A Complete Guide to the Spanish Subjunctive is the most complete reference guide to the use of the subjunctive in Spanish. Along with an exhaustive review of published literature on the subjunctive, the book also includes a thorough discussion of the uses and meanings of the subjunctive as well as examples throughout drawn from linguistic corpora such as the CREA database. The book presents a comprehensive theory of the subjunctive and provides practical rules for understanding, teaching and acquiring the Spanish subjunctive. This book includes: "Your Turn" sections that invite readers to reflect on the content discussed and on their own experiences in teaching the subjunctive A "Synopsis" section that summarizes the content of the work and offers practical suggestions for teaching the subjunctive Two indexes providing a summary of verb conjugation in the subjunctive and an alphabetical list of expressions used with the subjunctive.
A Complete Guide to the Spanish Subjunctive is the most complete reference guide to the use of the subjunctive in Spanish. Along with an exhaustive review of published literature on the subjunctive, the book also includes a thorough discussion of the uses and meanings of the subjunctive as well as examples throughout drawn from linguistic corpora such as the CREA database. The book presents a comprehensive theory of the subjunctive and provides practical rules for understanding, teaching and acquiring the Spanish subjunctive. This book includes: "Your Turn" sections that invite readers to reflect on the content discussed and on their own experiences in teaching the subjunctive A "Synopsis" section that summarizes the content of the work and offers practical suggestions for teaching the subjunctive Two indexes providing a summary of verb conjugation in the subjunctive and an alphabetical list of expressions used with the subjunctive.
(abridged and revised) This reference grammar offers intermediate and advanced students a reason ably comprehensive guide to the morphology and syntax of educated speech and plain prose in Spain and Latin America at the end of the twentieth century. Spanish is the main, usually the sole official language of twenty-one countries,} and it is set fair to overtake English by the year 2000 in numbers 2 of native speakers. This vast geographical and political diversity ensures that Spanish is a good deal less unified than French, German or even English, the latter more or less internationally standardized according to either American or British norms. Until the 1960s, the criteria of internationally correct Spanish were dictated by the Real Academia Espanola, but the prestige of this institution has now sunk so low that its most solemn decrees are hardly taken seriously - witness the fate of the spelling reforms listed in the Nuevas normas de prosodia y ortograjia, which were supposed to come into force in all Spanish-speaking countries in 1959 and, nearly forty years later, are still selectively ignored by publishers and literate persons everywhere. The fact is that in Spanish 'correctness' is nowadays decided, as it is in all living languages, by the consensus of native speakers; but consensus about linguistic usage is obviously difficult to achieve between more than twenty independent, widely scattered and sometimes mutually hostile countries. Peninsular Spanish is itself in flux.
This book is a collection of original studies analyzing how different internal and external factors affect Spanish language variation and evolution across a number of (socio)linguistic scenarios. Its primary goal is to expand our understanding of how native and non-native varieties of Spanish co-exist with other languages and dialects under the influence of several linguistic and extra-linguistic forces. While some papers analyze the linguistic dynamics affecting Spanish grammars from a cross-dialectal perspective, others focus more closely on the relations established between Spanish and other languages with which it is in contact. In particular, some of these studies show how power and prestige may support (or not) the use of Spanish in different social contexts and educational realities, given that the attitudes toward this language vary greatly across the Spanish-speaking world. On the one hand, in some regions, Spanish represents the variety spoken by the majority of the population, typically related to prestige and power (Spain and Latin America). On the other hand, in other contexts, the same language is conceived as a minority variety, which may or may not be associated with stigmatized immigrant groups (i.e., in the US).
Introductory -- I. The scientific foundations of modern language teaching -- II. Values and methods -- III. Skill, discipline, and enjoyment -- IV. Pronunciation -- V. Associating symbols and meanings -- VI. Oral work -- VIII. Reading -- VIII. Writing -- IX. Grammar -- X. Realia -- XI. Teaching literature -- XII. Individual differences, and supervised study -- XIII. Reviews, tests, and examinations -- XIV. Special problems -- XV. Problems of administration -- XVI. Teacher-training -- Appendix A. Bibliography of methods -- Appendix B. Resolutions and recommendations of modern language teachers -- Appendix C. Syllabi of four-year courses -- Index.
This book on applied linguistics presents new trends and improvements on the teaching of Spanish. It deals with two major scopes in the field of linguistics that have a crucial role in the development of language teaching in general and of the teaching of Spanish in particular: Interaction and Grammar. The topics chosen coincide with the areas in which the communicative approach to language teaching, dominant in European and American language programs since the 1970s and 80s, has been the object of most revision. In its first part, the book appeals both to pragmatics and to discourse analysis to research the specifics of classroom discourse and classroom interaction, as well as the differences between interactions among Spanish native speakers and interactions among non natives, in order to develop methodologies for the effective incorporation of these aspects to the Spanish language classroom, such as tasks to teach interaction or techniques to implement learner-centered interactive class dynamics and cooperative learning. In its second part, this book reviews the pedagogical advantages of language description based on Cognitive Linguistic theory to explain different aspects of Spanish grammar. The main purpose of our contribution is to show how taking different dimensions of construal and perspective in linguistic representations into account helps teachers to elucidate idiosyncratic and subtle contrasts of Spanish structure that other views and approaches cannot clarify on a meaningful base, such as the aspectual opposition between preterits or the modal opposition between indicative and subjunctive, both of high importance for the English speaking student. The work selected for this book, by experts from Columbia University and from several universities in Spain, represents the most current lines of inquiry in this “post-communicative” approach as applied specifically to the teaching of Spanish. This book seeks to be to be a “must-read” for the present and future. It tackles unexplored territory, for journals and applied linguistics collections have mainly addressed these problems in relation to English language and instruction.
This volume brings together concrete ideas on identifying and measuring second language (L2) proficiency from different branches of SLA. The chapters introduce a range of tools for the evaluation of learners' language level with respect to both productive and receptive skills and provide a variety of answers to the question of how to assess L2 proficiency in a valid, reliable and practical manner.
Spanish Heritage Learners' Emerging Literacy: Empirical Research and Classroom Practice introduces a comprehensive, multi-level empirical study on the writing abilities of Spanish Heritage Learners at the beginner level; the findings guide a broad selection of instructional activities and pedagogical resources to support writing development in the heritage language classroom. This is the first book dealing exclusively with writing competence among Spanish Heritage Language Learners through the integration of empirical evidence and instructional perspectives to address core questions on heritage language literacy. In addition to the in-depth analysis of Spanish production—spelling, verb usage, grammatical features, vocabulary, and discourse organization—the volume revises the latest perspectives within the Heritage Language Education field, and provides effective teaching approaches, innovative classroom implementations, and up-to-date resources. This versatile volume, designed for researchers and practitioners in the fields of Bilingual Education, Language Teaching Methods, and Heritage Language Pedagogy, integrates empirical evidence, global perspectives on heritage language teaching, and suggestions for further research.
