Elia - 2025 - Nº 25

URI permanente para esta colecciónhttps://hdl.handle.net/11441/170432

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Gender Assignment in Spanish-German Bilinguals: The Gender System and Background Factors
(Universidad de Sevilla, 2025) Sandow, Sarah; Fabregat López, Mario; Ygual, Amparo
This paper investigates the development of gender assignment and the role of background factors on gender assignment in Spanish-German bilinguals. While Spanish offers a transparent gender system with little difficulties for children, the German gender system is opaque with few reliable rules. This study investigated 33 simultaneous bilinguals between 5;0 and 8;11 living in Spain and Germany. Results show that Spanish gender seems to undergo an earlier acquisition than German gender. Lexical skills play a bigger role in Spanish gender acquisition than in German and gender accuracy in both languages is differently affected by factors such as age, balanced bilingualism, country of residence, language proficiency or cognitive variables. This indicates that an opaque system takes more time to be acquired. Also, the idea of a general linguistic capacity is proposed, and further theories derived from the results discussed.
English Proficiency as Capital in Family Language Policies: Beliefs, Strategies and Investments
(Universidad de Sevilla, 2025) Nieto Moreno de Diezmas, Esther; Alarcón Utrera, Ana Belén; Filología Inglesa (Lengua Inglesa)
In the context of neoliberalism and globalization, English plays a pivotal role for global communication, trade, technology, and in the academia. As a result, a high command in English is increasingly considered to be a prerequisite for competitive participation in the labor market and upward socio-economic status. Within this backdrop, this paper explores family language policies to guarantee their children’s English learning and aims at uncovering how families deal with this issue, including rationale, practice, efforts and investments. The research design of the study was qualitative, the non-probabilistic convenience sample was made up of 17 Spanish families, and data were collected by means of semi-structured interviews. The results revealed a strong parental commitment to their children's language education, driven by an intensive parenting style marked by sustained support and a clear focus on securing future success. Families acted as linguistic agents and entrepreneurs and strategically sought opportunities in the flourishing English language learning market to maximize their children's language capital, thereby supplementing the input received at school. This proactive approach was rooted in the view of English as an essential asset in securing their children's competitive advantage in a neoliberal global economy. Besides, families positioned their actions (particularly in the case of stays abroad) as a symbol of status and socio-economic privilege. The differences between those with access to these extracurricular learning experiences from those without, solidify English's role as a social marker.
Families’, Students’ and Teachers’ Attitudes towards Bilingual Education: Lessons to be Learned from Bilingual Contexts
(Universidad de Sevilla, 2025) Senra Silva, Inmaculada; Ardura Martínez, Diego; Chacón Beltrán, Manuel Rubén; Filología Inglesa (Lengua Inglesa)
This paper presents qualitative and quantitative results of a research study carried out in order to examine families’, teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards bilingualism and bilingual education in monolingual contexts. Five schools from four European countries, namely Italy, Spain, Lithuania and Romania, took part in this research. Two schools had a bilingual/multilingual immediate social context or historical background – those in Lithuania and Romania – and three schools were embedded into a monolingual social context in Spain and Italy. With the aim of collecting data on these stakeholders’ attitudes towards bilingualism and bilingual education, a mixed method approach was followed. A questionnaire was distributed to 499 parents, 892 students and 476 teachers all involved in bilingual education programmes in these four countries. The statistical analysis was a computerised data analysis carried out using SPSS. Furthermore, 48 interviews were conducted with parents, teachers and members of the school boards. They were then analysed with the software ATLAS.ti. The results show differences in the way stakeholders in a bilingual/multilingual context or/and background approach bilingualism and bilingual education as compared to those in a monolingual context, as the attitudinal component is of paramount importance to approach successful bilingual education. The conclusions of this study enrich the academic discussion on the role of families, students, teachers, and school administrators in bilingual education programmes across Europe.
