Learning Spanish as Foreign Language and Pandemic: a study about the development of autonomy and learning strategies

• Grant number: 24/00379-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: July 01, 2024
• End date: June 30, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Linguistics - Applied Linguistics
• Principal Investigator: Rosa Yokota
• Grantee: Vitórya Christina Figueroa de Souza
• Host Institution: Centro de Educação e Ciências Humanas (CECH). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This research project aims to investigate the process of learning Spanish as a foreign language (SFL) during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, with the intention of understanding the learning strategies developed by a group of undergraduate students in a Spanish Language Literature course and the development of their autonomy. The theoretical framework guiding this study encompasses the concept of learning strategies (Oxford, 1990) and learner autonomy (Paiva, 2019). This investigation takes the form of a qualitative research, with reports from 5 to 10 participants as the corpus. Interviews will be conducted as the data collection instrument, and the analysis will be descriptive. Through this research, we hope to reflect on the role of learning strategies in the development of autonomy among SFL students and the specificities generated by different contexts.