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CURRICULAR MATERIAL, CONTENT FAMILIARITY AND TOPIC INTEREST IN INTERACTION: INSIGHTS FROM SPANISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE PEDAGOGIC MATERIAL

In this investigation we report results from a qualitative case study focused on Spanish as a second language teaching context in Chile. With the aim of exploring the relation between curricular material characteristics, topic familiarity and topic interest in reading tasks data has been collected from sixty-four participants using three instruments. The first one is a survey to know more about student’s previous experience with reading in their country. The second is a semi structured interview held with professors to gain more clarity about the reading tasks assigned and curricular material used. Lastly, the third, is a focus group where students shared their impressions about the tasks assigned and the material used. Findings support that instructional material complexity reduced topic interest due to the lack of previous knowledge related to the reading material. Students suggested changing all reading tasks to summative evaluation as text complexity frustrated them and they wanted to be rewarded by scores. Those results reveal that curricular design and topic interest could be influenced by the material used according to the topic familiarity of the students.