Competencias tecnopedagógicas e interculturales en la formación inicial del profesorado de lenguas extranjeras
(Universidad de Sevilla, 2025) Villegas Paredes, Gladys; Canto Gutiérrez, Silvia; Filología Inglesa (Lengua Inglesa)
La formación del profesorado de lenguas extranjeras exige el desarrollo de competencias profesionales que permitan responder a las necesidades de una sociedad globalizada, tecnológica y multicultural. Los estudios informan que los docentes, aunque poseen diversas habilidades digitales (CD), no se sienten capaces de promover la competencia comunicativa intercultural (CCI) del alumnado mediante estas herramientas. El objetivo de esta investigación es analizar si existe relación significativa en las opiniones de 44 profesores en formación inicial (PFI) respecto a la adquisición de sus competencias digitales, interculturales y pedagógicas. En el estudio, 17 PFI realizaron tareas de un proyecto de intercambio virtual (PIV), mientras que 27 efectuaron tareas generales de una asignatura del Máster en enseñanza de Español como Lengua Extranjera (ELE). Mediante una metodología mixta y diseño cuasi-experimental con grupo de control (GC) y experimental (GE), se aplicó un cuestionario y se organizaron grupos focales tras el proyecto para valorar las percepciones de los participantes sobre las competencias adquiridas. Los resultados cuantitativos muestran que el GE, en comparación con el GC, mejora significativamente su capacidad para identificar estereotipos, prejuicios y actuar como mediador (relacionado con la CCI), así como una mayor recomendación del PIV (respecto a la CD) como parte de la formación docente. Los resultados cualitativos destacan los beneficios del proyecto en el desarrollo de competencias tecnopedagógicas y emocionales. Se concluye que el PIV parece tener efectos positivos en la CCI y otras competencias transversales, aunque presenta limitaciones que deben superarse respecto a la competencia digital docente.
EFL Students’ Perceptions of Collaborative Learning in Facilitating the Development of Speaking Skills
(Universidad de Sevilla, 2025) Fernández Sesma, María Georgina; Sortillón González, Patricia Eugenia; Valenzuela Rodríguez, Ana Elisa
Speaking proficiency is fundamental to language acquisition, particularly for learners of English as a Foreign Language, but it remains challenging for many students. This study explored how collaborative learning can facilitate the development of speaking skills of intermediate-level EFL students and identified the factors hindering their communicative development. Participants were 116 fourth-level EFL students (60 women and 56 men) from a public Mexican university. The study used mixed methods, administering a survey and an interview to collect data. A total of six collaborative learning activities were applied to encourage spontaneous oral production and interaction in a supportive, low-pressure environment. Results indicated collaborative learning facilitates EFL students’ oral production, fostering cognitive, psychological, and social benefits. Students perceived collaborative learning as an effective strategy to facilitate vocabulary learning, improve pronunciation, develop conversational fluency, and enhance listening skills. Psychological benefits included increased self-confidence and reduced anxiety, while social benefits involved better peer interactions and a greater sense of belonging. However, linguistic challenges such as limited vocabulary and pronunciation errors, along with psychological barriers like fear of ridicule and low self-esteem, were identified as significant obstacles to oral proficiency. Therefore, the implications of this study suggest that incorporating collaborative learning activities in EFL classrooms could significantly enhance students' communicative abilities and help eradicate linguistic and psychological barriers, leading to more effective language learning environments.
The Interplay between Basic Psychological Needs and Emotions in the Foreign Language Learning Context: Pedagogical Implications
(Universidad de Sevilla, 2025) Rubio Alcalá, Fernando D.; Velázquez Ahumada, Natalia; Ávila López Francisco Javier; Filología Inglesa (Lengua Inglesa)
Emotions play a major role in the process of learning. The purpose of the present study is to examine whether autonomy, competence, relatedness, and novelty (basic psychological needs) affect the emotions of pride, enjoyment, boredom, hopelessness, anger, and anxiety in the context of foreign language learning. We first studied whether the Basic Psychological Needs Scale (BPNS) would be reliable, adding novelty to the original scale, and then administered the BPNS and the Achievement Emotions Questionnaire (AEQ) to 194 students to investigate whether BPN predicts certain emotions (RQ1). We further performed multiple regression analyses to study the specific predictions of BPN factors with AEQ factors (RQ2). The findings affirm the necessity of incorporating the basic psychological need for novelty into the theoretical framework. Among the basic psychological need variables, competence emerged as the highest value. Additionally, the emotion of enjoyment was identified as the most influential factor. Furthermore, the study yielded additional results and highlighted pedagogical implications.
