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Many service learning studies support the positive effects of expanding the classroom into the community. The rapidly shifting demographic composition of the United States calls for a postsecondary education system that is able to prepare students to enter a global society.youtube.com Service learning provides an opportunity for students to connect with the community and take ownership of their knowledge. This article examines the integration of service learning into a college‐level Spanish conversation course through a five‐phase model. Students are guided through the project's evolution as they transport the target language from the traditional classroom to an authentic setting.youtube.com A collaborative learning approach between instructor and student promotes proficiency and self‐confidence in the target language. Critical reflection and civic engagement also are important components to the learner‐centered, experiential model. This framework may be applied to a variety of service learning projects.
Part III presents an analytical assessment of the presentations at past Language Testing Research Colloquiums. Dorry Kenyon’s chapter is the lead article in Part I, which illustrates the conventional approach to assessment validation research. Kenyon investigates foreign language students’ perceived difficulty in performing various speaking tasks in the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) Speaking Proficiency Guidelines hierarchy. The purpose of her study is to examine and shed light on the validity of the demands of oral proficiency tasks constructed according to the criteria contained in the ACTFL Guidelines. Three chapters on test development follow, each one focusing on a single assessment concern: Read on a new test format for vocabulary; Fortus, Coriat, & Fund on item difficulty in reading comprehension; and Wiggelsworth on time planning in language assessment.
John Read’s study is a contribution to the ongoing validation of the word associates format, a selected-response type of test item designed to measure depth of vocabulary knowledge. Read draws on test performance data from New Zealand to provide evidence for concurrent validity of the new format. Ruth Fortus, Rikki Coriat, and Susan Fund examine the difficulty levels of items in the reading section of an English test used in Israel. The purpose of their study is to isolate factors affecting difficulty level so that item pools can be developed in accordance with specific needs. Their major argument is that by isolating these factors, the test developer’s knowledge and understanding of the construct validity of the test will increase.
Gillian Wigglesworth’s study focuses on an important aspect of the test-taking process: the presence or absence of planning time. Her paper describes a study of the effects of planning time on second language oral test discourse in an oral interaction test in Australia. She uses techniques from discourse analysis to examine the nature and significance of differences in the areas of fluency, accuracy,and complexity in the second language. Section II of Validation in Language Assessment presents six papers that focus on validation by examining test-taker characteristics and feedback. James Purpura’s paper details the development and construct validation of a questionnaire that measures the reported cognitive strategy and cognitive background characteristics of test takers in the United States.
Caroline Clapham’s chapter examines the effect of language proficiency and background knowledge on students’ reading comprehension in the United Kingdom. The aim of Clapham’s study is to investigate the effects of background knowledge on reading comprehension, and to examine whether students should be given reading proficiency tests in their own academic content areas. April Ginther and Joseph Stevens investigate the internal construct validity of an advanced Spanish-language placement exam in order to determine whether the traditional four-factor examination structure (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) was invariant for certain subpopulations. Ginther and Stevens analyze data drawn from Latinamerican Spanish-speaking examinees as well as Mexican Spanish-speaking, Mexican Spanish-English bilinguals, White English-speaking and Black English-speaking examinees.
Annie Brown and Noriko Iwashita’s paper examines the role of native language background in the validation of a computer-adaptive test. Their study investigates the performance of learners of Japanese from different language backgrounds (native speakers of English, Chinese, and Korean) on a 225-item multiple-choice question computer-adaptive grammar test. Kathryn Hill investigates the effect of test-taker characteristics on reactions to an oral English proficiency test called the Access Test, used to assess the English language proficiency for prospective migrants to Australia. Hill seeks reactions to the test’s validity by means of a questionnaire. Bonny Norton and Pippa Stein’s chapter addresses issues of textual meaning, testing, and pedagogy on the basis of data drawn from piloting a college reading exam in English for black students in South Africa. Their findings call into question a number of assumptions about language and language assessment.
