Factores contextuales y sociales en la enseñanza de EL2-ELE: implicaciones lingüísticas, neurocognitivas y socioafectivas

Abstract

Learning a second or foreign language during adolescence or adulthood is a complex challenge. This complexity often results in a high rate of variability on achievement, as it is common to find that people with similar SL/FL learning experiences develop substantially different levels of language proficiency. In an attempt to identify the causes of this variability, researchers in the field have spent more than two decades studying the role that different factors, both internal and external to the student, play in the learning process. Of all those that have been studied and identified as relevant, we find that the learning context stands as a crucial factor. Among the different types of contexts that have been studied, natural learning has been identified as especially favorable for the development of an SL/FL. The advantage of this modality is that provides a greater number of opportunities for exposure, use and interaction with input in the SL/FL that turns out to be considerably more authentic, rich, interactive, perceptible and meaningful. These conditions are considered as sine qua non for the development and learning of a language, but they are not usually available in contexts of formal instruction such as a classroom. However, this advantage does not imply that there are intrinsically or automatically better learning contexts. On the contrary, what this situation reveals is the fact that there are qualitative differences between the conditions of possibility that usually exist between the different learning contexts. Given this justified relevance of contextual factors, this chapter offers a review of studies that provide empirical evidence on some of its most notable consequences, at a linguistic, neurocognitive and socio-affective level. Variante del tít.: Factores contextuales y sociales en la enseñanza de español como segunda lengua-español como lengua extranjera.