Pronunciation Instruction at Secondary Schools in Spain: A Survey Study
(Universidad de Sevilla, 2025) Quesada Vázquez, Leticia
Learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) in Spain are often expected to possess a good command of its pronunciation when finishing secondary education, but this expectation is not always met. Although recent studies support the beneficial effect of pronunciation instruction to improve students’ communicative skills in a foreign language, EFL teachers tend to avoid it due to a lack of confidence and training. The present study aims at investigating whether having received training in phonetics/phonology and/or pronunciation teaching affects EFL practitioners’ choices of the pronunciation features to teach. The study builds on a research project on pronunciation instruction in EFL Spanish secondary schools. Thirty-eight teachers around the country participated via online survey between May and October 2023. Five different pronunciation features were examined: vowel sounds, consonant sounds, stress, rhythm and intonation. Percentages were calculated and Fisher’s exact tests were run. Despite the lack of statistical significance, percentages revealed that those participants who had received training in general pronunciation, specific pronunciation instruction, or both tended to teach segmental aspects rather than suprasegmental ones. Furthermore, rhythm was the pronunciation feature least taught. By contrast, those participants with no instruction claimed to teach suprasegmentals more often than segmentals. Although more subjects are needed to reach conclusive results, and teaching methods and techniques need to be examined more in depth, this study contributes to shedding more light on the current role of pronunciation instruction in Spanish schools, and the potential improvements to enhance effective pronunciation teaching in the EFL classroom.
NP Complexity in EFL Argumentative Writing at the CEFR B1, B2 and C1 levels: Corpus-driven Fine-grained Measures
(Universidad de Sevilla, 2025) Díez Bedmar, María Belén
Fine-grained measures of Noun Phrase (NP) complexity are being employed to describe linguistic complexity in learner language. However, the use of pre-established fine-grained NP complexity indices prevents researchers from analysing the actual range of NP complexity types that learners display in different text types and at different levels. Likewise, the use of learner corpora which are not aligned with the CEFR hinders the identification of NP complexity criterial features, i.e. NP complexity types which show statistically significant differences in their use at different levels, between CEFR levels. This study contributes to the existing literature by exploring NP complexity in L1 Spanish EFL learner writing using corpus-driven fine-grained measures obtained from a CEFR-aligned learner corpus with two main objectives: a) to analyse the variety of NP complexity types employed at the CEFR B1, B2 and C1 levels; and b) to reveal NP complexity criterial features at those levels. After manually parsing 6,182 NPs in 140 argumentative texts (44 texts at B1, 50 at B2 and 46 at C1), 39 NP complexity types were identified and employed as fine-grained NP complexity measures. The findings reveal an increase in the variety of NP complexity types at the CEFR B2 level. The results highlight the importance of multiple premodification and simple or multiple postmodification, especially prepositional phrases, in NP complexity development across B1, B2 and C1. Specific NP complexity criterial features are also found at B2 and C1. This study underscores the use of corpus-driven fine-grained complexity measures to describe NP complexification in different text types and CEFR levels.
Exploring the Use of Cognates in Lexical Availability: Differences between Heritage and Non-Heritage Learners.
(Universidad de Sevilla, 2025) Geoghegan, Leah
Having previous knowledge of at least two languages may lead to advantages in the acquisition of an additional language in areas such as vocabulary, as learners may be better equipped to make cross-linguistic comparisons. However, while studies have been carried out on performance in the L1, there has been a clear lack of research on the lexical production of monolingual and bilingual EFL learners and, in particular, of bilingual heritage learners who have the same mother tongue. In addition, although cross-linguistic influence may also lead to negative effects when the influence derives from a lexical error, lexical fluency research to date has scarcely focused on the errors made by learners in lexical availability tasks. The current paper addresses these issues to determine whether heritage learners demonstrate an advantage in terms of cross-linguistic comparisons. To this effect, the study uses a semantic fluency task to analyse the English lexical availability of 134 tenth-grade L2 monolinguals and L3 bilinguals to determine the positive and negative influence of cognates on their lexical productions. Results indicate that quantitative and qualitative differences depend on the lexical domain at hand, though very little negative lexical transfer was observed in either group. These results offer illuminating insights into the differences between heritage and non-heritage learners’ lexical availability and should encourage stakeholders in our increasingly multilingual classrooms to foster the language acquisition of these bilingual learners.

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