Showing papers in "Hispania in 1989"

Teaching spanish to hispanic bilinguals: a look at oral proficiency testing and the proficiency movement

Abstract: A little over ten years ago, very few members of the Spanish-teaching profession had begun to concern themselves with teaching the language to Hispanic bilinguals. Normally, the term native-speaking or Spanish-speaking was applied by members of our profession to those individuals who came from Spain or Latin America and who had been raised with Spanish as both a home and societal language. The question of what to do with Chicano and Puerto Rican students who had grown up in Spanish-speaking homes in this country and who had received all of their education in English-language schools had not yet surfaced in our classes nor in our thinking in any significant way. What little work had been done up to that time has taken the position that Hispanic bilinguals were a "special problem" and had focused on the differences between the varieties spoken by these students and the prestige variant normally used in the classroom. Curriculum guides and masters theses had appeared, as had two textbooks, all of which took the position that Spanish instruction for these students had best "undo the damage that had been done at home."' Now, many years later, most members of our profession are aware of the fact that special approaches are needed for teaching Spanish to Hispanic bilinguals. At this point, it is generally accepted that, while some attention may need to be given to the stigmatized features present in students' regional and/or class varieties, the objectives of classes for such speakers must include the development of their overall proficiency in the Spanish language. This means that attention must be given to: (1) developing students' command of the written language so that their ability to read and write in Spanish mirrors these same abilities in English, and (2) developing their oral language so that they will be able to interact in Spanish in both informal and formal contexts.

On the Mutual Intelligibility of Spanish and Portuguese.

Abstract: People who make decisions about public language use seem not to be in agreement. During the World Cup Soccer Championships held in Mexico in 1986, with Spanish language interviews on most television newscasts, TV Globo in Brazil translated all Spanish interviews with subtitles, voiceovers, or consecutive interpretation by the reporter. Another Brazilian network, Manchete, did not translate at all. Television production companies in Colombia customarily broadcast interviews of visiting Brazilians, frequently soccer players, in Portuguese with no translation. The Sdo Paulo International Airport makes virtually all announcements in Spanish, as well as in Portuguese, English, and French. The Rio de Janeiro International airport, on the other hand, does not routinely make announcements in Spanish. A variety of opinions have been expressed in writing, by both linguists and non-linguists. The British linguist William Entwistle (1953 [31]), in describing what makes two speech forms languages rather than dialects stated that "mutual ease or difficulty of understanding is not the primary consideration. Norwegians and Swedes, Spaniards and Portuguese, can understand each other fairly well in their different languages." A popular tourist guidebook (Jebsen and Biel, 1986 [329]) states the case for one-way understanding: Most Portuguese have a fairly good, natural comprehension of spoken Spanish. But be forewarned that the reverse is not the case. Knowing Spanish will put you into a unique position for one-way communicationable to ask directions or make reservations but unable to understand the response.

Translator and interpreter training and foreign language pedagogy

Abstract: 1. Introduction (by Krawutschke, Peter W.) 2. Politics of interpreter education in academia (by Weber, Wilhelm K.) 3. Must translator training remain elitist? (by Gaddis Rose, Marilyn) 4. Pendulum swings in language teaching and translation (by Bowen, David) 5. Some polemic aspects of translation in foreign language pedagogy revisited (by Weller, Georganne) 6. Language learning before translator/interpreter training (by Bowen, Margareta) 7. Teaching conference interpreting (by Seleskovitch, Danica) 8. Topical issues in translator training at universities (by Wilss, Wolfram) 9. Standards and evaluation in translator training (by Mahn, Gabriela) 10. Translator and interpreter training as part of teacher training at the institute of english, Adam Mickiewicz university, Poznan, Poland (by Nadstoga, Zbigniew) 11. A translation-specific writing program: Justification and description (by Meyer, Ingrid) 12. Learning translating and interpreting through interlanguage (by Niedzielski, Henry Z.) 13. Isotopy and translation (by Mudersbach, Klaus) 14. Contributors 15. Call for proposals: interpreting - yesterday, today and tomorrow 16. Corporate members 17. Institutional members 18. American translators association officers and board of direectors, 1988

The Acquisition of Clitic Pronouns in the Spanish Interlanguage of Peruvian Quechua Speakers

Abstract: Studies of the second language acquisition of children in an immersion environment in which they have little contact with native speakers other than the teacher have shown that they tend to acquire a "classroom dialect" containing many interlanguage forms which reflect their peers' interlanguage rather than their native-speaking teacher's model (Plann, 1976). However, little research has been conducted on the natural language acquisition of a marginalized group which acquires a second language in an environment in which contact with native speakers is generally limited for social and economic reasons. Previous evidence from research on the acquisition of Spanish by Quechua speakers (Cerr6n-Palomino, 1976; Lozano, 1975; Lujin, Minaya, and Sankoff, 1981; Menges, 1980; Muysken, 1984; Puente, 1981) would seem to indicate that their Spanish vernacular has also incorporated interlanguage features to some extent, because of sociolinguistic constraints which affect their acquisition of Spanish. One of the characteristics frequently observed in the Spanish of Quechua speakers is the transfer of Object-Verb word order from Quechua and the frequent misuse of clitic pronouns. These particular syntactic and morphological features are interesting in that they allow comparison between the Spanish acquisition of English speakers whose Li is characterized by SVO order and the Spanish acquisition of Quechua speakers whose L1 is characterized by SOV. The purpose of this study then is to analyze the acquisition of clitic pronouns by adult Quechua speakers in Cuzco who have differing degrees of contact with native speakers of Spanish.

