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The purpose of this paper is to present and analyze the first Arabic language grammar produced in Chile, the Gramática de la Lengua Árabe [Grammar of the Arabic Language] by Luțfī 'Abd al-Badī' in 1967. To this end, we first discuss the interest that this grammar presents for the study of Arabic language learning in Chile. Secondly, we present an analysis of the grammar, highlighting its various elements, a brief biography of the author, and its possible influences. Finally, we propose some ways to pursue this research. A tentative bibliography of Luțfī 'Abd al-Badī', and an obituary are presented at the end of the article as appendices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to analyze metaphors about the social outbreak in editorials, from Diario El Sur and Diario Concepción, two of Concepción's local newspapers. The corpus was composed of 23 editorials from these newspapers. Metaphor identification was done through Discourse Dynamics Approach to Metaphor. A total of 653 metaphors was found, which was then grouped, resulting in a total sum of 268 metaphors for the analysis. In this research, the editorial perspective about the social outbreak of two local newspapers was studied through metaphor. In both media outlets, similar metaphor vehicles were used. While Diario El Sur prioritizes the need for normalization, Diario Concepción legitimates the demonstrations as an expression of social discontent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the media discourses about gender violence of Spanish and Italian newspapers on Facebook, focusing on the aggressors. Analyzing the ideology, we see if the news let infer a social or a patriarchal perspective about gender violence, considering both newspapers and users' discourses. We adopt the Critical Discourse Analysis perspective, with a linguistic-discoursive glance and with a journalistic one. And with a linguistic-cognitive-semiotic and analytical methodology. Results tell us that the Spanish and Italian press represent the aggressors through a patriarchal ideology, influencing the users' discourses. Moreover, both in the newspaper discourses and in the users', we find differences between Spanish and Italian texts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the experience of constructing the current 1st to 10th grade Language curriculum in Chile. A central underlying assumption is that the curricular text not only corresponds to an institutional authorship, but is also a discursive process in which curriculum developers and other intervening voices put into play their beliefs, ideologies and knowledge. Using a narrative approach, memories and reflections on this process were recovered through four dialogical interviews with the curriculum team. The results reveal tensions in the curricular discourse regarding the sources and contents of knowledge, as well as the conceptualization of its recipients. A discussion is offered on how the disciplinary and didactic dimensions of language and literature are integrated in the discourse and in the curricular text with definitions of the type of person and the type of society to which the curricular policy is oriented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Foreign languages educators are still looking for research methods that could allow them to embrace and comprehend the complexity of language teaching and learning. It was within this framework the methodology called action-research has been applied: to study a social situation in which the researchers faces the intention of improving it. The method was created and described by Kurt Lewin in the 1940s through his social experiments. In foreign language teaching, the term refers to a wide range of strategies implemented to improve the educational system of teaching and learning. According to their methodological principles, the research is conducted by the same person who acts and makes decisions combining the role of a researcher and a teacher. The main goal is to identify action strategies that are implemented and later subjected to observation, reflection and possible changes. In this paper the author focuses on the possibilities and limitations that the action research represents for didactics researcher. His own experience based on this methodology is a point of reference for this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dyslexia is a frequent language-based learning difficulty, and therefore, it may significantly affect learning an additional language. Students with dyslexia often struggle in a language classroom if the teacher does not alter teaching approaches and provide adequate accommodations. In the present study, we investigated the teaching practices of 16 Croatian primary and secondary school English as a foreign language teachers to see whether they are inclusive and dyslexia-friendly. The analysis of qualitative data collected through an in-depth interview, which, among others, included situational tasks, suggests that participants used inclusive practices only to some extent and their use varied depending on the phase of education (primary or secondary school). The results thus corroborate the findings of previous studies with a similar research focus. The paper also discusses participants' beliefs about accommodations and teaching approaches that are recommended for students with dyslexia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The central objective of this paper is to examine and understand the perceptions of translanguaging among the students and teachers of Polish EMI classrooms. The paper begins with a brief introduction to the topics of foreign language teaching and bilingual provision in Poland to familiarize the readers with language education in Poland. The issues of translanguaging and English Medium Instruction are defined on the succeeding pages, with a comparison of the latter term to Content and Language Integrated Learning. The empirical study is outlined then. Two cohorts of respondents: students and teachers