The present study evaluates test results of oral and written production for a group of 15-16year-old Swedish L2-learners of Spanish in an instructional setting. The test results are evalu- ated according to the Swedish grade descriptors for the tested level and the descriptors of theCommon European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). It is shown that thesubjects generally perform better in writing than in speaking. This result is valid both withrespect to the Swedish descriptors and the CEFR scale ratings. The results are discussed inrelation to the conditions for learning an L2 in a formal instructional setting with little exposureto the target language outside the school context. A possible dominance of writing-basedactivities in the classroom and a low degree of extramural exposure are suggested aspossible explanatory factors to the results.
Based on previous research, this paper aims to provide thefirst stepstowards a model for the teaching of Spanish prosody to Swedishlearners by identifying main prosodic characteristics, referred to asCoreProsodic Features(CPFs), for the teaching of Spanish in a Swedish setting.The study addresses salient prosodic features of L1 Spanish in comparisonto L1 Swedish, and discusses whether the Swedish L1 features are likely tobe transferred into L2 Spanish. Another central issue of the paper iswhether such transfer is likely to interfere with communication. ThreeProsodic Core Features are identified: (1) focal-accent location, (2) vowelduration patterns, and (3) prosodic patterns in rising boundary tones.
The paper investigates possible communicative effects caused by transfer from Swedish into L2 Spanish of prosodic patterns manifested in rising boundary tones, as occurring in the speech act of "requests". More specifically it studies whether there is any difference between transactional (+/-request for information) and interpersonal values (+/-value of friendliness) perceived in boundary tones produced in EL1, EL2 and SL1, depending on whether the evaluator is Spanish, Chilean or Swedish respectively. It also discusses whether these differences affect the valuation of the utterance in a way that may interfere with communication. The results show that the realisation of the rising boundary tones is the feature that mostly contributes to the foreign accent of Spanish spoken by Swedes. The results also show that the intersubjective value associated with a rising boundary tone is negatively affected when the intonational features of L2 Spanish do not match those of Spanish L1. Different discursive preferences in the Spanish and Swedish L1 are proposed as explanations to these results. The study finally suggests that teachers of Spanish as L2 pay attention to suprasegmental features that carry important pragmatic values, since the acquisition of these patterns can be of relevance for successful interaction with native speakers.
This thesis sets out to identify a series of communicatively important prosodic features for the teaching of Spanish in a Swedish context. The present work also aims to highlight both the central role played by prosody in communication and the need for this skill to be integrated in the communicative competences of second language teaching and learning. The thesis comprises a collection of five studies, three of which use an experimental approach to investigate the following: (a) differences in the realization of prosodic prominence by L2 and L1 speakers of Spanish (Study I); (b) the transfer of pragmatic strategies from L1 Swedish to L2 Spanish, manifested in the realization of rising boundary tones (Study II); and (c) the contribution of the type of L2 prosody displayed by Swedish learners to a percieved foreign accent, focusing, focusing especially on the role played by rising boundary tones and their pragmatic values (Study III). These initial studies describe some of the main prosodic characteristics of the L2 product as compared to Spanish L1, and identify prosodic features of Spanish L1 that are of importance to acquire for interactional success in the L2. Study IV highlights the fact that, despite the emphasis on a communicative approach in L2 teaching, the approach to the teaching of prosody in the Swedish curriculum and the L2 Spanish text books studied tends to be addressed as a separate skill, that is not integrated in the descriptions of the communicative competences. Study V, by combining the results of Studies I-III with those of other thematically relevant studies, proposes some main features, so-called Core Prosodic Features (CPFs), for the teaching of Spanish prosody to Swedish learners. The identification of the CPFs also enables a future evaluation of the form-focused teaching approach suggested.
En aspekt av språkundervisning som ofta glöms bort är tillägnandet av språkets prosodi, d v s hur man ska uttala övergripande ljudsekvenser med målspråkslika betoningsmönster och en målspråkslik användning av stigningar och fall i tonhöjd. Under 70-talet sades det att den delen av språktillägnandet inte var så viktig att öva på, att prosodin faller på plats ”automatiskt”. Även inom den kommunikativa synen på språkundervisning som tog över under åttiotalet och fortfarande dominerar, har uttalsundervisning haft låg prioritet. Ett argument som brukar framföras när det gäller uttalsundervisning är att det inte är så nödvändigt att ägna sig åt prosodi, eftersom en talare av ett främmande språk har rätt att behålla sin identitet i form av sin främmande brytning, ja, enligt Kjellin, 2000, skulle det rent av vara kränkande för eleven att uppmanas att träna bort sin accent!
