todoELE

Until very recently, vocabulary played a role in the production of language teaching materials that was very definitely a secondary one. Although inevitably present in any course book, vocabulary was generally subordinated to other elements that were considered more important to the process of learning a language. Thus, in the 1950s and 1960s, when grammar translation was the dominant approach to language teaching, the lexical content of courses was considered less important than the grammatical content of textbooks. To a large extent, the vocabulary taught was determined by the words that appeared in the works of classical authors whose texts were used for teaching purposes. Later, the structural or audiolingual methods, based on behaviourist theories subordinated the vocabulary to be taught to the linguistic structures that the student was required to automatize during the process of learning. In the 1970s, communicative approaches to language teaching began to be developed, partly as a reaction to the short-comings of earlier methods. Functions and Notions came to be the main curricular focus for language teaching, and functional-notional approaches dominated classroom practice. The vocabulary which appears in courses that were developed with this method in mind simply reflects the vocabulary which is used in the context chosen to introduce the functions and notions which the student is required to master – In the restaurant, At the airport, At the doctor’s to list but a few of the typical ones. The common assumption that underlies all these treatments of vocabulary is the idea that vocabulary acquisition takes place naturally when people learn other more basic elements: learn grammar, or structures, or functions, and you will inevitably learn vocabulary. Vocabulary acquisition is something that just happens on its own. One consequence of this is that the textbooks of the period show a surprisingly cavalier attitude towards the vocabulary items that they choose to teach. Words are included almost at random, and their selection depends heavily on the intuition of authors.

This paper illustrates this problem in a series of beginners’ Spanish courses. Specifically, we analysed a set of six textbooks published by the BBC over a period of 30 years (1965-1995). These courses were all aimed at adult learners of Spanish, working on their own, and were primarily intended as a companion text for radio and television broadcasts. Inevitably, however, they were widely adopted as standard textbooks for adult learners attending classes as well. It is difficult to underestimate the influence of these courses on adult education, and it is no exaggeration to say that these courses pretty much defined the syllabus for adult learners of Spanish in the UK for a period of about thirty years

El presente trabajo pretende concienciar a los profesores de segundas lenguas de la importancia del adecuado manejo de los libros de texto, para favorecer una enseñanza eficaz del vocabulario. Para ello, proponemos un análisis de manuales a partir de dos propiedades esenciales del aprendizaje léxico: la profundidad del procesamiento y la práctica distribuida, también denominada reciclaje. Ambos aspectos se han examinado en el tratamiento de diez adverbios transitivos de relación locativa en catorce manuales de español como lengua extranjera (ELE) de niveles iniciales. A través de estos datos, podremos valorar si los libros de texto favorecen la integración de estos adverbios en la memoria a largo plazo y proponer algunas sugerencias para su introducción en el aula.

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This study aims to raise the awareness of language teachers about the adequate use of textbooks in the classroom, in order to promote efficient vocabulary teaching practices. Therefore, we propose a procedure for textbook analysis that is based on two essential properties of lexical learning: depth of processing and spaced practice, or recycling. We exemplify this procedure by analyzing the treatment reserved to ten location adverbs in fourteen elementary Spanish language learning textbooks. Based on those data, we evaluate to what extent the textbooks that we analyzed promote a long-term storage of a form-meaning relation for these adverbs and we offer som

The importance of textbooks in the shaping of world-language instruction in the US is undeniable: for better or for worse, published materials tend to define the content, pace, and pedagogical orientation of language courses at all levels in this country. As educators continue to confront the challenge of selecting and/or adapting published materials for their language courses (particularly for Spanish, which represents 69% of the total language textbook market at the high school level, and 52% at the college level), the need for information on the origin and evolution of our teaching materials becomes apparent. Following a diachronic perspective, this article traces the historical evolution of Spanish textbooks in the US, and examines the current state of affairs of language materials for learners K-16. In addition, this article provides a comparative analysis of the leading Spanish textbooks in the United States (US) (for both the high school and college markets) and reviews the most prominent recent titles to identify established trends and new directions in the publishing industry. A general framework for selection of Spanish textbooks is discussed, as well as specific recommendations on how to make sense of the increasing number of published materials for the teaching and learning of Spanish.

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La importancia de los libros de texto en la determinación de las prácticas pedagógicas para el español como lengua segunda o extranjera (ELE) en los Estados Unidos es innegable. Desafortunadamente, la información sobre el origen y la evolución histórica de dichos materiales es limitada (hecho por demás sorprendente, ya que los textos para ELE representan el 69% del total del mercado de libros de texto para lenguas extranjeras a nivel de secundaria y el 52% a nivel universitario en este país). Siguiendo una perspectiva diacrónica, este artículo traza la evolución de los textos para ELE en los Estados Unidos, y examina el estado actual de esta industria desde la escuela primaria hasta la universidad. Además, el artículo presenta un análisis comparativo de los más populares textos de ELE en los Estados Unidos (tanto al nivel de secundaria como universitario) y de los más prominentes títulos recientes (aquellos publicados en los últimos 2 años en este país), a fin de identificar las nuevas tendencias y direcciones de la industria ELE norteamericana. El lector podrá encontrar aquí un marco general para el análisis y selección de libros de texto para la enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras, así como una serie de parámetros que le ayuden a discernir las cualidades pedagógicas de la creciente oferta (nacional e internacional) de materiales para ELE.

Texto completo

La complejidad semántica y combinatoria de los denominados verbos pseudocopulativos de cambio —ponerse, hacerse, quedarse y volverse— los convierte en formas gramaticales de elevada dificultad, tanto para el aprendiz de ELE, como para el docente, que ha de conocer las pautas de su comportamiento semántico y sintáctico. Su inclusión dentro del inventario gramatical del Plan curricular del Instituto Cervantes en los niveles B1 y B2 hace que sean tratados en muchos de los manuales y gramáticas de enseñanza-aprendizaje de español de niveles intermedios. En este trabajo se aborda un análisis cualitativo y cuantitativo del tratamiento gramatical que reciben estos verbos en una muestra de materiales, formada por cinco libros de texto de enseñanza de español de nivel intermedio y cinco gramáticas. El análisis descriptivo permite identificar las tendencias metodológicas a la hora de enseñar estas unidades gramaticales y proporciona información sobre el estado actual de los materiales didácticos de español.