Liz Hamp-Lyons and Brian Lynch provide what Kunnan calls "a fitting conclusion" to a volume on validation in language assessment. They examine research practices of the second- and foreign-language testing community as seen through the abstracts of papers presented at the Language Testing Research Colloquium throughout the last 15 years. Hamp-Lyons and Lynch focus their analysis on the ways in which test validity and reliability have been addressed in language testing research. This interesting concluding chapter explores the extent to which the Language Testing Research Colloquium community has already engaged itself with newer modes of inquiry beyond the psychometric. Validation in Language Assessment is an essential read for those working in the language testing community. Kunnan has done an admirable job in selecting the studies represented in this volume as they present diverse approaches to test validity from an international perspective. A particularly valuable part of the book is the annotated list of suggested readings presented at the end of each chapter. Kunnan’s volume is a valuable addition to the body of knowledge in language assessment. Messick, S. (1989). Validity. In R. Linn (Ed.). Educational measurement (pp. 13-103). New York: Macmillan.
Murphy, Linda (2005). Critical reflection and autonomy: a study of distance learners of French, German and Spanish. In: Holmberg, Boerje; Shelley, Monica and White, Cynthia eds. Distance education and languages: evolution and change. New perspectives on language and education. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters, pp. The chapter reports on a study into critical reflection and autonomy among distance language learners in 17 Open University tutor groups. Despite recognition of the importance of critical reflection in learning in general and in autonomous language learning, these issues have not previously been explored from the perspective of distance language learners. The study adopted an exploratory-interpretative approach triangulating data from several sources within a theoretical framework drawing on both generic learning and language acquisition research. 100 students worked on designated tasks to encourage critical reflection; 130 completed a questionnaire and 32 took part in semi-structured interviews, including users of the task materials and a control group of non-users. The findings provide insights into ways in which course designers and tutors can support distance language learners in developing capacities for critical reflection and autonomy.
Access to everyday activities has increasingly moved online, which increases the risk of continued marginalization for those lacking access and digital knowledge. Our research focuses on the digital literacy acquisition of underserved individuals such as immigrants, refugees, and individuals with limited English proficiency. In this paper, we examine a subset of data from a three-year mixed methods study on the digital literacy acquisition process of vulnerable adult learners within a self-paced, tutor-facilitated learning environment. Learners used an online learning platform designed for adult learners and available in Spanish and English. Learning took place in computer labs in six geographic regions within the United States and was supported by community tutors. We asked, what is the experience of Spanish speaking learners using the self-paced, tutor-facilitated learning environment for digital literacy acquisition?
The data corpus includes interview transcripts and the findings are based on a grounded theory analysis of interviews of the Spanish speaking learners and tutors working in Spanish dominant learning environments. Data analysis indicated that individuals’ work in the digital literacy program supported English language learning as well as content learning.youtube.com We identified tensions between the tutors’ desire to support content learning using first language skills and learner desire to build facility in English skills while learning content. Choice of language in which to learn was impacted by tutor preference and bias along with learner linguistic abilities and desire to develop English skills. We also found that language choice for learning was impacted by the learners’ comfort and facility in higher registers of Spanish. We argue that language should be used as a resource rather than being seen as a deficit and that tutors should be coached in the nuances of language choice when working with English Language Learners.
The growing U.S. Latino dispersal is allowing for more interactions between students of Spanish and native Spanish speakers. By working with Latino community members, Spanish instructors help meet the standards for foreign language education developed by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. This article describes 2 projects. In the first, students of Spanish and Latinos come together. Students tutor adult Latinos in ESL, math, and GED and citizenship preparation courses, whereas Latinos help students develop their conversational skills. In the second project, students visit local Latino businesses to make cultural comparisons and [https://www.spanish55.com/blog/learn-spanish-online-benefits-and-advantages learn spanish by/with skype] how Latinos enrich the community.
