vocabulary, as compared to grammar, in their classes, (2) how they decide which words to teach, and (3) how they assess students’ word knowledge. These interviews were subsequently analysed following Grounded Theory. Most instructors declared favoring grammar over vocabulary in their courses because the former is seen as more challenging and useful than the latter and because institutional practices and materials also present such a preference. When it comes to vocabulary selection, most of them declared feeling insecure in their decisions due to lack of access to useful resources and to vocabulary goals not being stated clearly anywhere in the syllabi. This lack of clarity when it comes to vocabulary learning goals also results in doubts about the usefulness of even evaluating word learning at all and an overreliance on informal assessments.

<p>Formulaic language learning has been shown to be problematic and slow in adult L2 learners. In this study, we test some of the recommendations of a lexical approach. We compare the results of the implementation of chunk attention-directing techniques and explicit exercises of previously selected chunks in 52 Spanish as a second language learners over a period of seven weeks. In light of the results obtained, we can conclude that (1) exposure to lexical chunks, chunk noticing in the input and explicit exercises contribute to the development of abilities in the active recognition of chunks, and (2) learning gains obtained through explicit exercises are significantly greater than those obtained through attention-directing techniques.</p>

La valencia (cómo de positivo o negativo resulta un estímulo) y la activación (intensidad con la que se recibe un estímulo) se han reconocido como los dos ejes principales que articulan el componente afectivo. Por otro lado, se sabe que la lengua de la emoción es altamente figurativa y que la carga emocional que tienen las palabras en la L1 frente a la que tienen en las lenguas que se aprenden después no es la misma. Teniendo esto en cuenta, el objetivo de este estudio es comparar la forma en que perciben los hablantes nativos y no nativos la lengua emocional en términos de valencia y activación, de cara a determinar si existen diferencias entre la lengua figurativa y la literal. Para ello se encuestó a un total de 62 informantes (usuarios de español como L1 y sinohablantes usuarios de español como LX) acerca de su percepción de palabras en sentido literal y sus equivalentes figurados. Nuestros resultados muestran que los ítems figurados generan más activación que los literales en ambos grupos y que la activación ante los estímulos es más alta en L1. Los resultados contribuyen a la investigación abierta sobre la expresión de las emociones en relación con el aprendizaje de una nueva lengua y la aculturación emocional.