Variación lingüística y norma en la enseñanza del español como lengua extranjera

Abstract

One of the most debated issues in the field of teaching Spanish to natives, and in particular to foreigners, is which model or norm should be chosen. It is often thought that Castillian Spanish should be the prototypical norm to be taught for reasons that have to do with tradition, or due to a mistaken belief that, among other important Spanish language varieties, the one spoken by cultured people living in the centre and northern Spain is the best, the most correct and the most generally used. Seseo, at the phonetic level, or the absence of the pronoun vosotros, at the grammatical level, are often considered to be dialect features, that is, features which deviate from the model previously set as standard. In this paper, we aim to contribute to a better understanding of this matter, since there are occasions (contexts and situations) which favour seseo or the use of ustedes for similar reasons as above. A more realistic perspective of teaching the language entails that teachers must have a solid knowledge of the general structure of Spanish as well of its main varieties, which we present here in a concise manner.