Men hur står det egentligen till med detta? Lär sig eleverna det främmande språkets prosodi automatiskt? Och om de inte gör det, spelar deras accent någon roll för hur de blir uppfattade när de kommunicerar på det främmande språket? När det gäller spanska som främmande språk så är den målgrupp eleverna kommer att ha kontakt med till större delen infödda talare av språket. Sålunda är de infödda språkvarieteterna rimliga att sträva mot. Där skiljer sig spanska, tyska och franska från engelska, där den infödda modellen kanske är mindre central, eftersom språket i stor utsträckning även används som internationellt kommunikations medel. I min forskning har jag studerat kommunikativa effekter av svenska elevers prosodiska mönster i spanska, samt hur prosodi uppmärksammas i våra styrdokument och läromedel, och det är det senare jag tänkt att denna artikel framför allt ska handla om.
The present study investigates language learners’ perceptions of what types of language learning activities they carry out in the Spanish second language (L2) classroom and what activities are the most common ones. A further aim is to investigate how the activities align with a model based on task-based language teaching. The group studied are Swedish learners of Spanish as L2 in a Swedish setting, where out of class exposure to first language (L1) Spanish is generally limited. The activities carried out in class are therefore expected to have a high impact on learners’ L2 acquisition in Spanish. The participants were tested after finishing secondary school. The reported learning activities, which in the long run should lead to goal attainment according to the national curriculum, were ranked and classified. The activity types were then graded along the scale explicit/analytic – implicit/experiential, according to a model based on task-based language teaching, an approach that is closely related to the action-oriented view of language, central to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages and the Swedish syllabus. Ninety-nine learners were included in the study, which is based on quantitative data consisting in self-report questionnaires in which participants estimate what activities they have typically been involved in. Results show a dominance of activity types based on a structural view of language with focus-on-form rather than on meaningful communication, and a dominance of writing-based activities. The study also has direct implications for the classroom, where it points to the importance of including more communicative oral activities without the support from writing in the teaching.
Det är väl känt att språklig kompetens är sammansatt av flera olika färdigheter somkan befinna sig på olika nivåer. När elevers provresultat sammanställs kan elevernasprofiler därför vara mer eller mindre ”taggiga”, där taggig betyder att det finns starkare och svagare sidor hos samma elev i de olika språkliga färdigheterna (begreppethar använts av till exempel Erickson och Börjesson, 2001). Våra svenska styrdokument delar in främmande språk i underkategorierna receptiva och produktiva färdigheter, där receptiv kompetens beskrivs utifrån förmåga att läsa och lyssna och produktiv kompetens utifrån färdigheterna skriva och tala och samtala. Jag vill här delgeer resultat från en forskningsstudie (Aronsson, 2020) som handlar om elevnivåer ispanska som språkval efter årskurs 9 i de produktiva färdigheterna skriva och tala(interagera). Jag kommer att fokusera på och utvidga det nationella perspektivet.
This study aims to describe and analyze prosodic differences in prominence realization in both spontaneous and read speech produced by Swedish second language speakers (L2 speakers) in comparison with native speakers (L1 speakers) of Spanish. A further aim of the study is to provide concrete descriptions of the differences between L2 and L1 prominence realization that may serve as tools for language teachers. Phonetic, phonological and to some extent pragmatic aspects will be considered. Results show that the F0 (fundamental frequency) rises in prominent words are steeper and faster in native speech than in L2 speech. Results also show that stressed vowels have longer duration in prominent words in L2 than in L1 Spanish. The number of boundary rises used by both groups differed significantly according to task and group. Pragmatic aspects, such as the use of different intersubjectivity seeking strategies, might explain differences found exclusively in the spontaneous task.
