Task-Based III: Expanding the Range of Tasks with Online Resources

NOS VAMOS DE VIAJE:

CONTENT INTEGRATION THROUGH TASK

Laura Marqués Pascual

University of California, Santa Barbara
Alvaro Llosa Sanz
University of California, Davis

ABSTRACT

This paper presents a task-based project in which the use of several web-based
applications has been combined and incorporated in order to integrate the four language
skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. The project, Nos vamos de viaje
(http://nosvamosdeviaje.wikispaces.com), is a comprehensive Web-based activity
involving the task of planning a vacation to a Spanish-speaking city, designed for a
Spanish language classroom of high-beginners to intermediate L2 learners.

INTRODUCTION

Several key theories underlie the design of the task we present here. Preeminent among
these is communicative language teaching with its view of the teacher as a facilitator
leading a student-centered class (Lee & VanPatten 2003). Such an approach calls for new
learning tools that can enhance students’ performance as self-learners. We employ one of
those new tools—a wiki, a multi-collaborative dynamic web-based space—in the activity
presented here. Wikis provide a means to connect students to one another and to allow
them to communicate among themselves as they develop ideas, content, and other
products of their learning process.

Additional web-based technologies enhance L2 learners’ contact with the target language
by providing students access to a wealth of authentic cultural materials that neither texts
nor individual instructors alone (or combined) can provide. The fact that texts must
artificially limit the amount of page space they dedicate to culture, and that no individual
language instructor can be a master of all cultural knowledge from every target language
country, makes promoting cultural understanding in the classroom a daunting task at best.

The use of authentic materials mediates to some extent these two challenges. Access to
authentic materials also often makes language and culture learning more meaningful for
the students. While language teachers had to collect such realia in the past, the web now
provides a means for students to gain access to these directly and on their own. By
opening an internet window students can access endless opportunities of viewing, and
even interacting with, the target language and culture. Through the use of the internet,
students can read about real people, learn about them, or even talk to them through
Laura Marqués Pascual & Alvaro Llosa Sanz Nos Vamos de Viaje: Content Integration…

computer mediated communication. They can take a virtual trip to far away countries to
which they may never go, or listen to real conversations and news broadcasts from TV
stations. Moreover, texts accompanied by video or rich images like authentic pictures
appeal to the learner’s visual memory, and provide connections that make it easier to
remember the language that accompanied the images (Underwood, 1989).

Keeping this in mind, we can use technology in the language classroom to create or
enhance those learning environments that will promote second language acquisition. The
interactionist hypothesis, which posits that the opportunity to interact in the L2 is central
to developing L2 proficiency (Gass 1997, Doughty 1998), underlies the goals of a
communicative classroom in which linguistic interaction takes place in contexts that are
as authentic as possible. Web-based technologies such as blogs, wikis or chat rooms can
encourage a learner-centered environment that favors such contexts and social
interaction. Paired with a task-based approach, the implementation of those technologies
can help us to create contexts in which L2 learners have to collaborate in order to solve a
specific task and are forced to interact and negotiate meaning when communication
breakdowns occur.

The project presented here aims to integrate the use of new technologies in the teaching
of Spanish as a foreign language, focusing on vocabulary and grammar learning in
authentic and original contexts within a task-based approach. This approach promotes the
interactive aspect that is a crucial component of communicative language teaching, and
makes the students active participants in the learning of the pragmatics of the target
language. The activities presented through the project are communicative in that they
offer students the highest level of interactivity: they permit one-on-one, personal
exchanges, as well as group discussion and individual web search of authentic materials.
These activities also combine both asynchronous (i.e. differed time) as well as
synchronous (i.e. real-time) communication, to accommodate different learning styles
and strategies, as well as to provide a relaxed, less threatening atmosphere.

Nos Vamos de Viaje: A Practical Example of a Multimedia Task-based Activity

Nos vamos de viaje (http://nosvamosdeviaje.wikispaces.com) is a comprehensive web-

based activity for a high-beginners to intermediate Spanish language classroom. It is an
interactive, multimedia project which consists of five contextualized lessons focusing on
the different steps involved in completing the task of planning a vacation to a Spanish-
speaking city. Each lesson contains a set of exercises and activities that pertain to
different steps of gathering information, reading authentic texts, negotiating meaning and
cooperating with peers. The outcome of each step prepares students for the subsequent
lesson. The activities in each lesson unit aim to promote both practice and learning of
vocabulary, grammatical structures and cultural aspects of the target language
communities. The structured organization of the project fosters process-oriented learning
through the recycling of vocabulary and grammatical structures that proves more
valuable than simple learning or practicing new lexical items and grammar in isolation.
As a by-product of having to complete the project, students gain cultural knowledge and
awareness through their exposure to authentic target language materials in the real

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context of planning a trip. In accordance with a task-based approach that focuses on form
rather than on formS (Ellis, 2005)1 students also practice vocabulary and grammatical
structures in context, integrated within the activity as a means to attain the goal of the
task.