Status of Articulation: Placement, Advanced Placement Credit, and Course Options.

Abstract: In an attempt to survey the status of three aspects of articulation between high school and university levels of Spanish education, we sent a questionnaire during the spring of 1987, to 93 colleges and universities of varying sizes and locations inquiring about their policies, offerings, and problems We chose to study placement policies, acceptance of Advanced Placement credit, and the course options available to the first year student In short, the focus was on the entering first-year students who have had Spanish in high school and on what happens to these students once they enter the university The preliminary results of the survey were shared at the session on Articulation at the annual meeting of the AATSP in August 1987 We received responses from 58 institutions (a return rate of 62%), both public (35) and private (23), representing 27 different states Of these institutions 19 can be classified as small (student population under 5,000), 11 were mediumsized (enrollment between 5,000 and 12,000), 10 were large (enrollment between 12,000 and 20,000) and 18 could be classified as very large with a student population of over 20,000 The total enrollment represented by the 58 institutions is over 880,000 students Of the 58 institutions 43 (74%) have a foreign language requirement of some type This seems to reflect a growing trend to reinstate and strengthen foreign language requirements, and a recognition of the value of foreign languages in liberal arts education (A growing number of institutions are now requiring as an admission standard that freshmen have at least two years of study of one foreign language prior to entrance into the university) As Table 1 indicates, the larger the institution, the more likely it is that a foreign language is required

Acoustic Characteristics of Oral v. Nasalized /a/ in Brazilian Portuguese: Variation in Vowel Timbre and Duration.

Abstract: The object of this essay is to describe some of the current research in Luso-Brazilian (LB) phonology. Rather than build a bibliographic background, I shall introduce this topic by showing various techniques current analysts utilize to investigate Brazilian Portuguese nasality.' The reason for this unconventional approach is that more than at any other time, "phonology," the study of speech sounds, is comprised of an extensive array of distinct academic specializations. It is quite revealing to see the many levels and angles of analysis which can be applied to such a topic. For example, linguists who adhere to generative theories approach the study of LB phonology as an opportunity to verify or develop claims regarding universal grammar. Sociolinguists study the same sound sequences; their focus, however, might be on which portion of a given population has a distinct pronunciation and what the social implications might be. Concurrently, phoneticians are interested in the aerodynamics of speech patterns independent of universal grammar or social implications. While in some circles these various branches of linguistics enjoy a certain level of autonomy, this luxury is not available to LB phonologists. In order to compile a complete picture, researchers in LB phonology need to draw from all sources. This will become evident as we investigate the nasalization of /a/ when followed by a tautosyllabic nasal consonant. I shall draw from experimental phonetics as the core element of this analysis and then add footnotes and commentary to show how related branches of phonology might approach this issue. Nasalization in Brazilian Portuguese

Beyond the Isogloss: Trends in Hispanic Dialectology.

Abstract: The study of regional and social dialects has always been a major component of Hispanic linguistics. Hundreds of monographs and articles have appeared, describing varieties of Spanish in Latin America and Spain. Dialectology, however, is more than the sum total of individual descriptive studies, and an adequate dialectology must have a firm theoretical framework as well as an empirically valid methodological orientation. Despite considerable attention, many lingering issues remain unresolved, or revert to default 'solutions' which satisfy few observers. Among the more crucial are: (1) The Peninsular dialect base, regional and social, of Spanish settlers in America, and the extent to which regional dialects of Spain were responsible for dialect differentiation in the New World; (2) The development of Latin American voseo, including the values attached to tzi and vos in the social and regional dialects of Spain during the period of New World settlement; (3) The influence of Basque, Arabic, Amerindian and African languages on the phonology and syntax of regional varieties of Spanish; (4) The possible multiple loci of such phenomena as yefsmo, seseo, and reduction of syllable-final consonants; (5) A classification of dialects which transcends simple geographical groupings, or the use of a handful of 'leading indicators.' The present article will concentrate on work in theoretical linguistics which promises to advance the frontiers of Hispanic dialectology, as well as to propose new solutions for old problems. I have been guided by the idea that any 'state of the art' must of necessity make the transition from the specific to the general, and from description to theory. Much of the relevant work is rather recent, which simply reflects the growth pattern of Hispanic linguistics, and embodies no negative assessment of earlier approaches. The presentation is selective rather than exhaustive, representing a cross-section of proposals and ideas which have personally proved useful and exciting, in the classroom, and in research endeavors. Many equally fruitful contributions are not mentioned due to space limitations. The entne discussion is set against the backdrop of the core bibliography, descriptive and theoretical, of contemporary Hispanic dialectology. The names are known to all of us; without their work, none of the research described below would have been possible, and if the studies are not cited individually, it is only because the list alone would use up the allotted space.