Teaching and Learning Vocabulary as L2: Approaches in Spanish Textbooks

Abstract

This study examines the common pedagogical approaches of L2 Spanish textbooks that are currently used at the college-level in the United States, and investigates whether they embrace the notion of input as a key concept in aiding L2 learners in learning new vocabulary words through activities that guide them from input/comprehension to output/production in a meaningful way.  The analysis revealed that the textbooks surveyed in this study overall exhibited the common organization and presentation of the new vocabulary words. Despite these apparent similarities of organization in presenting new vocabulary, the surveyed textbooks differed in the manner in which the input-based instruction and the output-based instruction were employed. More specifically, the activities found in the surveyed textbooks exhibited varying degrees of manipulation involved in both input and output-based tasks, and they also differed in the number of input-based and output-based activities as well as in the logical progression between the two types of activities. The findings of this study suggest that the surveyed textbooks showed a predominant tendency towards the output-based instruction of vocabulary, putting an emphasis on the production of new L2 vocabulary. This study provides further evidence that the input-based instruction, despite its effectiveness of teaching and learning L2 as demonstrated in many previous studies, is not systematically incorporated into most L2 textbooks, thus implying a gap between theory and practice. 

Keywords

• Spanish textbooks,vocabulary,input-based instruction,processing instruction

İkinci Dil Öğretiminde Kelime Öğretimi ve Öğrenimi: İspanyolca Ders Kitaplarında Yaklaşımlar

Öz

Bu çalışma, şu anda Amerika Birleşik Devletleri'nde üniversite düzeyinde kullanılan ikinci dil (L2) olarak İspanyolca ders kitaplarının ortak pedagojik yaklaşımlarını incelemektedir. Bu çalışma L2 İspanyolca kitaplarının öğrenme sürecinin başından sonuna kadar anlamlı bir şekilde rehberlik eden etkinlikler yoluyla yeni sözcükler öğrenme sürecinde L2 öğrencilerine yardımcı olmada girdi kavramını anahtar bir öge olarak benimseyip benimsemediklerini araştırmaktadır. Yapılan analizler sonucunda bu çalışmada incelenen ders kitaplarının genel olarak yeni kelimeleri ortak düzen içerisinde sunduğu sonucuna varılmıştır. Yeni kelimelerin sunulma düzenindeki bu belirgin benzerliklerine rağmen, ankete katılan ders kitaplarının girdi-temelli öğretme ve çıktı-temelli öğretim uygulamalarında farklılık gösterdikleri belirlenmiştir. Daha spesifik olarak, ankete katılan ders kitaplarında bulunan faaliyetler hem girdi hem de çıktı temelli görevlerde çeşitli derecelerde değişiklik göstermişlerdir. Bunlar aynı zamanda girdi tabanlı ve çıktı tabanlı faaliyetlerin sayısı ve iki tip faaliyet arasındaki mantıksal ilerleme bakımından da farklılık göstermiştir. Bu çalışmanın bulguları, incelenen ders kitaplarının, yeni L2 kelime hazinesinin üretilmesine önem vererek, çıktı temelli kelime öğretimi yönündeki eğilimi gösterdiğini ortaya koymaktadır. Bu çalışma, daha önceki çalışmalarda gösterildiği gibi, L2 öğretme ve öğrenmenin etkinliğine rağmen, girdi tabanlı öğretimin çoğu L2 ders kitabına sistematik olarak dahil edilmediğine ve dolayısıyla teori ile pratik arasında bir boşluğa işaret ettiğine dair daha fazla kanıt sunmaktadır.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• İspanyolca ders kitapları,kelime hazinesi,girdi-tabanlı öğretim,bilgi işleme

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