Language learners’ representations of Spanish-speaking countries: How can they inform language pedagogy?

A number of studies have focused on language learners’ images of Spain and Spanish-speaking countries, however, none of these investigations was conducted in an Asian educational context. The current study has addressed this gap in research literature. It investigated not only representations but al...

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Autor principal: Nikitina,Larisa
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso. Instituto de Literatura y Ciencias del Lenguaje 2017
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Acceso en línea:http://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0718-09342017000100003
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spelling oai:scielo:S0718-093420170001000032017-02-27Language learners’ representations of Spanish-speaking countries: How can they inform language pedagogy?Nikitina,Larisa Foreign language pedagogy representations stereotypes Spanish-speaking countries applied linguistics A number of studies have focused on language learners’ images of Spain and Spanish-speaking countries, however, none of these investigations was conducted in an Asian educational context. The current study has addressed this gap in research literature. It investigated not only representations but also salience and favourability of students’ images of the target language countries, which has not been done in earlier studies. The respondents were 31 beginner learners of Spanish. Firstly, they were asked to write images that they have about Spain; secondly, they were asked to write the names of Spanish-speaking countries that they know and provide several images for each of these countries. In addition, the students were asked to assign a favourability rating to each of the images in their lists. The findings revealed that the language learners’ images of Spain were multifarious and had a richer structure compared to the representations of Latin American countries. Despite this difference, students had predominantly positive attitudes toward Spanish-speaking countries. The article concludes by discussiong how language learners’ representations of a target language country can inform language pedagogy and offers some practical suggestions.info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessPontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso. Instituto de Literatura y Ciencias del LenguajeRevista signos v.50 n.93 20172017-03-01text/htmlhttp://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0718-09342017000100003en10.4067/S0718-09342017000100003
institution Scielo Chile
collection Scielo Chile
language English
topic Foreign language pedagogy
representations
stereotypes
Spanish-speaking countries
applied linguistics
spellingShingle Foreign language pedagogy
representations
stereotypes
Spanish-speaking countries
applied linguistics
Nikitina,Larisa
Language learners’ representations of Spanish-speaking countries: How can they inform language pedagogy?
description A number of studies have focused on language learners’ images of Spain and Spanish-speaking countries, however, none of these investigations was conducted in an Asian educational context. The current study has addressed this gap in research literature. It investigated not only representations but also salience and favourability of students’ images of the target language countries, which has not been done in earlier studies. The respondents were 31 beginner learners of Spanish. Firstly, they were asked to write images that they have about Spain; secondly, they were asked to write the names of Spanish-speaking countries that they know and provide several images for each of these countries. In addition, the students were asked to assign a favourability rating to each of the images in their lists. The findings revealed that the language learners’ images of Spain were multifarious and had a richer structure compared to the representations of Latin American countries. Despite this difference, students had predominantly positive attitudes toward Spanish-speaking countries. The article concludes by discussiong how language learners’ representations of a target language country can inform language pedagogy and offers some practical suggestions.
author Nikitina,Larisa
author_facet Nikitina,Larisa
author_sort Nikitina,Larisa
title Language learners’ representations of Spanish-speaking countries: How can they inform language pedagogy?
title_short Language learners’ representations of Spanish-speaking countries: How can they inform language pedagogy?
title_full Language learners’ representations of Spanish-speaking countries: How can they inform language pedagogy?
title_fullStr Language learners’ representations of Spanish-speaking countries: How can they inform language pedagogy?
title_full_unstemmed Language learners’ representations of Spanish-speaking countries: How can they inform language pedagogy?
title_sort language learners’ representations of spanish-speaking countries: how can they inform language pedagogy?
publisher Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso. Instituto de Literatura y Ciencias del Lenguaje
publishDate 2017
url http://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0718-09342017000100003
work_keys_str_mv AT nikitinalarisa languagelearnersrepresentationsofspanishspeakingcountrieshowcantheyinformlanguagepedagogy
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