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Caitlin E. Samples

The University of Georgia

caitlin.samples@uga.edu

2^oCongreso Internacional Virtual de Investigación en la Enseñanza-Aprendizaje de Lenguas y Culturas

May 11-13, 2023

Task-Based Activities for the Teaching of Possessive Structures to L1 Spanish-L2 English Learners

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Introduction

Both definite and possessive determiners can head possessive determiner phrases (DPs) in Spanish and English.

My house/mi casa
I hit myself on the head
Me rasco la cara

However, the contexts in which each determiner type occurs do not necessarily overlap between languages (Solano-Escobar 2021).

This lack of overlap between Spanish and English could lead to difficulties for L1 Spanish-L2 English learners (see del Pozo de la Viuda 1995).

L2 textbooks do not always devote a lot of attention to these differences.

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The interactions of syntax with other linguistic modules.

Key syntactic and semantic differences between Spanish and English possessive structures.

The learning task for L1 Spanish-L2 English students.

Task-based activities.

Agenda

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How Syntax Interfaces with Other Linguistic Modules

White (2009), cited in Rothman & Slabakova (2011).

Internal Interfaces

External Interfaces

Narrow Syntax

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Basic Possessive Structure Syntax

Internal Possessive DP

Su coche/cara

His car/face

External Possessive DP

José_i perdió el_i móvil/se_i lava la_i cara

…Joe_i lost the_i cell phone/washes the_*i/j face

Joe_i was hit in the_i face

owned item

owner

Pérez-Leroux, et al. (2002:189)

[pro]

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Map of European Languages with and without Dative External Possessive DPs

Haspelmath (1999:7)

without

with

Joe_i was hit in the_i face

José_i se_i lava la_i cara

Joe_i washes his_i face

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Syntax and Semantics: English vs. Spanish

Inalienable Possession	Alienable Possession
Peter_i raises his_i/the_*i hand	Peter_i raises his_i/the_i hand
Pedro_i levanta su_i/la_i mano	Pedro_i levanta su_i/la_i mano

Montrul & Ionin (2012:81)

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Inalienable Possession Structures: Spanish vs. English

Solano-Escobar (2021:27)

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The Learning Task for L1 Spanish-L2 English Speakers

Discontinue possessor movement from Spec, NP to Spec, DP (Pérez Leroux, et al. 2002).

By acquiring this property, learners can transition from using external possessive structures to internal ones.
Del Pozo de la Viuda (1995) found that some learners continued to use definite determiners in non-target-like contexts.

Narrow the range of interpretations available to definite determiners (Montrul & Ionin 2012).

From both alienable and inalienable interpretations interpretations to only alienable interpretations.

Align their uses of internal and external possessive structures with native-speaker uses (Solano-Escboar 2021).

Will this happen? At which stage?

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What is Task-Based Learning and Teaching (TBLT)?

“Teaching that is based entirely on tasks. Such teaching makes use of a procedural syllabus” (Ellis 2003:351).

Procedural syllabus: “consist[s] of a graded set of tasks to be performed by the learners” (Ellis 2003:348).

Characteristics of tasks (Ellis 2003:9-10):

“workplan[s]” with a specific end goal
students can listen, read, speak, and/or write
“cognitive processes,” i.e., the types of activities learners do while executing the task
“real-world communication”

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Advantages of TBLT

Several advantages of TBLT have been noted (Richards & Rodgers 114:176-177, citing Leaver & Kaplan 2004:61 and Richards, forthcoming).

Course outcomes: better able to correct errors; have “greater curricular flexibility.”

Student attitudes: feel less bored, more motivated; enjoy class more.

Student communication: learn to convey desired meaning and communicate faster.

Student performance: take risks; “learn…how to learn;” perform better with language.

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Pedagogic Task

These are “[t]asks designed to elicit communicative language use in the classroom, e.g., Spot-the-difference. Such tasks do not necessarily bear any resemblance to real-world tasks although they are intended to lead to patterns of language use similar to those found in the real world” (Ellis 2003:347).

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Teachers would select two images depicting possession, such as these.

Students describe the similarities and differences between the images using possessive sentences.

Pedagogic Task

https://staywise.co.uk/public/resource/interactive-spot-the-difference-road-safety

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Text Reconstruction Task

“A task that requires learners to read or listen to a text that has been seeded with a specific structure and subsequently to reconstruct it as accurately as possible” (Ellis 2003:352) is a text reconstruction task.

Examples of these texts are what Wajnryb (1990, cited in Ellis 2003:341) calls dictoglosses. Students hear these twice, and then repeat them.

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Text Reconstruction Task

The teacher constructs a text containing possessive structures with varied determiner types (possessive, definite, indefinite).

