In seeking to both confirm previous conclusions and expand the literature of the field with a different group of participants, McNulty (2012) was (partially) replicated. Three instructional interventions were designed to ascertain which activity type was responsible for learner gains. One treatment group (R) included referential-only practice…

The aim of a discourse-pragmatic approach to teaching the indicative/subjunctive contrast in Spanish is to engage students to move beyond grammar and semantics and enter the domain of language use in complete texts. Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition (SLA) research have mostly focused on the morphology, semantics and syntactic aspects of…

Although millions of speakers of Spanish employ "voseo", the twentieth century did not see a single article published in "Hispania" that suggested incorporating instruction on "voseo" into the language classroom. In contrast, the twenty-first century has already seen three articles published in "Hispania"…

The present study investigates whether the implementation of a dictogloss task within a proactive Focus on Form approach (e.g., Long 1991; Long and Robinson 1998) has significant effects on the acquisition of Spanish present subjunctive. A total of sixty-six learners in a fifth-semester Spanish course participated in the study and were assigned to…

During the last decade, researchers of foreign language pedagogy have become increasingly interested in the "language-literature divide" (Donato and Brooks 2004). The purpose of the current study is to contribute to this growing body of research by investigating the extent to which whole class discussions in three third-year…

Presents study undertaken in Brazil on the Portuguese subjunctive and applies results to create a more effective teaching methodology. The five-step pedagogical approach teaches the most frequent uses of the subjunctive first and least common uses at later stages. (Author/BK)

Rules for irregular Spanish verbs are presented here in an unusual way as an aid for students and teachers. (CK)

Summarizes some findings on mood selection in Spanish resulting from various research projects and suggests guidelines for teaching the subjunctive at the beginning level. Suggests that teachers concentrate on commands and adverbial expressions in the beginning levels because they constitute the structures most needed to engage in speech. (SED)

Provides an idea for teaching the Spanish preterite verb forms. Includes a flow chart that is useful for helping learners to organize preterite forms. (Author/VWL)

Discusses a general strategy for helping students acquire vocabulary, specifically how to master the vocabulary problem of "ser" and "estar." This is done by showing students, in interesting and recognizable ways, that English is sensitive to many of the same semantic differences of "ser" and "estar." (SED)

Describes an approach to teaching the Spanish subjunctive. The approach is organized for use with most first-year textbooks. (RM)

Focuses on how to teach English-speaking students of Spanish the practical distinction between the verbs, "saber" (to be cognizant of) and "conocer" (to be acquainted with). This article describes a solution proposed by K. Taylor for explaining the limits of the two verbs and examines similar proposals delineated in three other Spanish textbooks.…

Discusses a teaching method for helping students understand the imperfect vs. preterit in Spanish. The method relies on teaching the importance of the aspectual values of the imperfect tense through the use of television programs coupled with special messages. (GLR)