The role of semantic fields in the acquisition of Spanish language students of the Department of Spanish Language (Faculty of Languages - University of Baghdad)

Abstract

The study aimed at exploring the role of semantic domains in helping the university students majoring in Spanish learn the language. The sample of the study was made up of eight Spanish Language Instructors. The data was drawn by way of a twenty-item questionnaire. Reliability and validity of the questionnaire were conducted. Major findings indicated that the semantic domains play an important role in learning the Spanish Language This could be attributed to the systematic nature of the theory plus the logical categorization of the parts and the vocabulary of the language. This, in turn, facilitates the recall of the appropriate vocabulary when communicating in the language. Another reason for that can be based on the correlations of the linguistic aspects of the target language (Spanish) which results in inducting the parts of texts to arrive at global understandings. Further, the role of semantic domains can be also realized in the logical relationship and the gradual categorization from general to specific and identifying the connotation of the word by way of gradual formation. This gradual formation can include either the multi-level meaning words or those with general and specific levels of interpretations.