In this paper we discuss the use of certain language forms which reveal the presence of the addresser (writer/speaker) and their addressees in pedagogic genres. We particularly focus on passive voice and, correspondingly, the use of personal pronouns in a corpus of educational videos, a fast-growing but not so deeply studied genre so far, La presencia de destinadores y destinatarios en géneros académicos en inglés. El caso de la voz pasiva y los pronombres personales de 1.ª y 2.ª persona as compared to a corpus comprised of textbooks, the traditional pedagogic genre used in university contexts. Both corpora include English texts in the field of engineering which may potentially be used in English for Academic Purposes courses. Our preliminary findings suggest that modality determines, to a great extent, the language forms selected and this fact, in turn, has significant discourse consequences, not only from the point of view of genre analysis but also from the perspective of the teaching of English to Spanish native speakers.

The purpose of this thesis is to study how politeness is approached in eleven Spanish as a Foreign Language (SFL) textbooks that focus in Argentine Spanish. The analysis focuses on the speech acts “to greet” and “to invite”. To do so, we address both the modality of incorporation of politeness phenomena and the characteristics of the activities which promote its practice. The theoretical-methodological framework of this work follows, for the study of the aspects of politeness, the studies of Sociocultural Pragmatics (Bravo, 2003, 2004, 2009, Bravo and Briz, 2004) and its contributions to the study of politeness. For the classification of speech acts, we follow the works by Haverkate (1994) and, in relation to Argentine Spanish, Ferrer and Sánchez Lanza (2002). The methodology of this investigation for the study of politeness is qualitative. We select the aforementioned speech acts in each textbook and we consider the specific sections where the acts are presented and their eventual presence in other sections. We also consider if the activities focus on language in use, the inclusion of pragmatic information, the incentive of metapragmatic reflection, the observation of acts that reflect behaviors related to the construction of politeness discourses according to the characteristics of Argentine Spanish, and the lexical items and grammatical structures used for the selected acts. The results allow us to give a positive evaluation of the textbooks. As regards the approach of speech acts, they are mainly addressed by means of communicative activities, with appropriate contexts which prioritize language in use. Moreover, the textbooks include an interesting number and variety of grammatical structures and phrases which provide learners with the tools to cope with groups of different age and sociocultural backgrounds in Argentina.

Learning vocabulary is often a challenge for foreign lang uage learners, particularly in recognition and understanding of lexical collocations in academic discourse. The aim of this study is to analyze the comprehension of verb + noun collocations in academic texts in English by students at foreign language courses at Comahue University. A multiple choice test to recognize thirty six collocations was administered to sixty students, with three groups of twelve collocations, each showing neutral, positive or negative prosody. A semi-structured interview was also carried out and information obtained from a group of fifteen respondents chosen at random. A significant number of students had difficulties when recognizing collocations in context. However, in the interview the level of comprehension proved higher. There is no significant evidence of influence of type of prosody on collocation recognition.

En el 2020 el mundo como lo entendíamos cambió radicalmente. La pandemia de COVID-19 modificó, y continúa modificando, nuestras experiencias como seres humanos, nuestras relaciones, nuestras concepciones sobre la vida y también, cómo no, nuestras realidades como profesionales del lenguaje en una práctica absolutamente atravesada por nuevas modalidades de comunicación y alcance con nuestras audiencias.
A pesar de la suspensión de la VI edición del Congreso Nacional “El conocimiento como espacio de encuentro”, el espíritu de diálogo y formación permanente ha quedado intacto y este volumen es prueba de ello. Nuevamente nucleados en tres ejes temáticos principales (Educación, Cultura y Literatura, y Lingüística), los veintiún capítulos ponen en valor distintas tramas que hacen a nuestros quehaceres académicos, docentes y de investigación, promoviendo espacios de intercambio fluidos entre temas diversos, pero siempre importantes para la reflexión crítica de las lenguas y del lenguaje. Siguiendo la tradición ya establecida para nuestras publicaciones, hemos enviado las propuestas presentadas a revisión por pares ciegos, para contribuir a la excelencia que buscamos constantemente en el ámbito de la educación y de la investigación.

In-service training contributes to graduated teachers’ further development in aspects related to their everyday practice. This presentation describes the formative and summative assessment (Brown, 2004) in a free yearly course taught by research team J033 at Comahue University during 2019 for primary- and secondary-school teachers of English. The course aimed to equip participants with theoretical-practical knowledge on how to teach contextualised formulaic sequences (Wray, 2002) (FSs) through authentic songs, legends and myths, and motivate them to engage in a future pilot experience teaching formulaic language in their own EFL settings. Eleven school teachers from Río Negro and Neuquén participated in the two-module course consisting of 70 hours’ work in meetings and online participation through the university’s Moodle platform. As instances of formative assessment (Brown, 2004), group discussions in class and through virtual forums engaged teachers in the discussion of key concepts in the bibliography on FS instruction. Participants also delivered oral presentations of tasks designed for the introduction of FSs.
The formal summative assessment of this course consisted of two real-life tasks involving the implementation of central contents of the course: a) designing classroom activities to teach pre-selected formulaic sequences in their contexts and b) teaching a simulated lesson on FSs as outlined in the corresponding lesson plan. These tasks provided an insight into teachers’ grasp of the underlying principles of FS teaching (Lindstromberg and Boers, 2008) and of their application in EFL classrooms and, by extension, into the extent to which the workshops’ objectives may have been accomplished.
The analysis of the practical assignments submitted pointed to some difficulties participants encountered in complying with the tasks. Summarising the theory to justify decisions on the sequences to teach and relating this to the aims of the tasks designed were frequently found obstacles. Constructive feedback and a process-oriented approach in subsequent resubmissions contributed to a profitable evaluation process.

Formulaic sequences (FSs) are frequently encountered strings of words that typically convey specific meanings and functions and are retrieved as wholes by native speakers of a language (Wray, 2002). Research into foreign language teaching (Boers & Lindstromberg, 2012; Wood, 2015) nowadays advocates FS-focused instruction in the classroom, optimizing learners’ FL acquisition through detection, retrieval and creative use (Lindstromberg & Boers, 2008; Pellicer-Sánchez & Boers, 2019).

Our research project analyzes the effect of teaching FSs in songs and legends to EFL public primary school students with an A1 proficiency level (CEFR) and assesses FS acquisition through a battery of tests designed to measure both receptive and productive knowledge of the target sequences (Gyllstad & Schmitt, 2019). Test results serve a two-fold purpose in the teaching and the research domains: to assess the learning of FSs in children with nearly no prior EFL instruction - and none in terms of formulaic language- and to gauge the effects of an explicit, focus-on form pedagogical intervention on their learning through different task-types assessing to what degree the target sequences are recognised and/or used productively over an extended period of time (nine to ten months).

This presentation will analyse examples of different testing activity types in relation to noticing, retrieval and generative use (Lindstromberg & Boers, 2008) and the principles in test development (Hughes, 1996; Read & Nation, 2004; Lewis, 2009) to show how language research and teaching are intrinsically conjoined. This research will provide applied linguists and teachers with information on learners’ vocabulary intake at different stages, and offer insights into participants’ formulaic competence development which can feed back into the EFL classroom.