ANDREW D. COHEN
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Grammar Strategies Website for Learners of Spanish The project involves the construction of a website that provides strategies for students to learn problematic grammar structures in Spanish, or to gain better control of those structures than they have at present. Dr. Andrew D. Cohen, (Professor, Program in Second Language Studies), and Angela Pinilla-Herrera (graduate student in Hispanic Linguistics) are conducting this project. For the purpose of this project, we are defining grammar strategies as thoughts and actions that you consciously employ to facilitate your initial learning and continued use of language structures. Here is an example of what a grammar strategy might be, as described by a learner: “I wanted to learn whether to use ser or estar with adjectives to describe how people feel or what they are like (feliz, emocionado, contento, alegre, optimista, satisfecho, triste, and deprimido). The problem is that in Spanish, some of these adjectives can be used with both ser and estar and others tend to be used mostly with estar. So I created two lists in my mind: one with the adjectives that can be used with both (e.g., feliz, alegre, and optimista ), and one with the adjectives that tend to be used mostly with estar (e.g., contento, satisfecho, triste, emocionado, and deprimido). To help fix these in my mind, I created a mnemonic using the initials of the verbs in the second group: CSTED. Then I thought of something silly: I am sad because I am C(A)STED (e.g., put in a caste). I have to remember that there isn't a word represented by the letter 'A'". The website has video and audio-clip descriptions from learners and nonnative teachers of Spanish about strategies for successfully learning problematic grammar forms, as well as strategies for producing them in an error-free fashion in speaking or writing. There are also diagrams, mental maps, charts, visual schemes and drawings that students may utilize for the same purposes. Moreover, the website includes self-administered measures for learners to determine their style preferences and level of motivation to learn the language, along with guidelines for interpreting the relationship between style preferences and motivation, on the one hand, and effective use of grammar strategies, on the other. The website is to be completed by September of 2008 and will be field-tested at that time. The intention is to have it functional by October.of 2008. If you want more information about this project, please contact Dr. Andrew D. Cohen at adcohen@umn.edu, 612-616-3806 or Angela Pinilla-Herrera at pinil001@umn.edu, 612-626-2269. ¡Gracias! |
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| Dancing With Words: Strategies for Learning Pragmatics in Spanish |
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This research project built on the previous development of a Japanese pragmatics website, in the creation of a self-access website for learning Spanish pragmatics. Dancing with Words: Strategies for Learning Pragmatics in Spanish http://www.carla.umn.edu/speechacts/sp_pragmatics/home.html was developed over the course of eleven months and launched in August 2006. It consists of an introductory module and eight additional modules—(1) Compliments, (2) Gratitude & Leave Taking, (3) Requests, (4) Apologies, (5) Invitations, (6) Service Encounters, (7) Advice, Suggestions, Disagreements, Complaints, and Reprimands, and (8) Considerations for Pragmatic Performance. Content was based on empirical research in Spanish pragmatics, and includes unscripted video interchanges between natives of various regional varieties of Spanish, utilizing scaffolding to address the learners’ varying levels of language/pragmatic ability. Speech acts are dealt with sequentially: first as a core, then in interaction, and then as a naturally occurring sequence. The website features a framework of strategies for how to learn Spanish pragmatics, how to perform this knowledge, and how to evaluate the effectiveness of its use; and a comprehensive synthesis of Spanish pragmatics material. Once the site was constructed, a UMN grant facilitated a qualitative pilot study to investigate the use of the website by ten undergraduates. Andrew Cohen (PI of the project) and Julie Sykes (formerly a doctoral student in Hispanic linguistics at the U of Minn. and constructor of the website; now a professor in the Spanish Department at the U of New Mexico) have presented about the website at national and international conferences and are in the process of publishing the results of the pilot study. Overall, the Spanish website has received a great deal of attention from language educators as well as parties interested in replicating the model in other languages (e.g., in Portuguese by a colleague in New Mexico, in English and Chinese by a colleague in Kaohsiung, Taiwan so far), and continues to serve as an accessible and usable resource for learning Spanish pragmatics. |
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