Spanish Grammar Strategies Website Project

This project will create a user-friendly website to provide strategies for students to learn and use problematic grammar structures in Spanish. The website will feature video and audio-clip testimonials from learners and nonnative teachers of Spanish who have been surveyed about strategies they have used to master problematic grammar forms. The site will also include diagrams, mental maps, charts, visual schemes and drawings those surveyed have used as part of their own successful grammar learning strategies.

For the purpose of this project, grammar strategies are defined as thoughts and actions that learners consciously employ to facilitate the initial learning and continued use of language structures. Here is an example of what a grammar strategy might be, as described by a learner:

“I wanted to learn whether to use ser or estar with adjectives to describe how people feel or what they are like (feliz, emocionado, contento, alegre, optimista, satisfecho, triste, and deprimido). The problem is that in Spanish, some of these adjectives can be used with both ser and estar and others tend to be used mostly with estar. So I created two lists in my mind: one with the adjectives that can be used with both (e.g., feliz, alegre, and optimista ), and one with the adjectives that tend to be used mostly with estar (e.g., contento, satisfecho, triste, emocionado, and deprimido). To help fix these in my mind, I created a mnemonic using the initials of the verbs in the second group: CSTED. Then I thought of something silly: I am sad because I am C(A)STED (e.g., put in a cast). I have to remember that there isn't a word represented by the letter 'A'".

This unique website will also include self-administered measures for learners to determine their style preferences and level of motivation to learn the language, along with guidelines for interpreting the relationship between style preferences and motivation, on the one hand, and effective use of grammar strategies, on the other.