Doctoral defence: Virginia Rapún Mombiela „Evolución en el uso del artículo por parte de estudiantes de grado estonias de lengua española. Un estudio longitudinal de corpus de aprendientes con énfasis en la influencia interlingüística“

On 27 August 2025 at 12:15, Virginia Rapún Mombiela will defend her doctoral thesis „Evolución en el uso del artículo por parte de estudiantes de grado estonias de lengua española. Un estudio longitudinal de corpus de aprendientes con énfasis en la influencia interlingüística“ („Evolution of Article Usage Among Estonian Undergraduate Learners of Spanish: a Longitudinal Learner Corpus Study with an Emphasis on Cross-linguistic Influence“) for obtaining the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Spanish Language.

Supervisors:
Mari Kruse, University of Tartu (Estonia)
Gemma María Santiago Alonso, University of Ljubljana (Slovenia)

Opponent:
Carmen Caro Dugo, Vilnius University (Lithuania)

Summary

The thesis investigates the evolution of grammatical article use in Spanish among learners whose first language is Estonian, a language that lacks this functional category. This structural absence complicates the acquisition of the Spanish article particularly in multilingual contexts where other languages in the learners’ linguistic repertoire influence their learning. This study is based on the premise that language development cannot be analysed in isolation but must be understood as part of a linguistic ecosystem where different elements influence one another.

The study aims to answer two key questions:

1. How does Spanish article usage evolve during the first two years of the learners’ education in Romance Studies?
2. How does students’ prior linguistic repertoire affect this process?

By identifying common patterns and difficulties, the research seeks to inform the design of pedagogical strategies and teaching materials that facilitate article acquisition in authentic communicative contexts. The study uses a longitudinal approach, tracking the development of Spanish article usage among Estonian students over two years, covering A1 to B1 levels. To achieve this, a learner corpus, Corpus Longitudinal de Español de Aprendientes Estonios (Longitudinal Corpus of Spanish by Estonian Learners) (CLEAE), was compiled, consisting of written and oral samples produced by the same students throughout their three-year degree programme in Romance Studies (specialisation in Spanish). However, this thesis focuses only on written samples from 15 students across the first two years of study.

The findings highlight the need to discuss the functions of the article more thoughtfully and thoroughly. Since these errors do not disappear systematically over time, explicit instruction is necessary throughout their study period. Activities that encourage metalinguistic reflection and comparison between how Spanish, English, and Estonian express reference are essential to helping students recognise the discourse and semantic functions of this grammatical category. Given the variability in learner trajectories, instruction should be adapted to individual needs through personalised feedback, targeted exercises based on learners’ predominant error patterns, and explicit crosslinguistic comparisons.