OPEN AC CESS Forms of Address in the Spanish Language Curriculum in the United States: Actualities and Aspirations Jean W. LeLoup Barbara C. Schmidt-Rinehart Hispania 101.1 March 2018 pp. 10–24 Hispania Open Access files are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License Forms of Address in the Spanish Language Curriculum in the United States: Actualities and Aspirations Jean W. LeLoup United States Air Force Academy Barbara C. Schmidt-Rinehart Ashland University Abstract: This current study reports the findings of sociolinguistic research investigating the place of the voseo in the Spanish language curriculum in the United States. The study describes the results of ques- tionnaire responses from 177 US Spanish teachers and survey responses from 560 US college students of Spanish. Both instruments sought to identify the presence or absence of vos, the second person singular pronoun, in Spanish language textbooks and instruction and the respondents’ understanding of the voseo vis-à-vis grammatically and culturally appropriate usage. The results indicate that the voseo is simply not included in texts, not taught by the teachers, and not learned by the students. Given that up to two-thirds of the Latin American population are denoted as voseo users, the profession should address this gap in Spanish language instruction. The article concludes with recommendations for curriculum, instruction, and profes- sional development to facilitate the inclusion of the voseo in the Spanish curriculum in the United States. Keywords: register/registro, second and foreign language pedagogy/pedagogía de lenguas extranjeras, sociolinguistic and communicative competence/competencia sociolingüística y comunicativa, Spanish textbooks/libros de texto del idioma español, standards-based communicative language curriculum/ currículo de lenguas comunicativas basado en estándardes, voseo Introduction his article reports on an investigation of the accurate portrayal of subject pronoun use in Spanish—namely, how to express “you” as the second person singular pronoun in Spanish.1 The study derives from the goal areas of the World-Readiness Standards for TLearning Languages (The National Standards Collaborative Board 2015) and, in particular, addresses the goal areas of Communication, Cultures, and Comparisons. In addition, this project is directed toward ascertaining what transpires in the Spanish language classroom in the United States in terms of second person singular subject pronoun instruction and concomitant comprehension of same—both linguistically and culturally—by students in that classroom. It is the researchers’ contention, based on craft knowledge and past empirical studies, that US students of Spanish at the elementary, secondary, and tertiary levels regularly receive incomplete and/or incorrect instruction in this subject pronoun use, leading to inadequate linguistic and cultural knowledge. These lacunae then do not match the emphasis placed on the development of proficiency by the fields of foreign language (FL) education and second language acquisition (SLA). For many years, progress toward grammatical and sociolinguistic competence has been viewed by SLA researchers as critical for moving language learners along their interlanguage continuum and thus increasing their ability in successful communication in the target language (TL) with native speakers (NSs) (Byram 1997; Canale and Swain 1980; Omaggio Hadley 2001; AATSP Copyright © 2018 Hispania 101.1 (2018): pp. 10–24 LeLoup & Schmidt-Rinehart / Forms of Address in Spanish Curriculum 11 Watts 2001). Nevertheless, current practice in US Spanish language classrooms appears to discount or ignore completely a linguistic structure that is prevalent in a large portion of the Spanish-speaking world: the second person singular subject pronoun vos. In the standard gram- matical description, vos and tú occupy the same position on the pronominal paradigm—second person singular—and are used to indicate familiarity or intimacy. Hereafter, said pronoun use is referred to as the voseo, a term defined by the Real Academia Española as the appropriate form of address for vos (Real Academia Española n.d.). The data described here document the inclusion/exclusion of the voseo in the US Spanish language curriculum. These data were reported by Spanish language teachers across primary- tertiary educational levels and across various levels of language instruction. In addition, university Spanish language learners were surveyed as to the extent of their recognition and comprehension of the voseo as a second person singular subject pronoun. The researchers’ goals were to document the presence or absence of the voseo in US Spanish language textbooks used for instruction, to