This study evaluated the validity of the Spanish edition of the Preschool Language Scale-3 (I. Examination of the test's psychometric characteristics revealed that the test met only 4 out of 10 criteria proposed by McCauley and Swisher and none of the additional criteria from Hutchinson. Problems were evident in the test's norming and in the lack of reliability and validity data. The authors then investigated whether, despite the test's psychometric shortcomings, it was useful for the assessment of Spanish/English-speaking children. Results revealed that the children studied performed approximately 1.5 SD below the mean. Moreover, the children's performance on the subtests did not reflect an even progression of item difficulty, indicating limited evidence of construct and content validity.
Abstract: Peer teaching instruction has not received much attention in college second language (L2) learning. In this article, an L2 peer teaching program at the College of Charleston is discussed including the role, training, and supervision of undergraduate peer teaching assistants (PTAs). The article also explores the kinds of self‐reported benefits students enrolled in the program and their PTAs receive. Data from 183 students and 12 PTAs were collected in the form of an anonymous questionnaire using a Likert scale and open‐ended questions. Results show that a high percentage of students reported an improvement in speaking, pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary. PTAs reported practicing Spanish and reviewing the basics as the main benefit from the peer teaching experience.
This article seeks to explain why Latino children maintain some knowledge of their native language even though past research has consistently supported the view that non‐English‐language use rarely lasts past the third generation. I argue that family context, in addition to assimilation characteristics, plays an important role in determining their language situation. Method. I use both logistic regression and tobit regression, as well as data from the 1988 National Education Longitudinal Study, to examine the use and proficiency of Spanish among Latino children. Results. The results demonstrate that language and family context strongly influence Spanish usage and proficiency for Latino children, regardless of generational status. Conclusions. These findings reveal a relationship between assimilation, family, and language that can have important implications for the future academic and economic success of Latino children.
Abstract This article explores the idea of using an already existing language learning app, Duolingo, to complement traditional college level Spanish as second language courses. These types of apps use adaptive learning technologies, which are able to tailor the tasks to the level of each student. In the case of this study, Duolingo was used as part of the program of studies in two Spanish university courses, one a beginner’s Spanish course (level A1) and the other an advanced intermediate course (B2). The students used the app online, either in its mobile version or in their web browser. I will describe how Duolingo operates, what kind of activities can be done, and how learning is achieved.youtube.com Preliminary results suggest that Duolingo is an easy-to-use app that is useful and has potential, although its main lessons are not based on communicative competence. It is usually enjoyed by students because of several elements, such as the accessibility on a mobile device, its gamification aspect, and the variety of tasks.
Approximately 1,700 English language learners (ELLs) and former ELL students, in Grades 4 and 10, were tested using both an English-language (Stanford Achievement Test, 9th ed.) and a Spanish-language (Aprenda, 2nd ed.) achievement test. Their performances on the two tests were contrasted. The results showed that ELL students, for the most part, answered more items correctly on a home-language mathematics test, compared to a similar Englishlanguage math test, regardless of their level of home-language literacy. Additionally, former ELL students are often unable to exhibit their content-area knowledge on English-language achievement tests, possibly due to language and cultural barriers. In summary, the results show that the achievement test results of ELL students, when tested in English, are not always valid measures of their content-area knowledge.
Although learning to understand another culture is often mentioned as a benefit of foreign language learning, merely studying a foreign language does not automatically produce cross-cultural understanding. Many students study a language only to fulfill requirements and see culture learning as a nonessential element of the curriculum. This article explains how conducting ethnographic interviews can promote openness toward culture learning. Following a brief review of the culture learning process and of attitudinal theory, the article reports on a study that replicated Robinson-Stuart and Nocon's (1996) San Diego State study in a Midwestern setting. Thirty-five college students from 2 second-year Spanish classes were introduced to ethnographic interviewing skills and assigned to interview a native speaker of Spanish.youtube.com As in the previous study, the results showed that the interviews positively affected students’ attitudes toward the target language and its speakers as well as their desire to learn Spanish.