The technological tool used in the creation of such a multimedia project is a wiki—a
collaborative space on the web where different users can work asynchronously on the
same project, editing or adding new information and/or pages. Several open-source web
resources offer different versions to create free wikis; wikispaces.com2 was used for Nos
vamos de viaje. The use of a wiki affords, in addition to text, the inclusion of images,
videos, podcasts and audio materials through easy-to-use integration techniques and the
insertion of the corresponding files. For example, a photo image, a video clip or a podcast
extracted from another internet site can be easily inserted into the wiki project as a
straightforward process that resembles the creation of an e-mail message. Thus, a wiki
offers a multi-collaborative and dynamic space that can be easily accessed and modified
by any one of the authorized multiple users. Another advantage is that it permits the
administrator to follow up on the elaboration and updating of the project, since each
addition or edit by any user is registered automatically in an accessible history, providing
the instructor with the opportunity to follow the development of any given student’s
contributions at any time.

Nos vamos de viaje was developed during the fall of 2007 for a first-quarter, second-year
Spanish class at U.C. Santa Barbara. Major topics from the textbook used in class were
chosen by the instructors who created the activity (for a list of these topics, see Appendix
A). The language classes at this institution have an enrolment limit of 25 students.
Students were taken to the language computer lab to complete the first set of activities in
each of the five lessons during one class period of 50 minutes. The 25-station language
lab in this institution is installed with a variety of language learning-supportive software,
such as Wimba, Xclass and Yackpack3, some of which are incorporated in Nos vamos de
viaje.

Though this activity was created with a particular set of learners in mind, it can be
adapted to different levels (end of the first year to second year of college instruction, or
high-beginners to intermediate learners) depending on whether it is used as a context to
introduce new materials (i.e. travel vocabulary, weather expressions, comparison
1
A focus-on-form (as opposed to focus-on-formS) approach to language teaching emphasizes a form-
meaning connection and teaches grammar within contexts and through communicative and task-based
activities (see Ellis 2005).
2
For more information on wikispaces.com, the reader is advised to visit
http://www.wikispaces.com/site/tour#introduction
3
Wimba (http://www.wimba.com/products/wimbaclassroom/) is a “live virtual classroom” software that
supports audio, video, application sharing, and content display, enabling instructors to add vitally important
elements of interaction that cannot be provided in a text-based course. Yackpack
(http://www.yackpack.com/) is a similar application, which permits voice message recording and allows
instructors to chat with their students. Both Wimba and Yackpack have to be purchased by the institutional
language laboratory. Skype or MSN Messenger can be used as alternative options and are provided free of
charge.

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structures, etc.) or to practice materials already learned in previous classes.

Each of the five lesson units that make up Nos vamos de viaje, follows a parallel structure
in terms of the activities included, and each lesson guides students through various stages
involved in the planning of a trip. The first activity of each of the five lessons provides
guided practice and structured inputs, which students complete in class (in this particular
case, in the lab) with instructor guidance. In the first lesson, ¿A dónde vamos?, students
have to decide where they would like to go, which will in turn help define the ultimate
make-up of the student work groups. In the second lesson, ¿Cómo viajamos allí?,
students decide on the means of transportation to be used to arrive at their destination,
and for the short trips within that destination. In ¿Qué necesitamos para el viaje?,
students have to create a list of clothes, documents, and other necessary items they may
need to take with them. The fourth stage, El alojamiento, deals with lodging reservations.
In the last stage ¿Qué queremos visitar?, students decide on several important sights and
places that they will visit during their trip. The trip plan and itinerary that comprises the
final product is the result of real and meaningful negotiations and exchanges among students as
they have progressed through the various steps of the project.

Lesson One: ¿A dónde vamos?

