This thesis predicts the phonological errors which were likely to occur in the American English pronunciation of speakers of different dialects of American Spanish and ascertains whether the predicted errors actually occur. In the process of error prediction it was expected that not only should the sound system of Spanish in general make a difference as to which errors would be committed, but that dialectal differences should also. Both aspects of interference prediction were based on a contrastive analysis between the individual native phonological manifestations and American English. Sounds found to be universal in the native language were taken under the rubric of homogeneous L1 sounds and were to cruse negative interference for all informants. Sounds which differed from native informant to native informant were taken to be non-homogeneous sounds and expected to cause interference for those individuals who manifested sounds different from English sounds.

The present work aims to analyze the potential value of anthroponyms within the didac-tics of Spanish as a Foreign Language. With that purpose, theoretical basis concerning anthroponyms is provided in favor of a solid formal background that will support the following didactic proposal. Likewise, the actual presence of anthroponyms in the Curricular Plan of the Instituto Cervantes is analyzed, as well as other ways of use that it doesn't consider, but that will also inspire the activities presented at the end of this work. We will examine with more depth those anthroponyms integrated in phraseological units (Como Pedro por su casa; En tiempos de Maricasta?a; etc) for what a classification of the different existing phraseological units will be described. This classification will lead to the design of a compendium of phraseological units with these characteristics that will serve as a reference for the didactic proposal.

Videogames are an audio-visual instrument with a strong educational potential that, nevertheless, have not been considered as such yet. The goal of this work is to encourage teacher and researchers to exhaust the didactic possibilities of this new instrument which constitutes as well a nowadays real social phenomenon, in order to achieve thus its integration at the language teaching classrooms and, more precisely, at the Spanish as a Foreign Language ones. With this purpose in mind, we will delimit the main features of videogames contrasting it with other two elements with which it shares key characteristics and which are properly taken into account within the teaching sector: movies and games. Once this is accomplished, we will meditate on the pros and cons to which the use of videogames as didactic materials lead, we will provide certain keys for its proper usage and, eventually, we will gather up these thoughts and considerations which will be afterwards poured into a didactic proposal based on the graphic adventure game Hollywood Monsters 2.

This creative project consists of a course syllabus and materials based on the functional approach. It was designed for students of English at Universidade Federal do Para in Brazil.The first chapter is about the teaching-learning situation where the syllabus will be applied; the second chapter is the proposed syllabus; the third chapter consists of the teacher's manual; and the fourth chapter is the students' book.

In the past years foreign languages have been taught in Spain as a device to translate and interpret literature. Now the emphasis is put especially on language, and literature is only appreciated as a device to improve the language skills and not in itself. However, the author considers that literature should play an important role in second language teachings as a literary experience too, and has devised a curriculum of English Literature for Spanish-speaking students in the last grade of high school.The project includes an investigation of the purposes for such a curriculum, the criteria to be used in selecting the literature for the curriculum and a selection and presentation of literary texts.

Submitted by JOSIANE SANTOS DE OLIVEIRA (josianeso) on 2018-05-09T12:23:43Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Lílian Latties dos Santos_.pdf: 1473173 bytes, checksum: e4ff4735f328331a65719748f2cd83cc (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-05-09T12:23:43Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Lílian Latties dos Santos_.pdf: 1473173 bytes, checksum: e4ff4735f328331a65719748f2cd83cc (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-02-26 / CAPES - Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / PROSUP - Programa de Suporte à Pós-Gradução de Instituições de Ensino Particulares / Este estudo parte da natureza líquida da sociedade pós-moderna (BAUMAN, 2013) e da terceira geração da globalização vivida pela humanidade que propicia a diversidade sociocultural (COPE; KALANTZIS, 2006), na qual a cultura é compreendida como as “teias de significado” que o homem constrói nas relações que estabelece (GEERTZ, 2008), bem como as identidades passam a ser entendidas como múltiplas, mutáveis e socialmente negociadas e construídas (MASTRELLA-DE-ANDRADE, 2013). Isso porque é na linguagem que os sujeitos se relacionam e interagem por meio do uso da língua (RAJAGOPALAN, 2009). Desse modo, o presente trabalho tem por objetivo discutir como a cultura é trabalhada nas aulas de espanhol como língua estrangeira (ELE) em escolas da rede pública na região sudeste do Estado do Amapá, uma vez que compreendemos que somente através de um ensino de línguas orientado pela perspectiva ou educação intercultural é que os alunos serão ensinados a (inter)agirem como “cidadãos do mundo”, sendo conscientes e garantindo que haja igualdade na diversidade e que as diversidades sejam igualmente assistidas (CANDAU, 2008). No entanto, tal discussão não seria possível, se não contextualizássemos os processos de oficialização e desoficialização do ensino do espanhol no Brasil. Além disso, acreditamos que tais concepções de linguagem, língua, cultura e identidades nortearão o ensino de línguas, se a formação de professores for crítico-reflexiva. Por fim, a partir dos dados que dispomos, compreendemos que os alunos vão para a escola “sem vontade de nada, sem perspectiva de nada” porque não é permitido a eles negociarem significados e (re)construírem suas identidades. / This study is based on the liquid nature of postmodern society (BAUMAN, 2013) and the third generation lived by humanity that provides socio-cultural diversity (COPE; KALANTZIS, 2006), in which culture is understood as the "webs of significance" that the man constructs in the relationships he establishes (GEERTZ, 2008), as well as identities come to be understood as multiple, changeable and socially negotiated and constructed (MASTRELLA-DE-ANDRADE, 2013). This happens because it is in the language that the subjects relate and interact through the use of the language (RAJAGOPALAN, 2009). In this way, the present work aims to discuss how culture is approachead in the classes of Spanish as a foreign language (SFL) in schools of the public network in the southeast region of the State of Amapá, since we understand that only through a language teaching guided by an intercultural perspective or education is that students will be taught to (inter)act as 'citizens of the world', being aware and ensuring that there is equality in diversity and that diversity is equally assisted (CANDAU, 2008). However, such a discussion would not be possible if we did not contextualize the processes of officialization and deprivation of education in Spanish in Brazil. Besides that, we believe that such conceptions of language, culture and identities will guide language teaching if teacher training is critical-reflexive. Finally, from the data we have, we understand that students go to school "without any desire for anything, with no perspective on anything" because they are not allowed to negotiate meanings and (re)construct their identities.

