Milli mála - 2019, Blaðsíða 78
78 Milli mála 11/2019
TELECOLLABORATION HI-UB
• “I learned new words like albornoz (yes, I was wearing my bath
robe during our viodeconference) alquilar, alce and ciervo”.
• “I learnt to use the pretérito indefinido and the use of some
words from the oral speech like pues, o sea o bueno. I also learnt
some new words like grabar, names of countries in Spanish. At
the end of the task I felt like I was able to use the past tenses
properly”.
• “I have learnt a little bit of Colombian slang and some new
words like: bosques, encima, ballena, tiburón… I also learnt how
to use short versions of some words like finde instead of fin de
semana”.
• “I have asked the guys in Barcelona about some words that I
am interested in learning like, for example, the difference bet-
ween eso, esto y aquello or between aún and todavía”.
• “I learnt new words like harina, rayado, asqueroso32 (when we
were talking about Opal)”.
It is significant that the following student (a heritage speaker33 of
Spanish born and raised in the USA and used to the linguistic variety
of Mexican Spanish) regarding her/his grammar learning, reports to
have practised during the telecollaboration project the pronouns and
verbs characteristic from the Spanish peninsular variety while also
reflecting on the sociopragmatic use of those personal pronouns.
• “I practiced how to use os and sois and I felt very happy about
this little grammar lesson. I had never learnt the use of vosotros
and I am very happy to use it.[...] K. told me that in Spain tú
and vosotros are used most of the time but usted and ustedes are
used in more formal situations, like when you talk to your
boss or to older people”.
32 The word asqueroso means disgusting in English.
33 According to Valdés (1997), a heritage speaker is an individual who was raised in a home where a
non-English language is spoken, who speaks or only understands the heritage language, and who
is to some degree bilingual in English and the heritage language. Guadalupe Valdés. (1997). “The
Teaching of Spanish to bilingual Spanish-speaking students: Outstanding issues and unanswered
questions.” In María Cecilia Colombi and Francisco X. Alarcón (Eds.), La enseñanza del español a
hispanohablantes: Praxis y teoría. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, pp. 8–44.