from three different schools were observed and interrogated with the use of surveys and questionnaires about their perceptions of translanguaging in the EMI classrooms. In addition, several statements concerning their attitudes towards the model of translanguaging have been delineated in the last part of the article to validate the quantitative results of the study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic literacy studies have shown that the main weakness manifested by students who join an academic community are focused on the difficulty of texts comprehension from their discipline. The lexicon plays an important role on this point, since the quantity and quality of the personal lexicon will influence this process. In the case of this paper, we will present the results of the normative study applied to students of the Faculty of Education of a Chilean regional university to measure the variables of concretion and familiarity. The surveys that make up this study were created from a base of 536 words, obtained from five compulsory bibliographical references of an area of sociology of education through computational analysis and refined according to criteria of extension, initial syllable and frequency. The conclusions of the paper shows that the relationships between both indices are linear, but not strong, which validates the hypothesis that the more familiar a word is, the more concrete it is perceived by the speaker. The data also establish that the words that are perceived as unfamiliar and not very specific are the least, although their distribution does not respond to a normal curve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through the analysis of a corpus of 12 testimonies of children who have remained in contact with their heritage languages (HL) in different virtual contexts, this paper analyses the potentials and shortcomings of the aforementioned technological media, as well as the preferences detected. In order to get closer to the network of beliefs that these students hold about their HL, we launched a narrative proposal in which they would portray themselves as learners (in the case of participating in virtual classes), but, especially, as global consumers of networks and channels in these languages. The ultimate aim would be not to overlook these representations, with a view to incorporating them into the training of future teachers in multilingual contexts. The first results point to a preference for face-to-face vs. online teaching, shared television consumption in the family and a prevalence of the telephone as an anchor with their speech community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper sets out the result of a didactic experience carried out within the framework of the subject of English Language Didactics, part of the Master's Degree in Teacher Training for Compulsory Secondary Education and Baccalaureate, Vocational Training and Language Teaching, given at an online university. For this reason, the subjects of this piece of research are future English teachers who are studying their degree online. Digital competence should be fostered at the university stage, as an intrinsic part of students' training as future teachers. Therefore, examining students' self-perception can be a starting point for implementing programmes to improve this competence. In order to measure their self-perception, they answer a questionnaire at the beginning and at the end of the subject. This is a subject in which the teacher introduces numerous digital tools, both in the synchronous online classes, as well as for asynchronous activities, thinking about the future teaching practice of the students. The result of the experience has shown that the students' self-perception concerning their digital competence decreases when they become aware of the high number of tools they were unfamiliar with before starting the subject. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lexical verbs are crucial in English for Academic Purposes (EAP) due to their undeniable contribution to major EAP functions such as discussing, hypothesising, comparing, or reviewing literature. The present paper intends to provide a comparative corpus-based analysis of how lexical English academic verbs (EAVs) are used in linguistics research articles (RAs), by both native (N) and non-native (NN) English scholars, as well as different linguistic classifications to categorise them in a meaningful manner. The N and NN corpora of study have been exploited with WordSmith Tools, the results showing that, although no significant differences can be appreciated between Ns and NNs, the former tend to use a (slightly) wider range and larger number of EAVs. Results also shed light on usage preferences and differences as regards verb forms1 and classes, as well as on frequency patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports the use of address terms including 'you' directed by young adult university students towards other family members. the data for this study was collected via questionnaire among 50 native speakers of Malay in Malaysia in 2016. All participants were students at Universiti Putra Malaysia and aged between 20-23 years old. the respondents were asked, among other things, in English to indicate the second person form of address they used when addressing a range of interlocutors in a range of contexts. they were able to select from a range of options, i.e. Kin terms (Kt), Short Name (SN), Pronoun (Pr), Mixed Category (MC), and Full Name (FN) in the questionnaire. the Mixed category refers to the combination of two forms of address, for instance Kt+SN. this paper presents only the findings relating to the family domain. The results show an overwhelming propensity to use kin terms, as a sign of respect, when speaking to other relatives. this occurs without exception with older adults, such as parents and grandparents. While relatives' age and status are factors, gender however, plays no role. this study also revealed a striking pattern different from findings of other studies particularly in the treatment of siblings and cousins where cousins were the only group addressed with the prenominal 'you' meanwhile previous studies of address terms in other languages indicated no distinctions in the address between the two. