Reading texts with historical and sociopolitical content in a foreign language is often a challenge for second language students. The obstacles encountered by students should be of concern to language instructors. Lack of background knowledge frequently causes the reader to abandon the reading activity with a sense of disappointment and…

Suggests classroom activities for improving listening comprehension skills in beginning and intermediate students. A passage of connected discourse from a native speaker of Spanish is provided as a model for realistic monologue. Sample test items and suggestions for suitable testing techniques are also given. (LMO)

Comparison of the listening comprehension of second language learners completing three different prelistening activities after one and two exposures to a passage shows that scores for subjects completing the question preview activity were higher than for subjects completing the filler activity and that additional exposure improves comprehension.…

A study investigated the ability of second language learners of Spanish to simultaneously process form and meaning during input. The students' conscious attention to form competed with conscious attention to meaning, and it is suggested that learners could attend to form during the intake process only when input was easily understandable. (CB)

Discusses some of the problems encountered in listening to and understanding a second language, and some means to overcome these problems. Addresses particularly three areas: (1) the difficulty in remembering messages contained in extended speech, (2) the impact of speed and slurring on comprehension, and (3) the student's lexical knowledge. (MES)

Think-aloud protocols were gathered to establish that first-year college level participants noticed targeted linguistic forms (Spanish formal imperatives) while reading an enhanced or unenhanced text. Suggests there are no significant benefits of written input enhancement over unenhanced written input for the amount of reported noticing of Spanish…

A study examining native Spanish-speaking college students' comprehension of Portuguese, and Portuguese-speaking students' comprehension of Spanish found that the two languages were mutually intelligible at a 50 to 60 percent level. Portuguese speakers tended to understand Spanish better than Spanish speakers understood Portuguese. (CB)

Examined whether readers in a third-semester Spanish course--reading the second language on a computer screen--accessed glossed vocabulary more frequently when the glosses were written in their first language or their second language. (Author/VWL)

Discusses the relevance of teaching "Survival Spanish" at the community college level for those students whose careers will require an understanding of the language. In addition, many professionals in the human/community service or medical fields are enrolling in such courses, in order to more competently serve the changing needs of…

A Spanish course is described in which reading ability was gained as a preliminary to a conventional first-year language course. Through passive learning, recognition of vocabulary and grammatical structure was achieved, and correct pronunciation and writing drills reinforced learning. Good results were obtained in the subsequent conventional…

Addresses questions concerning reading in a foreign language, including: (1) Do reading strategies transfer from native language to second language?; (2) Can reading strategies be successfully taught?; and (3) If a strategies-oriented approach to reading were to be developed, what basic considerations should be included in the approach? (44…

Presents a technique devised to help intermediate Spanish students master the art of communication over the telephone and outlines the specific learning and testing activities and pedagogical rationale behind them. The technique can also be used to test oral competence and aural proficiency. (SED)