Invitations in Spanish

PRACTICAL IDEAS AND RESOURCES

Resources in this section curated by: Illena Trebont

Invitations in Spanish | Article

Spanish invitations differ from English invitations in various ways and are often difficult for native English speakers to navigate. This webpage, authored by  CARLA (Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition) reviews research on Spanish invitations and explains the structure and strategies that native Spanish speakers utilize to make invitations. The article explains aspects of Spanish invitations that are different from English invitations such as ritual refusals, varied refusal and insistence strategies, and the head and supportive acts associated with invitations. Because invitations, especially invitation refusals, can be face-threatening acts, it is important for Spanish learners to have the knowledge to navigate Spanish invitations to build relationships.

ACADEMIC RESOURCES ON INVITATIONS IN SPANISH

Resources in this section curated by: Illena Trebont

Felix-Brasdefer J. C. (2003). Declining an invitation: A cross-cultural study of pragmatic strategies in American English and Latin American Spanish. Multilingua, 22(3), 225-255. https://doi.org/10.1515/mult.2003.012 

This study investigates the use of indirect and direct politeness strategies in native and advanced proficiency non-native speakers of Spanish. In this study, experimenters observed conversations between native speakers of Spanish, native speakers of English, and between a native speaker of Spanish and a native speaker of English. Results show that although second language Spanish speakers displayed high grammatical proficiency, they did not display a high level of pragmatic skills. Instead of using Spanish politeness strategies, L2 learners used politeness strategies often utilized in English. For example, compared to native Spanish speaking participants, native English speakers showed a lesser degree of directness when refusing invitations, especially when there was a power imbalance between interlocutors. This study shows that even advanced second language learners utilize pragmatic strategies from their L1 when speaking their L2, demonstrating the need for pragmatic instruction in L2 learning settings.

Bachelor, J. & Barnard-Bachelor, R. (2019). Intercultural Communication in the Online Spanish Classroom: A Study on Invitations. Language Association Journal, vol. 68. 16-27. 

This study shows that despite the pragmatic differences between English and Spanish invitation sequences, native speakers of English can be taught how to appropriately extend invitations in Spanish. Participants in this study were students from two Spanish classes at a community college. One class was online and the other was in person. In both classes, control and treatment groups were established. Treatment groups received pragmatic instruction regarding invitations over the course of a semester; control groups did not receive pragmatic instruction. Students in the treatment group received three lessons. In the first lesson, students watched a video of Spanish speakers extending and rejecting invitations over text and made observations. In the second lesson, students received explicit instruction about invitations in Spanish. In the third lesson, students spoke with native speakers of Spanish and practiced extending invitations. 

Results show that both treatment groups showed significant gains in invitation strategies, demonstrating that pragmatic instruction was effective. However, the treatment group in the in-person class displayed more improvement, indicating that pragmatic instruction, especially for complex sequences such as invitations, may be more effective in in-person settings.