La enseñanza del imperfecto y del indefinido en español como lengua extranjera: métodos y retos

Abstract

In this thesis, I research the Spanish simple past, which differs from both Norwegian and English. The simple past in Spanish has two different tenses, préterito imperfecto and préterito indefinido, and the meaning of the predicate and its sentence can change because of the used tense. Teaching Spanish as a second language can therefore produce challenges, since the Norwegian and English language only have one tense to express the simple past. In this thesis, I focus on how to learn the conjugation and the use of préterito imperfecto and indefinido, more specifically how this topic can be introduced in a Norwegian secondary school. I overview the conjugation and use of the two tenses and their different meanings. In addition, I will also present a relevant didactic background and an analysis of a test with fill-the-gap tasks, and information about what type of errors the students made. The different types of errors will be explained and justified, and I will discuss the areas that I consider important for teachers of foreign languages, based on my own applied research.