Culture, Paralanguage, and Learning Spanish as a Foreign Language During Pandemic

Abstract

In general terms, globalization has greatly contributed to a wider diffusion of languages, religions, and traditions, as well as a better understanding of the multicultural nature of countries around the world. It also highlights the importance of cultural diversity in the integration processes within contemporary societies. Motivated by this reflection and to analyze the importance of nonverbal communication in communicative interaction and the inclusion of functional tasks in the learning of Spanish as a foreign language during the pandemic, this research has adopted a qualitative approach framed under the ethnographic method. This study utilized in-depth interviews and participant observation as techniques to collect information from online classes and workshops. Through the present analysis, the significance of paralanguage in communicative interaction and, consequently, in the learning processes was affirmed. Specifically, it was found that the communicative interferences reported by students when interacting with both the teacher and their classmates are largely explained by deficiencies in the use of paralanguage. These deficiencies contribute to the appearance of communicative interferences, which constitute causal factors of erroneous interpretations and incorrect messages when certain speakers interact with others. Among the preventive measures to address this scenario are the following aspects: improving the explanations provided by teachers and implementing processes of experimentation and practical application of what has been learned in real situations.