At universities in the United States, first-year Spanish instructors often wonder why their students perform below expectations in vocabulary tests. This paper addresses this question by presenting an analysis of five leading first-year college Spanish textbooks published in the United States. This analysis consists of two parts: 1) mapping the textbooks' vocabulary lists as well as the vocabulary that appears in their reading input against the vocabulary-frequency information provided in A frequency dictionary of Spanish: Core vocabulary for learners written by Mark Davies and published by Routledge in 2006, and 2) using estimations available in the current literature to infer logistical aspects that need to be considered in first-year college Spanish such as amount of contact-time with the material to be learned, depth of vocabulary knowledge, and the relationship between the receptive and productive dimensions of vocabulary acquisition. The results show that some pedagogical fine-tuning may be needed to align the amount of vocabulary presented in textbooks as well as their vocabulary selections with research findings on vocabulary acquisition and Spanish vocabulary frequency.
This article addresses the issue of using students' native language (L1) versus second language (L2) in testing instruments for reading comprehension in the L2 classroom. Four groups of students of third‐semester, college‐level Spanish were tested under four different conditions involving combinations of L1 and L2. The test consisted of a reading passage in L2 and seven open‐ended questions. The results suggest that open‐ended reading comprehension tests may be better assessment instruments if some of the questions are phrased in the L1 and test takers are given the opportunity to respond in the L1.
This study examines how instructors managed their time when teaching a first-year hybrid Spanish course. The hybrid course differed from the traditional one in that 50% of the face-to-face teaching was replaced with online activities. Another marked difference between the traditional and the hybrid courses was that the latter enrolled 60 students per section, twice the number of students in traditional ones. The results indicate that instructors may not need to work significantly more time than they would in a traditional course, but the course coordinators’ tasks will increase, as they will have to set-up virtual master courses. The perception reported by instructors that they seem to work longer to manage a hybrid course may be a consequence of the increased frequency of certain tasks and how they are managed. In other words, more effort may be needed to manage a hybrid class while allocating the same amount of time as in a traditional class.
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