Technological enhancement in strategic training to improve spelling competence

perception of Spanish L2 learners with Portuguese L1

Abstract

This paper focuses on the analysis of the perception of learners of Spanish as L2 with Portuguese L1 on their orthographic competence in L2 before and after a training with the integration of different resources related to Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). This training has been devised on the basis of a diagnosis of common errors identified in previous studies. From the results obtained in the surveys carried out in Google Forms, developed ad hoc for data collection, it can be seen that the target group is aware of their spelling difficulties arising from interference and/or linguistic transfers due to etymological proximity between L1 and L2 (although in some cases these characteristics constitute an advantage in their general level of Spanish), which confirms the diagnosis made in the scientific literature. The vast majority of informants consider that training with the use of digital applications (such as Google Chrome’s Read & Write software, which improves spelling by predicting words through text recognition and other functions) has contributed to fostering spelling competence and to students’ perception of the effectiveness of the design, organisation and resources of the training.