Accent-uating Rules and Relationships: Motivations, Attitudes, and Goals in a Spanish for Native Speakers Class

Abstract

This study examines the motivations, attitudes, and goals of a Spanish for native speakers (SNS) class at a large Midwestern university over a semestel; using questionnaires, student interviews, classroom observation, and instructor interviews as data sources. It presents results from four students who participated in the data collection, but focuses primarily on the experiences of one student. Students enrolled in the course for both academic and personal reasons. Their goals included improvement of writing skills and mastery of orthographic accents and other grammarlspelling aspects of Spanish. Throughout the semestel; they demonstrated positive attitudes and reported improvement in their Spanish. Furthermore, the development of their skills led them to reevaluate their relationship with language in general and Spanish in particular.

Advanced Heritage Learners of Spanish: A Sociolinguistic Profile for Pedagogical Purposes

“…3 The validity of the findings was enhanced in various ways, including feedback, rich data, and simple descriptive statistics (cf. Mikulski, 2006). The researcher organized the data analysis according to the following topics, each of which appears in detail below: (1) personal background; (2) language contact situations and interlocutors, including type and amount of input exposure;…”

“…Nonetheless, according to Schwarzer and Petró n (2005), ''Nowhere is the lack of information concerning heritage speakers more apparent than in the area of student attitude and perceptions'' (p. 569). To date, few studies (e.g., Beaudrie & Ducar, 2005;Mikulski, 2006) have explored in depth HL college learners' sociolinguistic profile through extended questionnaires, interviews, or journals. Such studies would serve two purposes.…”

“…In another study, Mikulski (2006) investigated HL students' motivations, attitudes, and goals in taking a college HL course. She found that the four HL learners participating in her study enrolled in the class for both personal and academic reasons, and their goals included mastery of orthographic accentuation, grammar, and improvement of writing skills.…”

“…This survey was improved, expanded, and adapted based on similar instruments previously developed by HL researchers (e.g. Beaudrie & Ducar, 2005;Mikulski, 2006), and was intended as a classroom survey to help the instructor learn more about the students' sociolinguistic backgrounds (cf. Carreira, 2003).…”

Current Approaches to Orthography Instruction for Spanish Heritage Learners: An Analysis of Intermediate and Advanced Textbooks

“…Mikulski (2006) conducted a questionnaire on the importance of learning goals for Spanish heritage learners and found that there was unanimity among all of the heritage learners she had polled in ranking the improvement of spelling and grammar as a very important learning goal for the course and where they considered having made more progress than in other skills. Nevertheless, there is no information about how they acquired or were taught orthography.…”