The aim of the present paper is to highlight the central role that prosody plays for communication and to motivate the attention that arguably should be given to prosody within the foreign language classroom. The paper presents an overview of research addressing the communicative aspects of prosody, particularly focussing on L2 prosody and how classroom practice could be informed by current research. It also addresses bias from written language as one of the main explanations to the lack of attention paid to prosody in the language classroom and aims to highlight prosodic aspects of oral language that are not so much found in writing and that, due to our strong tradition of teaching languages through writing, run the risk of being forgotten. Spanish as a foreign language in a Swedish educational setting is focused upon, and the frameworks used to guide teachers’ practice, the CEFR and the curriculum, together with textbooks currently used in this setting, are analysed.
Would prosodic transfer from Swedish L1 into Spanish L2 have any effects on communication with native Spanish speakers? The study investigates the contribution to the perceived foreign accent of the L2 prosody displayed by Swedish learners, focusing especially on the role played by rising boundary tones and their pragmatic values. Swedish L1, Spanish L1 and Spanish L2 data, analysed acoustically by Aronsson and Fant (2014), were evaluated in perception experiments with native speakers of Spanish and Swedish and the results show that the intersubjective value associated with a rising boundary tone differs depending on whether the evaluator is a native speaker of Swedish or Spanish, and that the transferred patterns not only contribute to a foreign accent, they are also capable of affecting pragmatic values.
The pragmatic functions of pitch at tone unit boundaries are studied in L2 Spanish spoken by Swedish learners, as compared to L1 Swedish and L1 Spanish. The data are recordings of a task in which the subjects - 10 learners of Spanish and 13 native controls - make a restaurant booking on the phone in Spanish, and the Swedish subjects also perform this task in their L1. The tone unit boundary rises and falls produced have been analyzed with special focus on rises and their accompanying vowel duration patterns. The turn-regulating functions of signaling turn-continuation vs. transition-relevance are contrasted with intersubjectivity-regulating signals, namely (non-) prompts for information and ( non-) prompts for interpersonal acceptance. Since open-ended yes/no-questions are signaled by rises in Spanish, though not in Swedish, and since declaratives carrying a positive politeness value tend to end in rises (the "tail flick") in Swedish, though not in Spanish, various types of potential negative transfer could be predicted for Swedish learners' L2 Spanish. It is shown that L1 Spanish speakers consistently use moderate rises for turn-keeping and high rises for information-seeking, and that this pattern has no equivalence in the L2 Spanish data. Conversely, rises in L2 Spanish frequently occur where L1 Spanish speakers prefer falls. These rises, interpreted as "tail flicks,"also occur in L1 Swedish, but they are far more frequent in the L2 Spanish data. Thus, clear transfer patterns are found, which are further reinforced by - insecurity effects due to L2 speaking.
The present study examines the theoretical underpinnings of learning activities found in course books for Spanish as a Foreign Language produced for a Swedish context. The Swedish curriculum adopts a functional, action-oriented approach officially related to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages which, in turn, draws on a communicative task-based framework. Provided that the course books have been guided by the official guidelines, it would be expected that communicative task-based activities are the most commonly found type of learning activity.
The study analyzes the distribution of learning activities within receptive, productive and interactional skills, the activity types within each skill, and the theoretical bases underlying the activities found in four widely used course books for teaching Spanish as a Foreign Language in Sweden. In total, 1672 learning activities are analyzed. The study aims at verifying whether there is a dominance of any of the skills, and to what extent the types of activities within each skill reflect the functional, action-oriented approach adopted in the educational steering documents.
The results indicate a dominance of the written language, even in oral activities. The study’s findings also show a dominance of more controlled, noncommunicative activities with an explicit focus on forms at the expense of the freer communicative activities with a primary focus on meaning, typical of a taskbased framework. Very often, they reflect earlier approaches based on a structural view of language and a behaviorist view of learning, such as the grammartranslation or the audiolingual methods, while activity types with a task-based approach are underrepresented.
The aim of this study is to investigate the level of anxiety in emotional expressions produced by learners of Spanish as a foreign language in two conditions: before and after receiving instruction on pronunciation. The study also investigates how native speakers evaluate the expressions produced by Spanish learners in these two conditions. The results show that the learners feel more comfortable when they are allowed to pronounce as they wish without instruction. When students practice the same sentences after receiving explicit feedback on how to pronounce them, they feel less like themselves and less comfortable. However, when the productions read by the learners in these two conditions are evaluated by native speakers, they prefer the versions in which the students were instructed on how to pronounce. These readings are perceived as more similar to the target language and as sounding more natural.