Reading and writing in Spanish by English -educated Spanish -English bilinguals

Kristi Annelle Hislope, Purdue University

Abstract

In the present qualitative descriptive case study, the production and recognition of the Spanish present subjunctive as well as the writing processes of ten heritage speakers of Spanish are investigated. Background information and self-assessments are collected through a detailed questionnaire. Through input flooding, an implicit focus-on-form technique, participants were presented with forty-seven tokens of the Spanish present subjunctive in a four-page reading passage (treatment). Their written production of the form was tested through cloze passages while their recognition was tested by multiple choice items in which two possible English translations are given for one Spanish sentence containing the present subjunctive. There was a pre-test and two posttests. Results are inconclusive for both the written production and recognition tasks. Scores are less dispersed for the recognition task than for the production task, but, six participants received their lowest scores on the immediate posttest, which is counterintuitive to the expected results. Results suggest that for these ten participants, Spanish present subjunctive usage is sporadic. Participants also wrote three drafts of a Spanish composition on three different days in an experimental room and responded to retrospective interview questions on their composing processes and strategies. There were no time-limits and a bilingual dictionary was supplied. Revisions from each draft were compared and interviews were analyzed to determine if self-reports concurred with actual revisions. Two participants reported their actual revisions. Two others summarized their revisions correctly. No participants focused on organization; however, half of the participants produced well organized compositions while four wrote somewhat organized papers. The researcher judged five participants as having written to the specified audience. Two participants wrote somewhat to the audience specified, while three did not write to the intended audience. In self-reports, only two participants restated the audience described in the directions. Six participants focused on the topic they were given to write about. Three strayed from the topic at times, and one participant did not address the theme. In light of the findings of the present study, a call is made for additional experimental studies to address the needs of this growing population of heritage speakers in our schools.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Hammond, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Linguistics|Bilingual education|Multicultural education

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