The present study examined the impact of pedagogical intervention on students' request performance during short-term study abroad (SA). Prior to departure, students received explicit instruction about requests. During their time abroad, they were given tasks to strategically develop their pragmatic competence. Requests were assessed with a…

This article reports the findings of sociolinguistic research investigating the use of second-person singular pronouns in Costa Rica. The study was carried out onsite and involved 132 interviewees from all seven provinces of the country. These subjects reacted to scenarios in which they had to choose their preferred pronoun of use…

Advanced grammar courses often present standardized grammar rules to students without considering sociolinguistic variation. As a result, many native/heritage students feel that they speak "incorrectly," and many second language learners do not get an accurate picture of the target language's real-world grammar. This article describes…

This study investigated the acquisition of an Egyptian phonological variant by student participants in a study abroad program at The American University in Cairo. Participants completed pre- and post-study abroad Simulated Oral Proficiency Interviews (SOPIs). The SOPI data showed a move toward an Egyptian realization of the phonological variable…

This article makes the case for using critical pedagogical approaches to the teaching of Spanish as a heritage language (HL). Having different language tracks is not enough: As long as HL learners hold negative linguistic attitudes about their own language variety, they will be unable and unprepared to learn successfully. First, I define who HL…

This article reports on an extensive survey administered to advanced heritage language (HL) learners to examine their language behaviors, attitudes, and backgrounds. To date, there have been no detailed categorizations of advanced HL learners to guide classroom instruction and curriculum design. Thus the present study is a first attempt to fill…

Describes the unique situation of an Anglo Spanish-speaking teacher who is assigned to teach Spanish to a group of non-Spanish-speaking youngsters of Puerto Rican descent. Successful strategies for overcoming the socio- and psycholinguistic barriers of working in this situation are listed as the teacher describes how she created a non-threatening…

This article addresses Spanish for native speakers (SNS) instruction from the perspective of critical pedagogy, including the critical examination of dominant educational paradigms as well as the proposal of alternative models. Emphasizing the inherently political nature of education and the role of language in the production of knowledge,…

Studies involving teachers of both Spanish and English as a foreign language reveal that metaphors provide teachers with a useful image to represent their views and the elusiveness of cultural concepts. It is suggested that teachers become ethnographers investigating their own beliefs as well as those of others while developing sociolinguistic…

Provides sample listening comprehension and oral production activities in Spanish that teachers can use to help students develop sociolinguistic competence and skills. The exercises highlight native speakers' linguistic choices in different situations and focus on their use of deference markers. (Author/CB)

Discusses the different varieties of Spanish, the decision of which variety to teach to native speakers, and the concept of a "standard" usage. Basing the decision on sociolinguistic research, this article proposes a spoken and written variety of Spanish to be employed in teaching native speakers in the United States. (Author/JL)