Philologia Hispalensis (Nov 2009)
Análisis de errores ortográficos en aprendices. Alemanes de español como lengua extranjera
Abstract
Written productions of second language learners must comply with orthographic rules. However, a key principle of communicative methodology –which is currently the most widely accepted approach to second language teaching– states that correctness criteria are subdued to communicative criteria, but written production is not less necessary than oral production. This paper deals with orthography errors among young German learners who study Spanish as either their L3 or L4. Their productions show that most difficulties are related to the use of orthographic stress, the transcription of numbers to the written code, and the use of orthographic symbols, mainly, the comma. In this multilingual world, we claim that orthographic rules should be gradually taught from the early stages of the Spanish acquisition process, in order to set a solid basis for the learners’ correct written production from their initial approaches to the target language.
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