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing interest in the development of writing in tertiary education has led to the emergence of a great diversity of programs which aim to support students in the task of communicating academically within their disciplines. Considering this context, this paper presents some of the theoretical options and strategic actions carried out in order to develop a writing program in Chilean tertiary education. The integration of diverse theoretical approaches is discussed, with focus on the contributions of each theory for the main purposes of the program. In addition, strategic decisions related to the development of the program are described, advancing its relevance for the creation of a writing program that acknowledges the needs and ruling principles of the institution where it emerges, in order to develop an organic relation with it. The paper aims to contribute to the domain of writing programs in Chile and Latin America, proposing a model that could address the growing need of teaching writing tertiary institutions face in these contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing interest in creole languages has heightened the need for grammar descriptions of them. Sierra Leone Krio, an English-derived creole, is not an exception. However, the research regarding this language has tended to focus on the semantic area rather than on syntax; there is little grammar description available on Krio, and with respect to conditionals, no work has been done. The aim of this paper is to analyze the actual interrelation of the components in Krio conditional sentences as well as to determine the importance of Tense, Aspect and Mood (TAM) markers in these syntactic constructions. The results of the research described here show that conditionals in Krio are made up of two constituents and that markers do account for tense. These results may contribute to the emerging development of Krio grammar use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technology has revolved and changed communication in the present digital era. In recent years, the use of emoji has quickly widespread and they have become extremely popular; consequently they are present in many forms of daily life communication. The function of emoji is to introduce more emotion to written texts; something that is more complicated to make by only using words. This paper aims at analyzing the power of emoji on Dating Apps. To this purpose, this research analyzes how the variables of gender, age, and sexual orientation influence on the choice of other profiles, and if these users introduce emoji to their profile description on Dating Apps. In this research, there were 145 participants who filled in a survey, in which they had to confirm if they liked 9 anonymous profiles with no picture. One third of these profiles only included text, another third only contained emoji, and the last third mixed both text and emoji. Results show how the variables of gender, age, and sexual orientation make that some participants were more willing to use emoji than others and if they were more attracted by other users' profiles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the authors evaluate the reading skills of students finishing Primary Education in the Autonomous City of Melilla (Spain), and analyse the relation between the degree of 'reading comprehension' and the different 'reading processes' (literal, reorganizational, inferential and critical), as well as the relation with the texts employed in the study (literary, informative and interpretative). In order to achieve this, empirical-analytical research has been carried out, with an ex-post-facto descriptive study using a sample of 620 Year 6 students from ten schools, to which the ACL-6 test was applied. It is concluded that only 30% of the students surpass the comprehension level corresponding to their age. More than half have difficulty in all the 'reading processes', slightly fewer in the 'literal', and the degree of 'comprehension' is similar in the different types of text worked with, although worse in the 'informative' and 'interpretative'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we deal with an area of possession in Spanish, that of the prenominal possessive adjective, one of the most frequently used resources to express possession in Spanish. We place special emphasis on the form that refers to the third grammatical person su(s), prenominal modifier of a noun with which it forms a noun phrase that expresses a relation of possession, in which the prenominal possessive refers to the possessor entity as that the noun refers to the possessed entity. We propose that this form performs a series of functions, additional to its basic function of possession, some of more syntactic basis, others related to pragmatic-discursive factors: i) it is a discursive resource of topic retrieval; ii) it is a disambiguating element in constructions in which it presents more than one possible referent in the context; iii) is a resource that in certain discursive contexts encodes possession with expressive values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Among other textual and multimodal resources (GIF, stickers and meme), emojis are elements that allow, increasingly, managing much of expressiveness in digital written interaction. In fact, they function as contextualization keys of statements. Our research aims to investigate some emojis interpretative diversity and explain some features that they fulfil. Continuing a previous investigation, which allowed us to identify the emojis most used in messaging environments (in particular, WhatsApp), this paper analyzes data from two surveys applied to 70 speakers, frequent users of social networks. Based on different questions, we request to indicate how