pinpoint the extent of recognition of this pronoun by student language learners, and to make pedagogical recommendations for Spanish language instruction in the United States. The Voseo: Missing in Action/Review of Literature In general, most researchers investigating the voseo concur in its importance in the Span- ish language, by virtue of the vast numbers of voseante speakers in the world (Angulo Rincón 2010; Cameron 2014; Congosto Martín 2004; Ducar 2006; Kapović 2007; Shenk 2014; Vargas Dengo 1975; Villegas 1963). The voseo is dominant in at least eight Spanish-speaking countries (Argentina, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Paraguay, and Uruguay) and regionally present in several more (Chile, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Mexico), totaling some eighty-five million regular users of the voseo (Cameron 2012; Congosto Martín 2004; Ducar 2006; Kapović 2007; Mason and Nicely 1995). It is surprising, then, that the voseo is largely absent in the US Spanish curriculum while the vosotros subject pronoun (for second person plural) is ubiquitous, given that its use is largely confined to Spanish speakers on the Iberian Peninsula and at 46.77 million speakers comprises approximately thirteen percent of the entire Spanish-speaking population of Spain and Central and South America (Ducar 2006). Contrasted with at least two-thirds of the Latin American population who are denoted voseo users, this would seem an egregious linguistic omission (Benavides 2003; Congosto Martín 2004; Kapović 2007; Shenk 2014). Indeed, several researchers have noted this omission and have called for the inclusion of the voseo in some way or another in the Spanish curriculum (Cameron 2012, 2014; Congosto Martín 2004; Ducar 2006; Lotherington 2007; Mason and Nicely 1995; Sánchez Avendaño 2004; Shenk 2014; Song and Wang 2013; Wieczorek 1992). On the rare occasion when the voseo is included in US Spanish textbooks, it is generally as a marginal aside, a teacher’s note, or even a student curiosity. The linguistic varieties (grammatical, lexical, pronunciation-based) associated with the voseo are frequently presented incompletely or incorrectly, and the form itself is absent from any activities or exercises intended to facilitate practice toward mastery of the form. Meaning-based instruction of the voseo simply does not figure into the mix (Cameron 2012, 2014; Ducar 2006; Lotherington 2007; Sánchez Avendaño 2004; Song and Wang 2013; Wieczorek 1992). The sociolinguistic value of including the voseo must also be considered. It is recognized that classroom input and native speech as represented in sociocultural interactions may facilitate the acquisition of certain features of a sociolinguistic variation and nature (Gutiérrez and Fairclough 2006; Howard 2012; Kashima and Kashima 1998; Watts 2001). In addition, the voseo is considered a very important element of cultural identity for many Latin Americans and, as such, should be included in the curriculum (Angulo Rincón 2010; Congosto Martín 2004; Ducar 2006; Lipski 2002; Rivera-Mills 2011; Schmidt-Rinehart and LeLoup 2017). 12 Hispania 101 March 2018 Previous research has sought to determine the presence or absence of the voseo in US textbooks of Spanish. The primary method of ascertaining this inclusion or omission was an examination of the linguistic content of varying numbers of textbooks by the researchers themselves (Cameron 2012; Ducar 2006; Mason and Nicely 1995; Watts 2001; Weiczorek 1992). These studies concur overwhelmingly on the absence of any meaningful treatment of the voseo in US textbooks of Spanish. What is now needed is insight into the particular experiences that learners and instructors have had with the voseo outside of the classroom as well as their opin- ions on whether instruction on this form of address should be part of the US Spanish language curriculum. The present study analyzes data drawn directly from questionnaire responses submitted by Spanish instructors themselves that included an examination of textbooks as well as other materials employed in instruction; instructor opinions on the issue were also solicited. The personal input differentiates this investigation significantly from previous ones and supplies additional insight on the question of inclusion/exclusion of the voseo. The study encompassed multiple data collection points: a student questionnaire about pronoun usage in Spanish classes in the United States at two different universities and a survey of Spanish teachers across the United States regarding the presence or absence of the voseo in the materials/textbooks they use in their curriculum as well as their personal opinions about the voseo. The present paper presents an analysis of results from these various