Studies comparing the relative effectiveness of different orientations to second language acquisition have obtained contradictory results. In the present study, these contradictions are traced to ambiguities pertaining to the definition of orientations and to the influence of the milieu on the acquisition process. This study assessed the influence of ethnicity (French vs. French or English vs. The subjects were 871 grade I 1 students distributed in eight groups obtained by permutations of the above t h m factors. The ratings given to 37 reasons for learning the target language were factor analyzed separately for each sample, thus generating eight six‐factor structures. The 48 factors were then correlated and factor analyzed in order to delineate clusters of orientations which would be common to all samples or to subsets of the samples. The results show that instrumental, friendship, travel, and knowledge orientations were common to all groups, while five orientations resulted from specific combinations of ethnicity and target language, on the one hand, and milieu, on the other hand. These results arediscussed with respect to the influence of the learning context on orientations and in terms of their implications for further studies.
Linguistique balkanique, which laid the groundwork for Balkan linguistics as a discipline offering an empirical basis for Trubetzkoy's theory of the Sprachbund. To this day, Judezmo still receives relatively little attention from Balkanists. Nevertheless, the language offers some particularly important insights into the Balkan Sprachbund. As an Ibero-Romance language sufficiently different from contemporary forms of Spanish to be considered separate and distinct, it represents a second sub-branch of Romance found within the Balkans. Judezmo has importance for Balkan linguistics owing to its relatively late arrival in the Balkans, when compared to the other convergent languages, and to the relative social isolation of Judezmo-speaking Jewish communities in the region. Importantly, there are features on which Balkan Judezmo converges with other Balkan languages, but others on which it does not. There are also Judezmo dialects outside the Balkans, and so, in conjunction with comparisons to other Ibero-Romance languages and dialects, Judezmo provides a control for distinguishing convergence from coincidence. In this article, we develop these observations and draw conclusions about the nature of language contact in the Balkans involving Judezmo-speaking Sephardim, as well as that involving the other languages, by contrast.
The issue of teaching pronunciation has been severely neglected after the first year of most university foreign language (FL) courses. Moreover, research examining factors affecting the acquisition of the second language (L2) phonological system has been, in general, very scarce. In the present study I examine the acquisition of a nonnative phonological system by adult language learners studying Spanish at Indiana University, Bloomington. The objective of the study was to determine the success of supplementing intermediate Spanish courses with formal instruction in pronunciation. The instruction provided a multimodal methodology aimed to account specifically for individual differences and learning style variation.youtube.com Variables such as field independence (FI), as measured by the Group Embedded Figures Test (Witkin, Oltman, Raskin, & Karp, 1971), and subject attitude or concern for pronunciation accuracy were examined in relation to improvement in pronunciation. The findings revealed that neither FI, nor subject concern for pronunciation accuracy, were significant predictors of improvement in pronunciation. In contrast, the multimodal methodology resulted in significant improvement of target language pronunciation for the subjects in the experimental group. The article ends with a classroom model of pronunciation instruction designed to enable teachers to incorporate this multimodal method into most second language (L2) curricula. There are also observations about pronunciation errors as they relate to contrastive analysis theory and several suggestions for future research.
The AAVMC has prioritized diversity as one of its core values. Its DiVersity Matters initiative is helping veterinary medicine prepare for the changing demographics of the United States. One example of the changing demographics is the growing Hispanic population. In 2013, the Texas A&M University College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences responded to the needs of this growing sector by introducing medical Spanish into the core curriculum for Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) students. The medical Spanish course takes place over 5 weeks during the second year of the curriculum, and is composed of lectures and group learning.youtube.com While this may seem like a very compressed time frame for language learning, our goal is to provide students with basic medical vocabulary and a limited number of useful phrases. In this paper, we outline the implementation of a medical Spanish course in our curriculum, including our pedagogical approaches to the curricular design of the course, and an explanation of how we executed these approaches.youtube.com We also discuss the successes and challenges that we have encountered, as well as our future plans for the course. We hope that the successes and challenges that we have encountered can serve as a model for others who plan to introduce a foreign language into their curriculum as a component of cultural competency.