they value and interpret emojis without context and with context. The results indicate that the most commonly used emojis are more monosemantic and they express positive evaluative content, so that suggests a certain consensus of interpretation. On the contrary, the under-utilized emojis presented greater polysemy but, in such cases, the context allows the disambiguation of their meaning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Delimitation is an essential requirement for our trade with external stimuli to produce a cognitive experience. The processing of a complex of dynamic stimuli requires its segmentation into temporal-individuals (Situations), a segmentation operationalized in the languages through the constitution of limits. The properties that define the different types of linguistic limits do not all correspond to extralinguistic realities, they also result from impositions of 'design' provided by cognitive and communicative factors, respectively, presuppositions and implicatures. The objective of this paper is to identify different types of limits that segment the Situations in Spanish to define them later in terms of an integration of semantic, cognitive and pragmatic properties. The methodology consists of, first, exhausting the description in terms of truth conditions of the content that constitutes a limit in an expression to then show the insufficiency of that description and thus finally resorting to pragmatic categories to grasp it" [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The starting point of this work is Talmy's analysis (1985, 2000) of the semantic composition of movement events and his distinction between verbal frame languages -Spanish and Romance languages- in which the Trajectory is encoded in the verb and the Manner is expressed in an attached satellite, and the languages of satellite frame -Indo-European, except Romance languages, Latin, Chinese, and Russian- in which the verb codifies the Manner and the Trajectory is expressed on a satellite. In this paper some cases are studied that depart from the lexicalization patterns mentioned for the languages of verbal frame and those of satellite frame and which are characterized by the fusion in the verbal root of the movement and the Figure. For the analysis of the examples, the aspectual nature of the events involved in the constructions analyzed and semantic distinctions such as scalarity and gradualness will be taken into account (Rapaport & Levin 2010). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to characterize, from the perspective of generative grammar, two expressions associated with mood that appear in Spanish in contact with Guarani (especially in Paraguay): lento and un poco, which are correlated with similar forms used in Rioplatense Spanish and in Guarani. In particular, we explore the possibility of analysing both elements as 'attenuators', which are described by the pragmatic-grammatical literature as elements that are used to mitigate or relativize the impact of the assertions in a specific strategy of politeness (cfr. Caffi 1999), or to deactivate the illocutive force of an act (Landone 2009). We believe that the notion of attenuation cannot be subsumed into other grammatical features, as 'possibility' or 'approximation', both related to the epistemic mood, and that it can be integrated in a generative analysis, in particular, in the cartographic analysis summarized in Cinque & Rizzi (2016), combined with the proposal of the categorial projections Sv, Sa, Sn in the framework of Distributed Morphology (cf. Marantz 2001). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Andean Spanish varieties in contact with Quechua and Aymara indirect evidential and mirative values are documented for the pluperfect. Furthermore, the perfecto compuesto (=English Present Perfect) usually adopts a purely aoristive value, i. e. ha venido (lit. (s)he has come) 'he came', but additionally expressing direct evidence. This paper aims at tackling the evidential values of haber + participle as derived from the interrelation between temporal units, an idea previously adopted in the study of other languages. Namely, it is proposed here that the nature of the evidence derives from the interaction between the event time and an 'evidence time', in which the speaker has evidence available to assert p, so that the overlap between both times indicates direct evidence and the lack of overlapping indirect evidence. This allows to explain, in addition, the apparent contradiction posed by certain uses of the pluperfect where the evidence is direct, e. g. habías sido vos, lit. 'it had been you' [while seeing the hearer]: there the overlap is partial, so that there is indirect evidence of the initial subinterval and direct evidence of the final subinterval. Adding speech time (or some equivalent evaluation time) to this schema additionally allows to account for the mirative values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The linguistic impact of the use of literature in an EFL context has been widely studied by different researchers (Quirk and Widdowson 1985; Chapman 1982; Maley 1989). However, a new line of research has emerged recently on the grounds of the theory of reception applied to EFL situations (Carlisle, 2000; Liaw, 2001; Larson, 2009; Khatib, 2011; Shin & Riazantzeva, 2015; Bjelland, 2016). Although this theory was not originally intended for EFL students but for native speakers and competent readers able to take an active role in the reading process, the applications have yielded interesting evidence about the reader who is also a student of English. This paper explores the perceptions of gender roles in three of Virginia Woolf's stories as well as the students' expectations in the reading process. The findings also suggest pedagogical implications for EFL learning at advanced levels given the complexity and sophistication of the language generated by students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper elaborates on the theoretical principles that have oriented the design