The Value of Contrast: Contrasting the Value of Strategies

Chapter 6. Research design: Operationalizing and testing hypotheses

“…Despite the fact that we cannot ascertain what contextual information speakers bring to the task of assessing the grammaticality of decontextualized utterances, the available evidence shows that native speakers seem to be more attuned to the complex meanings of successive layers of contextual information than non-native speakers are (e.g., Coppieters 1987;García and van Putte 1988;Gü ell 1998). Moreover, whereas in some cases this sensitivity to broader pieces of discourse leads native speakers to make categorical and homogeneous judgments (e.g., Coppieters 1987, García andvan Putte 1988), in other cases, it leads to uncertainty.…”

“…Moreover, whereas in some cases this sensitivity to broader pieces of discourse leads native speakers to make categorical and homogeneous judgments (e.g., Coppieters 1987, García andvan Putte 1988), in other cases, it leads to uncertainty. For instance, let us analyze one sentence (27) from Gü ell (1998) in which the main predicate (atelic pasear, 'to take a stroll') has been iterated with an adverbial (cada día, 'every day'), which has been further circumscribed within a specific time period (la semana pasada, 'last week').…”

A Constructivist Approach to Grammar: Teaching Teachers to Teach Aspect

“…Kaplan (1987) states that this aspectual opposition is perceived by teachers as "particularly problematic for English-speaking learners of French" (p. 53)* and Garcia and van Putte (1988) claim that it "constitutes one of the major difficulties encountered by native speakers of Germanic languages in the learning of Spanish" (p. 263). Graduate teaching assistants (TAs) often find aspect difficult to teach because they themselves lack a clear understanding of it.…”

“…Beginning foreign language students typically decide between the two competing past tenses based on the most immediate of contexts, the inherent aspect of the verb, thereby ignoring the larger narrative discourse (Garcia &van Putte, 1988). TAs can distinguish an inappropriate or infelicitous aspectual choice, but nevertheless have difficulty explaining its inappropriateness or infelicity due to their lack of a transparent metalanguage and to their limited understanding of the role of the preterit and the imperfect in the construction of a narrative text.…”

A Constructivist Approach to Grammar: Teaching Teachers to Teach Aspect

“…Aspect is a core grammatical concept, yet frequently it is poorly understood by students of French and Spanish (Connor, 1992;Ozete, 1987). Kaplan (1987) states that this aspectual opposition is perceived by teachers as "particularly problematic for English-speaking learners of French" (p. 53)* and Garcia and van Putte (1988) claim that it "constitutes one of the major difficulties encountered by native speakers of Germanic languages in the learning of Spanish" (p. 263). Graduate teaching assistants (TAs) often find aspect difficult to teach because they themselves lack a clear understanding of it.…”