Resumen de Engagement and emerging elementary-level L2 Spanish: detailing the status quo and identifying opportunities
Laura Gurzynski-Weiss, Tess Kuntz, Mackenzie Coulter-Kern
While many elementary-level children in the United States still do not have access to a second/additional language (L2), an increasing number are educated via Foreign Language Exposure (FLEX) tracks. Our two-semester study examines elementary-level L2 learners' engagement, emerging L2 Spanish vocabulary use, and awareness of the arbitrary nature of the relationship between form and meaning, and if this changes from a fall to a subsequent spring semester. The study examines learners' language engagement as operationalized by use of language-related episodes, self-corrections, modified output, turns, and learners' performance on four tasks: two information-gap picture-description tasks, one written production task, and one form–meaning relational task. Results indicate that, even with minimal FLEX-based exposure, learners demonstrate positive gains in terms of L2 engagement, use of L2 Spanish, and understanding of the arbitrary nature of form–meaning relationships.
