The development of narrative competence in native Spanish students. Analysis and interpretation of a research with filmic and literary referents

Abstract

This paper was written as it was felt there
was a need to create a simple but exhaus-
tive system of assessment to evaluate the
narrative skills of students doing Spanish
as a foreign language and those studying it
as their mother tongue.
The main aim of this paper is to create and
appraise a model capable of producing
and evaluating written and oral skills of
Italian B2 level students learning Spanish
as a foreign language and Spanish stu-
dents studying Spanish as part of their B2
level curriculum.
What distinguishes this paper is its inno-
vative semiotic approach which cross-
fertilizes the relationships between cine-
ma and literature. Although two different
narrative techniques are employed, these two elements develop the same semantic
reference. Another original feature is that
this study is not based on a simple com-
parison between the two genres but rather
on the correlation between them. To this
extend, a model called C.O.E.N was crea-
ted. This didactic model concentrates on
oral and written competency in Hispanic
texts which can be evaluated once stu-
dents learning Spanish as a second lan-
guage have reached a B2 level, but also
on mother tongue Spanish students who
have reached the same level. This method
links production and evaluation of oral
and written competency in narrative texts.
Due to length restrictions, this paper pre-
sents only the results of the analysis of
Spanish learners’ written productions.