Let’s examine this concept more closely by looking at the first lesson of the activity: ¿A
dónde vamos? When planning a trip or a vacation, the first task the student needs to
resolve is where to go. Throughout this first lesson, students familiarize themselves with
two Spanish-speaking cities. By closely examining materials available on the web,
students form an opinion about these cities to decide which one they would like to visit.
Students use authentic materials, such as the four videos (taken from YouTube) posted in
this first lesson (two for each city), (see Figure 1) to accomplish this task.

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Figure 1. Front page of Nos vamos de viaje

After viewing the videos, the students brainstorm about the characteristics of these cities.
The images on these videos activate vocabulary that students should be already familiar
with (i.e. cities and places). This activity also offers the possibility of reviewing
comparisons structures (or teaching them, in context, for the first time). Students are also
encouraged to explore on their own those aspects that they find more interesting. This
exploration can also be done through a search of a virtual community of photographers.
By exploring such pictures, students are spectators of authentic, culturally-based images
of the cities that have been provided by real users, both tourists and locals, who want to
share their images.

Weather is another aspect that students are encouraged to explore in the first section of
the activity. The teacher, simulating “the weather person” of a news program, will
provide a structured input using a weather forecast posted on the web (in this case, on
Yahoo: El tiempo). By having the instructor talk about the weather in different Hispanic
cities and pointing at them on a virtual map, the students familiarize themselves with the
weather seasons and temperatures, and also with the location of the different cities on the
map. This structured input can serve as a model for the students, who in turn will have to
describe the weather in another city or country (in this particular case, Buenos Aires and/
or Argentina). This step also provides the class with an opportunity to practice

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comparison structures. As a third step, the teacher should encourage students to search
for any other relevant information about the cities in question, with the help of a list of
keywords. This step insures that students read and get minimally informed on each city.

Once the students have gathered information collectively, they are ready to decide
individually which city they would like to travel to. At this stage, each student is asked to
provide five specific reasons why that city is the one they would like to visit. This step
takes place in the form of a small group discussion, in which students share their reasons
for choosing one place over another, defend their choices and then try to convince the
other group participants that their choice is the best one. This stage of the activity can be
done through synchronous, face-to-face communication, or through the use of a chat
program such as Wimba or Yackpack, depending on the course structure and available
technology resources.4 Ultimately, the students’ choices make them connect with other
students in the class that are interested in the same city and trip, and groups are formed
according to this criterion. This step takes us to the next part in which students will be
working asynchronously within their groups.

In this next stage, students develop a text within a wiki describing the specific
characteristics that made them choose the city of their preference. The text is constructed
collaboratively through the contributions and modifications of the members in each
group. The goal of this first section is to foster negotiation of meaning by having
students reach a consensus on which place to visit, and to gain cultural understanding by
exposure to authentic materials. At the same time, students will practice a variety of
grammatical structures (comparisons, weather expressions, description) as the means to
reach the task goal.

Lesson two: ¡A volar! ¿Cómo viajamos allí? ¿Qué medios de transporte vamos a usar?

Each of the stages of the overall project follows the same structure. The first activity
always involves the instructor’s presentation of an input, which will serve as a model for
the students’ individual exploration of authentic materials on the web in order to find the
information they need to proceed through the next step. After gathering all the relevant
information, they have to discuss with their group partners in order to reach a consensus
regarding the lesson’s objective. This discussion and negotiation of the different ideas
students may have always culminates in the collaborative exchange of the writing task
using the wiki tool.

The main task in Lesson 2 ¿Cómo llegamos allí?, is the selection of the means of
transport needed both to get to the main destination as well as to travel within the country
of choice. The lesson starts with an input provided by the instructor. Since the purpose of
this input is to provide students with a model of what they are to do to accomplish the
main task of the lesson, the instructor should have planned his or her own trip in advance.
The instructor will show the students the websites that he or she has browsed in order to
make transportation arrangements, will give detailed information on the different means

4
For the benefits of computer-mediated communication (CMC), see Blake 2006, Blake & Zyzik, 2003 or
Chun & Reder Weder 2004.

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of transport chosen, the reasons why each particular choice was made, and some details
about the schedule and prices. After listening to this input, students are ready to start
exploring different travel websites in the target language (www.viajar.com,
www.rumbo.es, etc.) on their own. By browsing this sites and having to make a decision
on which means of transport they consider a better choice, which schedule works better
for their plans and how much money they are willing to spend, students are practicing
their skimming and scanning reading comprehension skills. After students have
completed this phase of the activity and have gathered all the relevant information, they
proceed to the chat discussion with the other members of their group. In this stage of the
activity they share their information and opinions about what is best for their trip, and
reach a consensus.