of reading and writing programs and on the strategies that have been followed in their implementation. It aims to offer generalizations that can be useful to different institutional and geographical contexts. Different relevant issues are theoretically discussed: Literacy programs' teaching objects; appropriate methodologies for effective learning and teachers' role in this process; professional teams to whom assign this responsibility; and, consequently, the institutional place of a program of this kind. Additionally, the fundamental strategies that contribute to the implementation of these programs are explored, specially taking into account the need to sustain in time these initiatives across the different degrees in the universities and higher educational institutions where they would be implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the theoretical and practical implications of an academic writingteaching innitiative which emphasizes the role of the teacher and peer tutor as active observers of the different discursive forms of their disciplines, based on the analysis of their own literacy practices, through the identification of the functions and prototypical structures of academic texts in use and their role in the construction of knowledge. Since 2014, the program has promoted the implementation of this model, through tutorial support to students and pedagogical support to teachers to promote these skills across the curriculum, with the purpose not only of developing verbal skills, but also epistemological and heuristics that allow all actors to validate and consolidate their discursive and disciplinary knowledge based on the reflection on their literacies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to propose a basic SFL account of Spanish clause moods from the viewpoint of the paradigmatic relations defining their organisation into systems, and the structural patterns motivating such organisation. First, the discourse-semantic motivations of this account are addressed, that is, basic speech functions are related to the distinction into imperative, declarative and interrogative clauses. Moving onto the lexicogramatical stratum, these distinctions are then reviewed as interpersonal choices in a mood system, in close relation to structural patterns motivating, in specific ways, the organisation of such choices in Spanish. The approach proposed here is assumed to have key implications both for comparison across languages already described in SFL terms, and for descriptive work focused on Spanish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we examine the most relevant syntactic-textual similarities and differences between interrogative infinitives in Spanish and in French. In order to do so, we analyse two corpora consisting of 250 texts, basing our criteria on previous studies and own observations. The results of our study contribute to contrastive linguistics, particularly to the syntactic-textual studies of the independent infinitives in both languages. Our results indicate that the most important similarities are that 85% of both corpora are partial interrogative infinitives. Besides, more than 70% of these partial interrogative infinitives appear in the titles and sub-titles of different jussive texts. The most relevant difference is that in the French corpus we found a greater significant quantity of interrogative infinitives than in the Spanish corpus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the first part of our paper, we will present the main results of a study about background languages' role (Spanish L1 and English L2) in French L3 interlanguage construction through the analysis of some syntactic transfers in structures like "Verb + (Preposition) + Noun phrase or Infinitive" and "Verb + Object pronoun". We analyzed 484 written productions made in 2013 and 2014 by 28 first-year students of the Translation/Interpretation program of Universidad de Concepción, in Chile. In the second part, we will use these results to outline some didactic principles concerning these particular grammatical structures. We want to propose some work and reflection guidelines to foreign language teachers who deal with similar multilingual teaching/learning situations and we hope we can show them why it is important to be aware of background languages' influence in a third language acquisition process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper analyzes the debates which were held during the 1944 National Constituent Assembly, which was known to be the most progressive one Ecuador had during the 20th century. Such Assembly was also the first one to recognize Quechua language, though it did not acknowledge the right to vote to illiterates. This recognition would have meant an advance in the indigenous peoples´ pursue for their rights and the possibility for them to be politically positioned. This period was also characterized by Velasco Ibarra's strong presence, which had an influence on the derogation of the 1945 Constitution. The aim of this paper is to identify which were the factors that influenced the denial to universal suffrage. Finally this work also analyzes Velasco´s speech about the mestizo within the context of Ecuador joining United Nations. This will allow us to understand his vision on national culture and the reasons which led him to derogate linguistic diversity rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we review the relation between politics, language planning and metalinguistic reflections about the Mapudungun language in the first half of the 17th century in Chile. This was a decisive time as the strategies and planning of the spiritual conquest of the indigenous people were being discussed and planned out. Luis de Valdivia, a Jesuit from Granada, was the main proponent in explaining the defensive war. Valdivia's work can be considered missionary linguistics, and within it one can differentiate between metalinguistics and religious instruction. In this paper we focus on his metalinguistic writings and we describe his Arte y