This study examined incidental receptive and productive vocabulary gains within conversation-class interactions. Eleven Mexican learners of English attended four videotaped conversation lessons where 40 target words were incorporated in different types of exposure. Stimulated recall interviews with students highlighted the effect of cognates, learners' access to passive vocabulary, and use of their vocabulary knowledge in learning related words. Posttests revealed a correlation between frequency and receptive/productive gains. Mean scores showed that words mentioned with synonyms were learned most often, followed by task-essential words and last those mentioned without explanation. A two-way ANCOVA revealed main effects for cognates, and a statistical interaction between cognate status and types of exposure. A statistical correlation was found between receptive and productive gains. Aptitude scores correlated with productive gains but not with receptive gains. The results provide implications for ESL teachers who consider incidental learning of vocabulary within their conversation lessons.

Increasing numbers of Hispanic immigrants are entering the US (US Census Bureau, 2011) and are learning American English (AE) as a second language (L2). Many may experience difficulty in understanding AE. Accurate perception of AE vowels is important because vowels carry a large part of the speech signal (Kewley-Port, Burkle, & Lee, 2007). The relationship between native language and L2 vowel inventories causes some vowels to be more difficult to perceive accurately than others (Best & Tyler, 2007). The present study examined the patterns with which early and late Spanish-English bilingual adults assimilate AE vowels to their native vowel inventory and the accuracy with which they discriminate and identify the vowels. Early bilingual listeners demonstrated similar perceptual assimilation patterns to late bilingual listeners, but judged AE vowels as less Spanish sounding than did late learners. Additionally, discrimination and identification accuracy of L2 vowels improved with early age of L2 acquisition. However, early bilingual listeners’ vowel perception was not native-like. Certain AE vowels (/ʌ/, /ɑ/ and /æ/) were difficult to discriminate and identify. Perceptual assimilation patterns predicted categorial discrimination accuracy, an outcome posited by the Perceptual Assimilation Model-L2 (Best & Tyler, 1997).

Researchers in the cognitive sciences, and in particular those in acoustic phonetics, investigate the acoustic properties in the speech signal that enable listeners to perceive particular speech sounds. Temporal cues have been found to convey information about the linguistic content of an utterance. One acoustic characteristic that is particularly well documented in American English is the difference in vowel duration preceding voiced and voiceless consonants, which has been found to play a role in the perception of the voicing of postvocalic word-final consonants. Research on vowel duration and its role in the perception of the voicing distinction of the following consonant has primarily involved data from native English speakers. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the vowel durations preceding word-final voiced and voiceless stops in the English production of four native Spanish speakers. This study sought to determine if differences in vowel duration are exhibited preceding voiced and voiceless consonants in the English production of the native Spanish speakers, and to determine if the vowel durations affected the perception of the voicing distinction of the postvocalic stop by four native English speakers A significant effect of voicing on the vowel durations in the English production of the native Spanish speakers was found. However, the degree of variation in the vowel lengths with respect to voicing was much less than the degree of difference exhibited in native English, and similar to the variation produced in native Spanish. The average mean difference in length with respect to the voicing of the following consonant was 17.8 msec. in the present study. In native English the mean difference between vowels preceding voiced and voiceless consonants ranges from 79 msec. to 92 msec. and in Spanish the average mean difference is 18 msec. Statistical analysis performed to quantify the contribution of vowel duration on the perception of the voicing distinction found only minimal affect. It was concluded that although the cue of vowel duration variation was present in the speech signal of this data, the listeners generally did not utilize it as a cue to the voicing distinction of the following stops.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the most common phonetic and phonological difficulties in the teaching of Spanish as a foreign language. The study has been based on the following questions: Which difficulties can teachers encounter when teaching phonetics and phonology? Which difficulties can students encounter when learning phonetics and phonology? How is phonetics and phonology taught? In order to be able to investigate the difficulties, a questionnaire has been handed out to five experienced teachers. The results of the questionnaires, together with the theory, has been analysed in the analysis. The outcome of the analysis shows that several difficulties can be detected in both the teaching and in the learning process. The results of the questionnaires also show us that the teachers mostly teach phonetics the same way: through repetition and imitation, the conductive method, and very few think outside of the box to encounter new methods.