After reaching a consensus, students are ready to move on to the next stage of the lesson,
the collaborative writing of the wiki, where they write about their itinerary and how to get
to their destination. They also start a budget section where they can start recording the
expenses of the trip. Since the writing of a wiki makes use of an asynchronous mode of
communication, this last stage of the lesson should be completed outside class. The
instructor can provide a set of guidelines on what is to be included in the writing section
of each lesson, and the students can develop their writing assignment during the days
following the lesson.

Lesson three: ¡Vamos a hacer la maleta! ¿Qué necesitamos para el viaje?

Following the same structure as Lessons 1 and 2, the main task of Lesson 3 is to prepare
for the trip by making a packing list. To begin the lesson the instructor will provide an
input on clothing and other travel items related to his or her own trip, using a picture bank
or web images (such as the one provided by Google, www.images.google.com). After the
input activities, students are ready to explore the web and come up with their own list. As
a means to practice clothing vocabulary interactively, each student should create his or
her own full-body avatar. Avatars are computer user's representation of themselves, an
alter ego image that can be customized (es.avatars.yahoo.com). Creating an avatar
through a website in the target language provides an interactive way to practice clothing
and physical appearance vocabulary, since the user sees an immediate visual effect on his
or her avatar depending on their choice (i.e. the user can choose any clothing option, such
as tejanos azules y camiseta blanca [blue jeans and white t-shirt], and see how the avatar
changes accordingly). Once students have created their avatar and have their own list,
they should do an online search to locate town business where they can purchase their
listed items (a website such as www.maps.google.com would be a useful tool for this
search). After completing this step, students get together to practice interpersonal
communication and go through the negotiation phase of the lesson. For the wiki
assignment, students will start a new section on clothing and travel items, with their
corresponding group lists, and they will update the budget section from Lesson 2, if
applicable.

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Lesson four: ¿Dónde dormimos? El alojamiento

The main task of Lesson 4 is to find appropriate lodging with adequate amenities for the
trip being planned. To begin the lesson the instructor will provide an input on a specific
hotel reservation made for his or her own trip. The same travel websites used for Lesson
2 can be used for the instructor’s input and students’ search in Lesson 4. Once students
are familiar with lodging vocabulary, they are ready to explore the website of their choice
and find appropriate lodging by considering the location, price and different amenities.
Once students have gathered all the relevant information and have found lodging of their
liking, students proceed to the negotiation phase through the use of the voice chat
program. In this oral communication activity students will practice comparison structures,
numbers (for different pricing options) and other structures such as tener que, necesitar
or ir a+inf. After reaching a consensus, each group will have to give a detailed
presentation of the chosen hotel to the rest of the class, thus practicing presentational
communication. Finally, for the wiki assignment of this lesson, students will write a
section describing their lodging choice, along with a second lodging option. They will
also have to incorporate photos, links to the hotel URL, and reviews, and update the
budget section.

Lesson five: ¡Plan de visita! ¿Qué queremos visitar?

Lesson 5´s main task is to plan a sightseeing itinerary that includes one sight for each day
of the trip (i.e. five sights for a total of five days). By showing an interactive map such as
Google Earth or a maps website (e.g. www.maps.google.com), the instructor’s input will
cover a schedule for a sightseeing tour in the city of his or her choice, and how to get to
each sight. Once students are familiar with the task they are to complete for this lesson,
they will explore the website of their choice individually, they will look for different
sights and things to do in their destination city, and will plan how they will get there.
Once students have gathered some information on different sights, they are ready to
discuss with their partners which places they would like to visit, or which activities they
would like to do during their trip. The goal of the discussion is to reach an agreement on
which five places they will develop their travel plans for. The wiki assignment of this
lesson will include an itinerary for the trip, with a detailed description of each place they
will visit, how they will get there, and the activities for each day.

Lessons Six and Seven: ¡Ya tenemos nuestro plan!

The last two lessons of Nos vamos de viaje serve as a conclusion in which students have
the opportunity to share their travel plans with the rest of the class. The objective of the
final two lessons is for students to get a sense of accomplishment through the completion,
revision and exposition of the multimedia page they have created during the previous
weeks. They also provide the instructor with an opportunity to help students in the
writing process of the preparation, revision and edition of the students’ work. The written
work that students have developed over the course of the entire Nos vamos de viaje
activity will be later used in class presentations. During Lesson 6, students should polish
their page, and prepare a slide presentation that they will use to share their travel plans

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with their fellow classmates. Each group will present their travel plan to the class in
Lesson 7. Thus, the two different types of communication included in the National
Standards (http://www.actfl.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=3324), interpersonal and
presentational communication, are practiced throughout the different lessons in Nos
Vamos de Viaje.