gramática (1606), a piece which we understand as a methodological, systematic way of implementing the defensive war, and as a result of the institutionalization of the predominating discourse of the Catholic Church and the Spanish throne in order to conquer Latin America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to define the features of the periphrasis be 'estar' + participle, versus the same verb be 'estar' + participle, in not periphrastic but attributive structures, in current Spanish language. From a literary corpus of different genres, the analysis of the constructions includes both syntactic and semantic factors to discriminate the properties of the periphrasis from those of the attributive structure; and it also compares the structures be 'estar' + participle and be 'ser' + participle, a highly grammaticalized periphrasis, in order to prove that they have similar syntactic behavior, and therefore they are members of the same paradigm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we analyze the use, during 2010 and 2011, of the phrases "Bicentennial Generation" and "Bicentennial Youth" in public speeches by the ex President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. We believe that the reference of the phrase develops a series of changes: first, "Bicentennial Generation" refers to the generation of Cristina Fernandez and, after a coexistence of both meanings, it refers to today's youth. In order to understand the change, we will observe the social action in which the text is involved and the different assessments and modalizations that are ascribed to the phrase "Bicentennial Generation". We will take analysis tools from Socio-Discursive Interactionism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to defend the need to change the way of teaching the history of literature. To do this, we start from the premise that such a change must be generated as early as in the teacher training. Thus, we show, first, an anthropological (in both meanings -"holistic" and "human") conception of literature, based on the concept of "context of production" and, secondly, we offer a teaching experience with undergraduate students from a Spanish university, where we decided to test the template of literary analysis, in general, with great results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the early days of the internet, researchers have been interested in the distinctive use of language in digital settings. One particular feature is the use of emoticons, sequences of punctuation marks that represent facial expressions and which have recently been replaced by emoji, little colourful pictographs. Despite their popularity, research on emoji is still in its infancy. The present paper contributes to the study of emoji by testing one of the findings identified in linguistic research on typographic emoticons, namely that they may function as punctuation marks in computer-mediated communication. A corpus of messages in Spanish sent through the smartphone application WhatsApp was retrieved and chats containing emoji were selected and analysed. Quantitative analysis showed that emoji were used similarly to final punctuation marks. Nevertheless, a discursive analytical approach to the corpus revealed that emoji and punctuation do not carry out the same functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several studies have reported the quasi-exclusive inclusion of cultural elements of a given country in foreign language textbooks that teach this country's first\second language. This research builds on the findings of these studies by carrying out cross-language analyses. First, it establishes geolinguistic boundaries in a set of international English as a foreign language textbooks and French as a foreign language textbooks by looking into the frequencies of words that refer to geographical places and origins in 1,853 texts. Then, it uncovers the criteria lying behind the definition of these boundaries. Indeed, this paper identifies four geolinguistic areas in either set of textbooks: a "core target language speaking area", an "extended target language speaking area", a "mutual influence area" and a "remote area". It also argues that the identification of the contents of these four geolinguistic areas in a given international foreign-language textbook would supply foreign language teaching professionals with information on the conception of the speaking world of the target language that learners may receive from this textbook. Furthermore, this identification may be useful for finding out whether it contains geolinguistic areas whose contents match foreign language learners' learning needs and wants. It may be used to supplement if it includes geolinguistic areas whose contents are not included [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Linguistic communication goes from the reality and the semantics to the syntactic expression (perspective of the sender) and from the syntactic expression to the semantics and the reality (perspective from the recipient). It is the task of linguists to place at the disposal of the scientific community and therefore of teachers and students instruments of description and interpretation that allow them to understand and retrace mentally the processes of phrase formation and accordingly to produce well-formed sentences in an explicit way. Traditional and modern formalistic grammars offer ways and methods of analysis that are insufficient in order to master communication semantically and pragmatically. In this paper we offer a propositional method that allows to make analytically explicit the triad syntax - pragmatics -semantics [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we analyze some contributions made by intonation - specifically pitch level choices- to the organization of interactive discourse. The corpus comprises narrative fragments embedded in 60 casual conversations among university students aged between 18- 28 from different universities in Argentina. We adopt the theoretical framework of Systemic Functional