The purpose of the study is to examine how the Spanish students in a 6th grade class of primary school consider contrastive analysis approaches in the acquisition of a third language. This study also makes use of a sociocultural perspective that is in relation with the language acquisition perspective and puts its mark in the study. To support our research, we used the qualitative method, specifically, the semi-structured interview. Five Spanish language students stemming from one school class were interviewed. As a result of the questions presented, we were able to conclude that learning Spanish as a target language has its challenges among the Swedish students. Another aspect that is worth highlighting in the data analysis is the importance of the students’ prior knowledge and its integration into the students’ own consciousness.In order to obtain this objective, it is necessary that the teacher helps the students to discover a connection between the forms and use of the Spanish grammar and that it can be done in an easy and playful way within the group in class and in outdoors environments.

The problem of this study was to compare the effectiveness of two methods of teaching Spanish by non-specialist teachers in grade four. This study was planned to investigate the effectiveness of two programs designed to teach Spanish to non-Spanish-speaking fourth grade students.

(English) Multimodality in Spanish Language This research work analyses the language of the social networks used in the Hispanic environment from the point of view of multimodality. In the first part, the theoretical framework of the study is presented, i. e. cognitive linguistics. In addition, the fundamental theories linked to this framework are explained, namely mental spaces, conceptual blending, conceptual metaphor or construal, which are later applied to our object of study: the language of social networks. Likewise, the concept of multimodality, its origins, and its current utility in the field of linguistics are analysed. In the second part, the variety of the Spanish language used online is investigated, with focus on the elements that present the multimodal character. The linguistic material, which constitutes a corpus of study, has been extracted in its entirety from Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. The corpus has been updated and appropriate to the fundamental purpose pursued in this study: to demonstrate that communication mediated by the social networks is, mainly, multimodal, since it has its own resources, belonging to various semiotic channels, which allow any user to achieve any communicative purpose sought. Key words: Spanish language, cognitive linguistics, multimodality, social...

The aim of this study is to examine argumentative writing produced by students of differing language backgrounds and skill level to inform future instructional approaches and program design. An archival corpus of opinion essays written by native Spanish speaking students and native English speaking students enrolled in community college developmental education courses was utilized. The essays consisted of one to two paragraphs expressing an opinion on a controversial topic. In the study, the essays were assessed for the overall persuasiveness of the text, the use of academic words, the incorporation of connectives as a measure of lexical cohesion, the use of argumentative structural elements, and the inclusion of functional elements within the text produced. The relationship between native language and six structural and lexical features were examined utilizing a one-way Multivariate Analysis of Covariance (MANCOVA). After controlling for paragraph length and reading ability, results indicated that native Spanish speaking students produced more standpoint structural elements than English speaking students. None of the other dependent variables were significant. A Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) was employed to explore the variability in the persuasiveness of the opinion writing. Utilizing this mode of analysis, it was revealed that overall persuasiveness in the students’ opinion writing was mainly a function of higher word counts, a higher percentage of academic words, more standpoint structural elements, and being a native English speaking student. Finally, pedagogical implications are discussed.

Esta investigación respecto a la adquisición de aspecto es una de las pocas realizadas en un programa de inmersión. / En este trabajo se presentan los resultados de un estudio realizado con el fin de investigar la adquisición del aspecto verbal por estudiantes de inmersión de noveno grado. El análisis se basó en narrativas de ficción y personales. En una primera etapa, no sólo los participantes escribieron dos narrativas, una de ficción y otra personal, sino también llevaron a cabo una narrativa personal oral. Posteriormente, completaron dos narrativas (una personal y otra de ficción), eligiendo entre el pretérito y el imperfecto. El estudio muestra que los alumnos tienen un alto grado de exactitud en el uso del pretérito y del imperfecto, a la vez que descubre que el marcador por defecto pudiera ser el imperfecto tanto en narrativas de ficción como personales.

The present study analyzed the language in the script of the bilingual play Mi Vida Gitana `My Gypsy Life' (Malán, 2006) in order to better understand issues relating to codeswitching (CS). The analysis was done from a structural and a functional perspective and utilized various models developed by renowned CS scholars. For the structural analysis, I utilized concepts and ideas put forth in the three-tiered typology created by Muysken (2000) and the Matrix Language Frame model developed by Myers-Scotton (1993). The results of this portion of the study showed that some form of CS, whether occurring between turns or within turns, was observed in 78% of all turns. With regard to CS types and elements most commonly observed in the data, the alternation of clauses and the insertion and alternation of nouns and noun phrases were the predominant phenomena occurring in the script. I used Myers-Scotton's (1993) Markedness Model and Gumperz's (1982) functions of conversational CS to guide the functional analysis conducted during this study. The results arising from this portion of the analysis showed that CS served an important function in terms of character development. Marked and unmarked CS helped create different characters and likely assisted audiences in understanding those characters. The data analyzed also showed that CS served a purpose with regard to the communication of the message to diverse audiences. The use of reiterations and conjunctions were determined to be important CS strategies that contributed to making the story accessible to bilingual as well as monolingual audiences. The results of this study are in line with previous research that has documented the types of structures found in English-Spanish CS and some of the functions served by this phenomenon. The implications of the study provide additional support for the recognition of CS as a possible factor in the language acquisition process and suggest that language educators acknowledge its occurrence and utilize it to further develop learners' language skills.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Explores the applicability of cognitive writing theories in a language immersion program at the elementary school level.

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This study uses lexical availability as a way in which to measure the level of an individual's acquisition of the dialect of their spouse. Although lexical availability studies are in abundance, to the author's knowledge, this is one of the few, if not the only, type of study that uses lexical availability to measure dialect contact. Lexical availability studies attempt to determine the most readily available lexical items in an individual's lexicon. This study implemented standard methodologies in order to determine whether dialect contact was more likely when specific topics were chosen. That is, if the topic in question was considered a masculine topic, would the female spouse utilise the spouse's word and vice versa. Participants completed vocabulary lists on six different topics of interest in addition to noting down their definition of a series of visual images that appeared before them.The conclusions highlight that, for this study at least, men are more likely to show evidence of dialect contact if the topic under scrutiny is traditionally considered male-related. The same is true for female participants, that is, the probability of their exhibiting dialect interference is greater if the topic is considered female-related. The results also showed that, in general, women are more likely to use their spouse's vocabulary item. The length of time that the couple had been married was not an overly telling factor.

This study has been prepared as a teacher’s guide in the use of transformational grammar to teach a few grammatical structures in ALM Spanish Level Two. It is intended to aid the Spanish teacher in analyzing specific grammar points within the grammar section of the text. In essence, the present study has been prepared for the Spanish teacher who has a limited knowledge of linguistics or transformational grammar.