The web materials available at http://nosvamosdeviaje.wikispaces.com provide a set of

basic guidelines that an instructor can model and customize to fit their particular teaching
situation. Each of the lessons follows the same four-part sequence consisting of:
structured input activities; exploration and information gathering through exposure to and
reading of authentic materials; discussion and negotiation; and the collaborative writing
in a wiki as the final product. Different sets of language skills, including vocabulary
themes and grammatical structures, are practiced during each stage of the task. A variety
of multimedia tools are employed, with overlap among lessons. Each lesson can be
completed in one or two class periods, and the writing of the wiki can be completed
outside class during the following days. Table 1 summarizes the main components of Nos
vamos de viaje, organized by lessons.

Table 1. Main components of Nos vamos de viaje

Lesson One: ¿A dónde vamos?

Main task: choosing a destination city taking into account urban characteristics and weather conditions
Grammatical structures: Weather expressions, comparison structures, city description
Vocabulary practice: cities and places
Phase Processes and Activities Multimedia tools
Input activities Listening comprehension (description of Videos on Spanish-speaking cities
a city by comparing and contrasting) (www.es.youtube.com)
Students’ brainstorming
Weather websites
Information gathering Reading comprehension (www.tiempo.espanol.yahoo.com)
Individual search, skimming and
scanning information on particular cities Images website by geographical
and their characteristics location (www.flikr.com/map)

Discussion and Speaking, interpersonal communication Voice chat program

negotiation Class discussion and group set up (www.google.com/talk, Wimba,
according to the city of choice Jackpack)

Collaborative Wiki Writing practice: reasons for choosing a Wiki (www.wikispaces.com)

particular city, including videos and other
URL found by members of the group

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Lesson Two: ¿Cómo llegamos allí?

Main task: deciding on the means of transport to be used
Grammatical structures: expression of future plans with ir a + infinitive
Vocabulary practices: dates, schedule times, prices
Phase Processes and Activities Multimedia tools
Input activities Listening comprehension (details on Travel sites (www.viajar.com,
flights and schedules, means of transport) www.rumbo.es)
Students’ brainstorming on specific travel
dates Search engine with maps and
services (www.maps.google.com)
Information gathering Skimming and scanning travel information
Individual search for flights and other
means of transport within the destination
city

Discussion and Speaking, interpersonal communication Voice chat program

negotiation practice (www.google.talk.com, Wimba,
Group discussion on the search results Jackpack)

Collaborative Wiki Writing practice: explanation of how to get Wiki (www.wikispaces.com)

there, including useful URL and maps
Start budget section with travel expenses

Lesson Three: ¡Vamos a hacer la maleta! ¿Qué necesitamos para el viaje?

Main task: Making a packing list
Grammatical structures: tener que + infinitive, necesito + infinitive
Vocabulary practices: clothing, documents and travel items
Phase Processes and Activities Multimedia tools
Input activities Listening comprehension (clothing and Web images bank
travel items) (www.images.google.com)

Information gathering Interactive vocabulary practice Full body avatars

Creation of individual lists (es.avatars.yahoo.com)

Store search Search engine with maps and

services (www.maps.google.com)

Discussion and Speaking, interpersonal communication Voice chat program

negotiation Item selection and comparison with a (www.google.talk.com, Wimba,
recommended packing list from the web Jackpack)

Collaborative Wiki Writing practice: packing list, including Wiki (www.wikispaces.com)

in-town stores information
Update of the de budget section

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Lesson Four: ¿Dónde dormimos? El alojamiento

Main task: Find appropriate lodging
Grammatical structures: Ir a + infinitive, necesito, tener que + infinitive, comparison structures
Vocabulary practice: lodging vocabulary, amenities, prices
Phase Processes and Activities Multimedia tools
Input activities Listening comprehension (detailed Travel sites (www.viajar.com,
description of a lodging reservation) www.rumbo.es)

Information gathering Skimming and scanning information

Individual search of appropriate lodging

Discussion and Speaking, interpersonal communication Voice chat program

negotiation Selection of the best lodging option (www.google.talk.com, Wimba,
Jackpack)

Class presentation Presentational communication URL for specific hotels

Detailed presentation of the hotel and its
amenities

Collaborative Wiki Writing practice: detailed description of Wiki (www.wikispaces.com)

the hotel, including the URL and pictures
Update of the budget section

Lesson Five: ¡Plan de visita! ¿Qué queremos visitar?