Liguistics (Halliday y Matthiessen 2004, Martin y Rose 2008) and the Theory of Discourse Intonation (Brazil 1997, Granato 2005). We analyze the meaning projected by pitch level both at the micro level of the utterance and/or dyad and at the meso level of narrative fragments. The analysis reveals that pitch level choices at the local level make a substantial contribution to the co-construction of coherence; while at the meso level they contribute to the characterization of narrative fragments [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Causal constructions are a type of improper adverbial subordinate constructions. As it has been previously analyzed, causal conjunctions in different languages are specialized in different types of interpretation. In Spanish, conjuncion que and como que can be used in subordinate contexts or introducing an independent sentence. In this paper, I will search for the special values of que and como que in causal interpretations: when they head a subordinate structure or an independent sentence. Following Garrido (2013) I will accept that speaker can connect two constituents in the discourse. The mechanisms that allow speakers connect two sentences can vary and depend on the conjunction. In causal constructions, the source of information and the speaker's volition are the ways to connect two sentence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we examine the most relevant syntactic features that characterize a corpus consisting of fifty baseball headlines and their relationship with the rest of the article. In this study, we wish to compare and contrast syntactic characteristics between the baseball headlines and the articles. First, we identified the syntactic features in the headlines, more specifically the type of construction and its configuration. After that, we examined the articles identifying anaphors and verbal tenses and moods. The most important feature we found is that the main referent, which is presented in the headline in the form of brief noun phrases,is reconsidered very regularly throughout the article through a diversity of noun phrases of different lengths. Moreover, although verbal moods and tenses of the headlines do not coincide with those of the baseball article, there is perfect cohesion and coherence in the journalistic text as a whole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The morpheme-based model faces itself with troubles at describing discontinuous morphemes, as well as other ill-behaved morphemes from a structural point of view (empty, accumulative, substitutive, etc.). The analysis of the parasynthetic word-formation in Spanish results problematic because the notion of linearity is violated and the binary formation of the words is broken. In this paper, we present an analysis of the causative verbs in /enXar/ of the type embotellar, 'to bottle', through a model that establishes schematic relationships among words. Through the bidirectional scheme: [/enXar/V 'poner x'] ↔ [/X/N 'x'], (embotellar, 'to bottle') ↔ (botella, 'bottle'), that relates verbs with nominal forms, we demonstrate this analysis is more relevant from a cognitive point of view because it is more attached to the intuition of the speakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the field of sociolinguistics, dialect variation and speech perception of English varieties have been largely studied (Giles and Powesland 1975; Labov 1972; Preston 1996), and the expected results have been empirically proved. Nevertheless, the perceptions that Spanish students of English might have concerning English variation, has received less attention. The present paper uses a series of recordings belonging to different accents of British English; a group of Spanish students are exposed to these recordings and required to fill in a questionnaire which will reflect their impressions about the varieties. The results from this study will show that students of English as a Foreign Language have been traditionally exposed almost exclusively to Standard varieties only, and that their perception of other varieties may not coincide with that of the native speakers of English; in fact, it can be very different. Moreover, the findings to be obtained in this work could have implications on the teaching of EFL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The lecture of the subject 'Discourse Analysis' for the programmes of Arts and Communication Sciences of the Faculty of Arts at the National University of Tucumán, leads us to argue that the systematic processing of the concepts of 'community', 'genre', 'competence' and 'strategy' is unavoidable to ensure the students' development of critical reading and writing skills, that are basics in order to undertake research in the context of discourse studies. The approach of these concepts, with their respective terminological questioning, has become a very useful teaching tool. The diagnosis made is the generator of this paper that is intended as a theoretical reflection on the relevance that these notions assume in the context of teaching and learning processes in the curricular subject 'Discourse Analysis', in order to offer an alternative instrument that enables to optimize the performance of teaching practices in this field of application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to analyse the most common errors produced by a group of speakers of Chilean Spanish, learners of English as a second language, when pronouncing consonant segments. The corpus includes 540 sentences recorded by two groups of students of the Bachelor's degree in English language and literature at Universidad de Chile. One group is composed by third-year students and the second group is formed by students of fourth (and last) year of the same program. Once the sentences were recorded, the researchers analyzed the deviances in the pronunciation of consonant sounds by contrasting them to the ideal forms established by pronouncing dictionaries of the standard variety of English known as Received Pronunciation. The results show that