MTLE Spanish (164/165) flashcards

33 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Spanish vowel system

Five pure vowels /a e i o u/ with stable quality; no schwa reduction and no diphthongization of mid vowels, so learners must avoid English glides.

Tap versus trill

The alveolar tap /ɾ/ appears in pero and the trill /r/ in perro; the contrast is phonemic, so confusing them changes meaning.

Aspiration of /p t k/

Spanish voiceless stops are unaspirated, unlike English. Adding a puff of air after them is a common marker of foreign accent.

Written accent rule

Words ending in a vowel, -n, or -s are stressed on the penultimate syllable; others on the final. Any deviation requires a written accent.

Tú versus usted

Tú signals solidarity or informality; usted signals distance, respect, or formality. Ustedes serves as plural in Latin America for both registers.

Spanish syllable timing

Spanish syllables are relatively even in duration with no vowel reduction; rhythm contrasts with English stress timing, affecting both listening and pronunciation.

Preterite versus imperfect

Preterite reports completed, bounded events; imperfect describes background, habits, and states. Interrupting events take preterite within imperfect settings.

Subjunctive triggers

Wishes, emotions, doubt, and impersonal expressions (quiero que, dudo que, es posible que) require subjunctive; expressions of certainty take indicative.

Preterite spelling changes

First-person preterite preserves sound: -car becomes -qué, -gar becomes -gué, and -zar becomes -cé, as in busqué, llegué, empecé.

Ser versus estar

Ser marks identity, origin, and inherent traits; estar marks location, temporary condition, and progressive aspect.

Por versus para

Por marks cause, exchange, duration, and route; para marks purpose, destination, deadline, and intended recipient.

Diaeresis in Spanish

The diaeresis over u (güe, güi) indicates the u is pronounced after g, as in pingüino and vergüenza.

Pronoun antecedent tracking

Reading items test reference chains; identify what él, ella, su, or lo que points to across preceding sentences to resolve meaning.

Comprehensible input hypothesis

Krashen holds that acquisition proceeds when learners understand input slightly beyond current competence (i+1), supported by context and scaffolding.

Affective filter

Anxiety, low motivation, and low self-confidence raise an affective filter that blocks learners from taking in comprehensible input.

BICS and CALP

Cummins distinguishes conversational fluency (BICS, about two years) from academic language proficiency (CALP, five to seven years) needed for content learning.

Interlanguage

The learner's rule-governed transitional grammar; forms like sabo or haiga reflect systematic overgeneralization rather than random mistakes.

Recast versus explicit correction

A recast reformulates an error implicitly; explicit correction names it. Fluency tasks favor recasts, while accuracy work may need explicit feedback.

Sheltered instruction

Content taught in the target language with scaffolds such as visuals, sentence frames, and paired language and content objectives, as in SIOP.

Communicative competence

The ability to use language appropriately, comprising grammatical, sociolinguistic, discourse, and strategic components rather than grammar alone.

ACTFL Intermediate level

Learners create with language, ask and answer simple questions, and handle familiar transactions; Advanced adds connected paragraph discourse.

Voseo

Use of vos with distinctive verb forms (vos tenés, vos sos) instead of tú; standard in Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and parts of Central America.

Three Ps of culture

Products (artifacts), practices (behaviors), and perspectives (beliefs and values); teaching culture links artifacts to underlying worldviews.

Indigenous loanwords

Spanish vocabulary borrows from náhuatl (chocolate, tomate), quechua (papa, llama), and taíno (huracán, hamaca), reflecting contact history.

Día de los Muertos

A November 1-2 observance honoring deceased relatives through ofrendas with cempasúchil, pan de muerto, and photographs; distinct from Halloween.

Flamenco origins

Flamenco is an Andalusian tradition of cante, toque, and baile; it is regional, not a national Spanish genre.

Culturally responsive teaching

Instruction that treats students' home language and dialect as assets and distinguishes dialect variation from genuine error.

Formative versus summative

Formative assessment informs teaching during learning; summative assessment measures achievement at the end of a unit or course.

Reliability and validity

Reliability is consistency of scores across raters and occasions; validity is whether the test measures the intended construct.

Analytic rubric

A scoring tool with separate criteria and performance descriptors; calibration sessions across raters improve inter-rater reliability.

Proficiency versus achievement tests

Proficiency tests measure general language ability independent of curriculum; achievement tests measure mastery of taught content.

Backward design

Wiggins and McTighe's model sequences planning from desired results to acceptable evidence to learning activities.

Standard error of measurement

An index of score variability; a 95% confidence band is roughly the observed score plus or minus two SEM.