Main task: plan a sightseeing itinerary for each day
Grammatical structures: giving directions
Vocabulary practice: prepositions of place and direction, leisure activities
Phase Processes and Activities Multimedia tools
Input Listening comprehension (detailed Interactive map or maps website,
description of a sightseeing itinerary) search engine with services and
places of interest (e.g. Google
Information gathering Reading comprehension Earth or www.maps.google.com)
Skimming and scanning maps and
directions
Individual search for sights to visit and
how to get there

Discussion and Speaking, interpersonal communication Voice chat program

negotiation Selection of five places the group will visit (www.google.talk.com, Wimba,
Jackpack)
Collaborative Wiki Writing practice: day by day sightseeing
itinerary

Lesson Six and Seven: ¡Ya tenemos nuestro plan!

Main task: complete, revise and present the travel plan
Phase Processes and Activities Multimedia tools
Collaborative writing Writing process, revision and edition Web service for multimedia
presentations (www.slide.com)
Presentational Speaking, presentational practice of
communication different travel plans Collaborative multimedia page
(www.wikispaces.com)

Discussion Speaking: questions, answers and

comments

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CONCLUSION

A project like the one presented here enhances the foreign-language curriculum by
turning the language classroom into a linguistic and cultural experience that could be the
next best thing to study abroad. Technology tools provide a means for this virtual study
abroad experience to serve as a communication and transition bridge to the everyday life
of the target culture. Close contact with the everyday culture in an authentic and real life
context in this virtual space promotes cross-cultural analysis and develops an
understanding that will ultimately help students function successfully within the target
culture.

Projects like Nos vamos de viaje can enhance the language classroom in a way that is
familiar and pleasant to today’s students. The world wide web is an extraordinary starting
point for language teaching professionals who wish to integrate technology applications
and multimedia resources into their classes. Many open source tools are available free of
charge so that instructors can easily integrate them into the language curriculum. Web 2.0
tools promote collaboration and can therefore be easily integrated into a task-based
syllabus, or even be the primary materials around which to design a content-based course.

Instructors often feel intimidated by the wealth of technological applications currently

available and fear planning a lesson around one or several of these tools; however,
today’s students are so familiar with these applications that many times the role of the
teacher as a “technician” in the language lab is minimal. Our students already know how
to use a chat program, a wiki or a blog; they are able to add their classmates as friends
into their online social networks and register into a course management system. The role
of the instructor when using these technologies in the language classroom, should be, as
in the communicative language classroom, that of a facilitator who suggests the tools,
organizes approaches to them, and directs students to the resources required to
accomplish the task of second language learning.

APPENDIX
Vocabulary topics and grammatical structures included in Nos vamos de viaje

Vocabulary topics Grammatical structures5

Travel Ser vs. estar: description and location

Dates and seasons Ser + emotions

Cities and neighborhoods Hace + tiempo

Weather expressions Hay

Geography and maps Adjective agreement (e.g. chaleco rojo)

5
Not all of these structures are included in the current online version of Nos vamos de viaje. However,
because of the flexible nature of the project, each section could be expanded in order to include all of them.

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Clothes and accessories Present vs. preterite tense

Stores and shopping Future tense for expressing plans (voy

Numbers, currency, prices a…)

Means of transport Comparisons

Lodging Expressing likes and dislikes (e.g. gustar,

Sights and places of interest encantar, odiar)

Activities Subjuntive (e.g. quiero que vayamos...)

Prepositions (to express movement and

with means of transport)

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Laura Marquéz-Pascual is the Language Program Director in the department of

Spanish and Portuguese at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She holds
a Ph.D. in Hispanic Linguistics from the University of California, Davis. In the
context of Spanish as a second language, she has explored specific problems such
as the acquisition of word order and the impact of study abroad on language
learning. Additional research interests include Spanish syntax, Spanish as a
heritage language, and language teaching methods and pedagogy.

Alvaro Llosa Sanz holds a M.A. in Spanish Language and Literature from the
University of Nevada, Reno. He is currently an Associate Instructor at the
University of California, Davis, where he is currently involved in
the development of web-based materials for Spanish language instruction.

REFERENCES

ACTFL. Standards for foreign language learning: Executive Summary, 1996.

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