Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners often struggle with some of the elements and features of text composition, such as conventions, socio-cultural aspects like hedging, degree of formality or synonyms. This paper aims to provide, by way of exemplification, the application of a corpus-aided technique that helps teachers determine whether general task completion has been achieved in order to identify learners’ deficiencies in writing. This method was employed to consider lexical range (i.e. synonyms), cohesive devices and hedging strategies, including modal verbs, in the participants’ written outputs, a total of 93, in a higher education EFL classroom. To this end, the tool LexTutor (Cobb n.d.) was used to explore the corpus. The data gathered have been analysed following a quantitative approach. Findings indicate that, on average, learners’ productions met the indications in the instructions. Nevertheless, there was a tendency to use lower-level or simpler structures and words rather than opting for language exploration, thus prioritising accuracy. The present study raises the possibility that EFL teachers can offer general class feedback on students’ productions promptly and efficiently.

In the educational context, the linguistic aspect of language learning should be observed in parallel with intercultural communicative competence since this interwoven unity will facilitate students to enhance cultural understanding and develop critical reading skills, thus acquiring novel cultural frames of reference and a transformed world view. The aim of the article is to underpin the significance of short story inclusion in the EFL classroom as a powerful tool to foster ICC. The three socio-constructivist approaches suggested in the article are targeted at working on multicultural literary texts at cognitive and critical levels by focusing on the development of intercultural communicative competence. The article is a case study experience carried out in an intermediate EFL classroom at YSU in Armenia, in 2019. The qualitative analysis of the data provides us with valuable insights about the integration of literary texts in teaching language and constructing cultural knowledge through social interaction. The results can be further utilized by textbook writers and implemented in teacher training courses.

Aunque la relación entre lenguaje y educación es íntima, no está libre de problemas. Uno especialmente acuciante es la consideración de la diversidad lingüística (interlingüística e intralingüística) por parte de la teoría y praxis de la educación: el lenguaje puede convertirse en una barrera que veta el aprendizaje de los alumnos, erigiéndose así en una fuente de conflicto en la escuela. Muchas voces educativas y lingüísticas defienden la necesidad de eliminar la uniformización lingüística aplicada tradicionalmente por la escuela. Este trabajo selecciona y comenta brevemente 112 referencias que reflejan esa problemática y proponen cómo gestionarla.

At the end of the three centuries of Spanish presence in the archipelago, Spanish missionaries had written at least 120 grammars of the native languages spoken in the Philippines. With the wide linguistic diversity they found and the need to transmit the faith in all its purity, the missionary grammarians began analyzing the languages and wrote pedagogical grammars for their confreres to learn them. Initially, only the major languages were studied and learned, using Spanish and Latin models, but eventually minor languages were also added. This study examines eleven representative grammars to determine their general characteristics and, in the process, bring to light some of their authors’ contributions to the history of grammar writing and linguistics in the Philippines. A significant finding is that the linguistic pursuits undertaken in describing the languages and preparing their grammars throughout the entire Spanish colonial period, while being in synch and continuous with the development of modern linguistics in the 17th to the 19th centuries, advanced the scientific study of languages in the country as well as grammar writing involving the native languages.

Although conceptual classification has been used since ancient times to order the lexicon of a language, nothing has been said about its application in special teachings. This article deals with the methodical nomenclature designed by Francisco Fernández de Villabrille for his students at the Real Colegio de Sordomudos de Madrid, the context in which it was composed, its description and analysis and the sources that could have inspired its author.

Spanish place names are common in the Philippines due to historical reasons. Here I offer an comprehensive list of stable major place names of Spain in the National Capital Region of the Philippines (Metro Manila) and I analyze the results according to social, geographical, historical and linguistic views. I finally defend that place names are coined and evolve according to historical, social, political and economic reasons. Colonial past, population growth and globalization are the main causes for place names in Metro Manila.