Use of textual elaboration with literary texts in intermediate Spanish

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to analyze textual elaboration as a modification option for literary texts in an intermediate Spanish language course. This study suggests that literary texts might obtain a more predominant place in second language instruction, especially for readers with lower levels of language proficiency, if learners were supplied with additional tools to facilitate comprehension. Elaboration is one of these tools that could ease comprehension difficulty that occur due to as text failure; that is, the difficulties readers encounter when the text's structure is so obtuse or unfamiliar to the reader. Here, readers' response to textual elaboration was tested and measured. Readers' comprehension was assessed via three instruments: (a) a recall protocol, (b) multiplechoice questions and (c) short constructed response questions. The study findings indicate that elaborative modifications to literary texts influence the amount and kind of information that intermediate-level Spanish learners comprehend about the texts. Limited-proficiency L2 readers of short literary texts that have been modified elaboratively can recall more information about the texts and are able to identify more vocabulary that appeared within the text. They cannot, however, infer meaning from these texts to a greater degree than the readers of unmodified versions of the same texts. Moreover, level of text difficult plays a pivotal role in relations to the effectiveness of elaborative modifications. In term of comprehension, students who read unmodified texts that are relatively easy to comprehend benefit the least from elaborative modifications. v Reader-Based Factors: L2 Proficiency .