Fred is very sick. His head and neck hurt. His nose is congested, as well. He goes to the doctor. At the clinic, his doctor examines him. The doctor tells Fred to open his mouth and stick out his tongue. He notices that Fred’s throat is very inflamed. Fred has an infection. He needs to take some medicine. He picks it up and goes home. He spends the next two days in bed.

Students listen to it twice, and then retell it with a classmate.

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Reasoning-Gap Task

Reasoning-gap tasks, which Prabhu (1987) notes are different from information- or opinion-gap tasks, “require…participants to engage in reasoning, e.g., synthesizing the information provided and deducing new facts, in order to perform [them] successfully.” (Ellis 2003:349).

The teacher creates a “whodunit” exercise that contains various forms of possessive structures. Students collaborate to solve the mystery.

Who do you think stole David’s lunch? Use these sentences as clues.

Christopher was in his class.
Alexa’s stomach was hurting.
Mary was at home.
Peter was in the office.
Robbie was on the playground.
Tina went to the restroom.

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Target Task

Ellis (2003:351) defines target tasks as those activities “found in the real world, e.g., making a theatre booking or filling out a cheque.”

Students practice using possessive sentences by completing a medical intake form for an invented malady.

They role-play with another classmate to go over the form in a doctor-patient type dialogue.

Blanco & Donley (2016)

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Advanced Consciousness-Raising Task

Consciousness-raising tasks “engage…learners in thinking and communicating about language. Thus, a language point becomes the topic that is talked about” (Ellis 2003:341).

Students browse a text chosen by the teacher and look for possessive sentences. They note which determiners have been used and in which contexts (with clothes, body parts, family terms, other nouns) (see Cardona 2016 for examples on Spanish).

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Concluding Thoughts and Future Directions

Although the use of possessive determiners in possessive contexts receives some attention in L2 English textbooks, the variety of contexts in which these determiners occur needs to be considered in L2 instructional materials.

Next steps:

Create an Internet corpus of informal L2 and HL writings available to language teachers.

Provide task-based teaching resources to language instructors on the same site: https://tinyurl.com/posstblt.

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Selected References

Blanco, J. A., & Donley, P. R. (2016). Activities manual for Vistas: Introducción a la lengua española. Vista Higher Learning.
Brandl, K. (2008). Communicative Language Teaching in Action: Putting Principles to Work. Pearson Prentice Hall.
Cardona, M. D. (2016). ”La enseñanza de las construcciones pasivas e impersonales con se en E/LE. ¿Cuántas distinciones son necesarias?” Didáctica. Lengua y Literatura 27: 73-96.
Conti, C. (2011). “Possessive datives revisited: Another view of external possession in Spanish.” Studia Linguistica: A Journal of General Linguistics 65, 2: 170-197.
Haspelmath, M. (1999). “External possession in a European areal perspective.” In Barshi, I., & Payne, D. (eds.), External Possession, 109-135. Benjamins.
Kliffer, M. D. (1994). “Gradience, determiners and null possessors: Revisiting French inalienable syntax.” LINGUISTICA atlantica 16: 59-84.
Kockelman, P. (2009). “Inalienable possession as a grammatical category and discourse pattern.”
Lemos, M. (2021). “A task-based needs analysis of Portuguese for business at the college level.” Atlanta, GA: AATSP conference.
MacWhinney, B. (2000). The CHILDES Project: Tools for analyzing talk. Third Edition. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Mendes, F. (2017). “Acquisition of inalienable possessive structures: the case of body part names in American English and Brazilian Portuguese.” Revista de Estudos da Linguagem, Belo Horizonte 25, 3:1567-1611.
Mitchell, R., Myles, F., Domínguez, L., Marsden, E., Arche, M. J., & Boardman, T. (2006-2008). Spanisj Learner Language Oral Corpora I. http://www.splloc.soton.ac.uk/index.html.
Pérez-Leroux, A. T., O’rourke, E., Lord, G., & Centero-Cortes, B. (2002). “Inalienable possession in L2 Spanish.” In Pérez-Leroux, A. T., & Muñoz Liceras, J. (eds.), The Acquisition of Spanish Morphosyntax, 179-208.
Richards, J. C., & Rodgers, T. S . (2014). Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching. 3rd ed. Cambridge University Press.
Rothman, J., & Slabakova, R. (2011). “The mind-context divide: On acquisition at the linguistic interfaces.” Lingua 121: 568-576.
Samples, C. E. (2022). “Possessive determiner phrases in Spanish: The intersection of number and meaning.” San Juan, PR: AATSP conference.
Solano-Escobar, L. (2021). The Interpretation and Production of Inalienable Possession in L2 and Heritage Spanish. [Unpublished MA thesis]. Purdue University.
Vergnaud, J.-R., & Zubizarreta, M. L. 1992. “The definite determiner and the inalienable constructions in French and in English.” Linguistic Inquiry 23, 4: 595-652.