Concessive Constructions: Teaching Strategies in ELSE

Abstract

In this paper we address the issue of the didactization of concessive constructions (Pacagnini, 2020; Flamenco García, 1999, 2011), focusing on its relevance for the teaching of Spanish as a Second and Foreign Language (ELSE, in Spanish), both due to the notions transmitted and for the difficulties involved in the selection of the nexus, the indicative/subjunctive alternation, the location of the concessive protasis, and its implications at the prosodic, syntactic, semantic and pragmatic-discursive levels. Among other factors, this complexity is related to the level from which they are introduced (B1/B2 of the CEFR), and to the methodological approach used. Despite being adopted by the CEFR (2001), the implementation of the Task-based approach is still incipient in ELSE. In this sense, we propose to start from a broader definition of task, especially grammar tasks, centered on usage grammar that allows us to introduce the notion of concession as a rhetorical strategy from the Waystage level (A2+), focusing on modal alternation from a Threshold level (B1). This implies designing devices that should make alloglot students aware of certain formal aspects, and that promote processes of reflection and self-regulation in their appropriation of these structures.