No abstract

This study aimed to examine 88 intermediate learners of second language Spanish’ depth of processing under different types of instruction when being exposed to a complex grammar form, the imperfect subjunctive, on a reading task. Depth of processing was measured by employing think-aloud protocols. Due to the absence of reactivity, six silent and think-aloud conditions were merged into three experimental ones differing in explicitness. The study followed a pre-, post-, and delayed test design with 2 weeks between tests, which consisted of interpretation, controlled-production, and comprehension tests. Overall, results showed that participants in the more explicit condition produced more instances of processing, and that deeper processing correlated with a more accurate production of the target form and with a higher comprehension of the reading passage.

The growing demand for Spanish for Specific Purposes (SSP) courses at universities in the United States in the last two decades (Klee, 2015) has brought to light the need for more theoretically driven research in this field, which can inform pedagogical decisions and materials design. The present study conceptually replicates Serafini and Torres (2015), adopting a Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) approach to instructional design, and it aims to contribute to the under-researched field of SPP by a) performing a needs analysis (NA) of a university business Spanish course at two institutions, and b) creating a semester-long syllabus, which better equips non-expert instructors to teach their business Spanish courses. Results indicated that of the total 40 target tasks cited in the first phase of the NA, 21 were reported to be very commonly performed by at least 30% of the respondents in the second phase. These 21 tasks were regrouped and categorized into five more abstract, super-ordinate target task types that made up the objectives for the semester-long business Spanish syllabus informed by TBLT.

ENRecently, great interest has emerged in identifying the learning needs of heritage language (HL) learners. In comparing HL and second language (L2) learners, research suggests that L2 learners outperform HL learners when examining writing abilities (Montrul, 2010;Potowski, 2013). However, complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF) have been overlooked when examining HL learners' writing proficiency, and it could provide a better picture of their writing skills in a spontaneous untimed assignment. To address this issue, 28 L2 learners and 18 HL learners completed an untimed written production task on a non-academic subject and their written proficiency was assessed through CAF measures (Norris & Ortega, 2009). Results showed HL learners significantly outperformed L2 learners on two complexity measures: accuracy and fluency. A possible explanation for these findings could be the type of task used (more spontaneous, less-controlled), which taps into a more implicit type of knowledge, favoring HL learners (Bowles, 2011). Key words: HERITAGE LANGUAGE LEARNERS, WRITING, CAF.ES En los últimos años ha habido un mayor esfuerzo para identificar las necesidades de los aprendientes de una lengua de herencia (LH). Los resultados de estudios comparativos indican que los aprendientes de una L2 superan a los aprendientes de una LH en pruebas de habilidades de escritura (Montrul, 2010;Potowski, 2013). Sin embargo, a la hora de analizar la producción escrita en la HL, la complejidad, la precisión y la fluidez (CAF por sus siglas en inglés) han sido ignoradas, a pesar de que podrían ofrecer una descripción más precisa de las habilidades de escritura en la HL en tareas espontáneas no cronometradas. Con el objetivo de aportar esta perspectiva, 28 aprendientes de L2 y 18 aprendientes de LH completaron una tarea de producción escrita en ámbito no académico y no cronometrada, y sus habilidades de escritura fueron evaluadas según los parámetros CAF (Norris & Ortega, 2009). Los resultados muestran que los aprendientes de HL superaron a los de L2 en dos parámetros, complejidad y fluidez. Una posible explicación de estos resultados puede estar relacionada con el tipo de tarea (más espontánea y menos controlada), que requiere un conocimiento más implícito y favorecería así a los aprendientes de HL (Bowles, 2011 IT I bisogni di apprendimento di apprendenti una lingua ereditaria (HL) sono recentemente diventati oggetto di un crescente interesse.Nelle ricerche che hanno confrontato apprendenti di una HL e di una lingua seconda (L2), il secondo tipo di apprendenti consegue risultati migliori del primo nell'abilità di scrittura (Montrul, 2010;Potowski, 2013). Tuttavia, nell'esame della capacità di scrittura nella lingua ereditaria, complessità, precisione e fluidità (CAF nell'abbreviazione inglese) sono spesso sottovalutate, mentre potrebbero fornire un quadro più accurato delle loro abilità di scrittura in compiti spontanei non a tempo. A tal fine, 28 apprendenti L2 e 18 apprendenti HL hanno svolto un compito di produzione scritta non a...

This study investigated the effects that different types of instruction varying in explicitness had on 88 intermediate-level Spanish learners’ development of the imperfect subjunctive on a reading task. Participants were randomly assigned to one of 3 experimental conditions that differed in their degree of instructional explicitness (+/− deductive). One condition (+Deductive) received a detailed grammar explanation prior to task; a second condition (−Deductive) received a hint about a new target form present in the reading task, and the third condition (Baseline) was not presented with any grammar information or hint. The study consisted of 3 sessions, following a pre/post/delayed computerized test design with 2 weeks between sessions. Results showed that the −Deductive condition performed as well as the +Deductive condition immediately and 2 weeks after treatment for both Interpretation and Controlled production tests.