"Taza" in Spanish refers to cups and mugs in English, whereas glass refers to different glass types in Spanish: "copa" and "vaso." It is still unclear whether such categorical distinctions induce early perceptual differences in speakers of different languages. In this study, for the first time, we report symmetrical…

Literature has shown that foreign-accented (FA) speech modulates the degree of irony perceived by native (NA) individuals, but the subsequent consequences it may have on social interaction are unknown. To address this question, we presented Spanish first language (L1) users with written contexts with ironic/literal praises allocated to either a NA…

The ability to think about nonpresent time is a crucial aspect of human cognition. Both the past and future imply a temporal displacement of an event outside the "now." They also intrinsically differ: The past refers to inalterable events; the future to alterable events, to possible worlds. Are the past and future processed similarly or…

Aragonese is a threatened Romance language immersed in a historical process of substitution by Spanish, the official language. The number of speakers who maintained its transmission to younger generations, mainly in rural areas, has extremely declined over the last century. In the meantime, revitalisation efforts have incorporated new speakers,…

The present study draws on earlier research on learner-learner dyadic interactions in an e-tandem virtual exchange and examines negotiation of meaning episodes based on the qualitative data. These data come from learner-learner interactions during oral tasks carried out using a video conferencing tool. The aim is to unveil the interactional…

This paper investigates language ideologies involving various non-standard English-language practices among homeless Ghanaian migrants, and explores how these interplay with transnational identity management in Catalonia, a non-English-speaking bilingual society. Through a 6-month multi-site ethnography of three case-study informants which…

Arabic-Spanish simultaneous interpreting (AR-SP SI) in Spain and the Arab world is, on the whole, carried out by native Arabic speakers. Specifically, 87.5% of AR-SP SI interpreters in Spain have Arabic as A language and Spanish as language B. Given this peculiarity, for this linguistic combination it was interesting, as well as novel, to analyse…

Current foreign language education policies advocate plurilingual approaches to learning and teaching languages and call into question the 'ideal native speaker' as the ultimate model. Observations within a teacher training context indicate that this ideal still holds considerable weight among pre-service teachers. A study was carried out with…

By using small focus group discussions, the present study aims to gain insight into students' perceptions about the impact of WhatsApp use in their learning process. More specifically, this study presents a cross-cultural analysis of British and Spanish university students' personal beliefs about the effectiveness of using WhatsApp to complete…

Research on nativelike variation in second language (L2) systems indicates that learners studying abroad may adapt to regional norms as they build sociolinguistic competence (e.g., Kanwit & Solon, 2013; Salgado-Robles, 2014). Spanish exhibits variation between the intensifiers "muy" [very] and "bien" [very] across numerous…

Little is known about recruiters' attitudes to hiring 'native' and 'non-native speakers', or the factors which might influence their potential preference for the former group. Of the four studies conducted thus far, three were carried out in the US or the UK, and are over a decade old (Clark & Paran, 2007; Mahboob et al., 2004; Moussu, 2006).…

Bilingual education today pervades the microcosm of primary school settings across Europe, and has deserved the attention of policy makers and researchers. This paper aims at reporting on the perceptions of Spanish in-service primary teachers on four key areas of bilingual programs, namely, training priorities, teaching resources, school…

Over the last few years, we have witnessed a growing interest in computer-assisted pronunciation training (CAPT) tools and the commercial success of foreign language teaching applications that incorporate speech synthesis and automatic speech recognition technologies. However, empirical evidence supporting the pedagogical effectiveness of these…

This paper analyses the language attitudes of autochthonous and immigrant families living in Catalonia towards Spanish and Catalan. The research is intended to assess the possible differences in the language attitudes of students and their parents towards the two languages spoken in Catalonia. The investigation takes a sample of 476 students and…

A word-spotting task is used in Spanish to test the way in which polysyllabic letter-strings are parsed in this language. Monosyllabic words (e.g., "bar") embedded at the beginning of a pseudoword were immediately followed by either a coda-forming consonant (e.g., "barto") or a vowel (e.g., "baros"). In the former…