the most common deviances, in both groups, are those caused by graphemic interference and that the group that committed the biggest number of deviant forms was the one composed by third-year students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines, from a historical, anthropological and linguistic perspective, various attempts to regulate the relationship between the Mapuche language and Spanish in Chile, from the activity of the first missionaries to the current efforts of the State and Mapuche intellectuals to revitalize Mapudungun in urban and rural environments. We review the contact between Mapudungun and Spanish through history as a key to understanding the processes of language planning (formal and informal, explicit and implicit) that have been developed since the first contacts between Spanish and Mapuche until today. We also analyze two initiatives that have attempted to modify the situation of the Mapuche language: the creation of a unified alphabet of Mapudungun and the constitution of the Mapuche Language Academy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mexico is a country with very rich culture and languages, however, indigenous languages are at risk of disappearing due to certain factors that cause that cause their replacement by the Spanish language. In recent times (2003) it was published the General Law of Linguistics Rights of Indigenous Peoples (LGDLPI by its Spanish acronym) which aims to preserve and develop the indigenous languages. This paper analyzes the situation of indigenous languages in their social context: on the one hand, there is a law in their favor and the other, a reality where their speakers are discriminated. The study confronts that which is established by the law and the specific situation of the speakers, which has caused the loss and replacement of their language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper shows the scientific contribution of Dr. Rodolfo Lenz, German scholar, to the knowledge of Mapuche or Mapudungu(n), the main indigenous language of Chile, and the culture associated with it. His task was therefore ethnolinguistic, based on data obtained from competent native speakers. More than a century later, his work is still valid, and its knowledge is mandatory for those seeking to explore thoroughly the Mapuche culture and language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the dilemma of whether or not to use adaptations of literary texts as pedagogical resources in EFL teaching at the secondary level. This presentation stems from a theoretical framework, which describes some of the various forms of rewriting and analyzes, from both a social and literary perspective, the most frequently used mechanisms of adaptation; as well as the informative function it plays in the field of education. In particular, this work takes Genette's, Soriano's and Lefevere's contributions. Secondly, it shows the results of a survey to a group of teachers on the place of literature in their classes and the reasons for that place. The results of the survey led to a debate initiated at the forum of the International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language on adapting or not literary texts for their use in the EFL class. The conclusion proposes breaking with the elitism based on the supposed quality of readings and comes up with the using of adaptations as the possible starting point of the path towards reading the original text. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper inquires into the asymmetrical phenomenon of the absence of T-to-C movement in embedded wh-interrogatives. In the light of the hypothesis that both matrix and embedded wh-interrogatives display a constant interpretative effect, it is shown that what surfaces as interrogativity in embedded clauses is not the result of a positively marked [+wh]-feature passed from a selecting verb to the complementiser. Instead, it is the derivative effect of CP's argumental decomposition due to the deficient case assignment between [V[v]] and [C]. What then in standard analyses is postulated to be a representational interrogative feature in complementary distribution with T-to-C movement, in the present analysis is shown to be the materialisation of the deficiency in accusative case assignment, analysed as a function inverse to T-to-C movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on an experiment in which virtual agents in a computer simulated program were set up to assimilate the evolution of lexical agreement based on Complex Adaptive Systems theory (Lee & Schumann 2003, Waldrop, 1992), and Artificial Life (Kirby 2002). Prior studies (Matsen & Nowak 2004; Kirby 2001) have shown that, through iterated learning, computer agents can agree to map a sign to a single referent. In the current experiment, initially agents were randomly assigned to different letter signs. A simple rule based on cellular automata environment (Wolfram 2002) allowed agents to either converge with the sign of their neighbor or change the sign of their neighbor to one similar to theirs. Results of the experiment showed that only under certain conditions could a general consensus on meaning-signal mapping be achieved. If agents had a very loose rule that involved maximum degrees of freedom for agreeing with the neighboring agents, the environment became unstable and no consensus was reached. Similarly, a strict rule with few degrees of freedom produced clusterization with no overall agreement in the environment. The optimal situation for a consensus was achieved under the condition in which agents had more degrees of freedom to agree with a neighboring agent, as well as having less heterogeneity of signs. Furthermore, it is discussed that contrary to biological evolution, patterns of organization such as lexical agreement can emerge out of mere agents' interaction with one another without the need for the presence of an advantageous trait in the agent as required by Darwinian evolution through natural selection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]