O n f e r e n c e

Pedagogical strategies devised 
To address the aforementioned need, we used soap opera clips to illustrate the use of 
Spanish past tense in everyday conversation (Hwu, 2004, 2005). We utilized the 
storyline to explain the message that a speaker conveys through an aspect (preterite or 
imperfect) and help learners associate a message or usage with a communicative 
context. We provided examples demonstrating non-prototypical usages of one stative 
verb, (no) querer 
“(not) want,” in both preterite (non
-prototypical usage) and imperfect. 
While the above mentioned strategy provided the input that learners needed and 
improved their knowledge (Hwu, 2003, 2004, 2007), there remains a need to provide 
them with opportunities to consolidate such knowledge through practice with everyday 
conversation. As mentioned above, classroom settings does not lend itself to working on 
this discourse type, but development of ability in language for this discourse type 
requires practice in using language for the same discourse type (see Bachman & Palmer, 
1996). An easy-to-use comic-creation tool (i.e., Pixton) seems ideal for this purpose as it 
lends itself perfectly to having learners create everyday conversation in the classroom 
setting. While learners author their comics and record their voices for the characters they 
can model their stories from the input we provide. Being an easy to use tool, our chance 
of having success with this CALL task would be high, thus meeting the criterion for CALL 
appropriateness in practicality. (Capelle, 2001). Additionally, it is likely that learners see 
this kind of pedagogical tasks as relevant to their language use beyond the classroom.
 
 

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2014 CALL Conference 
LINGUAPOLIS
www.antwerpcall.be 
Consequently, they increase their interest and willingness to participate, which helps our 
CALL task meet the criterion for CALL appropriateness in authenticity (Chapelle, 2001). 
In sum, such a tool not only provides a fun and creative outlet for learners but also 
allows them to demonstrate their understanding about the language.