Spanish Language & Reading Comprehension: Modules 5–7

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering the components of argumentation, textual structures, predictive reading strategies, communicative values, skimming, scanning, discourse markers, and elucidation.

Argumentation (Argumentación)

A set of statements or ideas that provide reasons to support or defend an idea, stance, or thesis.

Thesis (Tesis)

The central idea defended throughout a text; an opinion supported by rational arguments, phrased as a concise, debatable, specific, and original affirmation.

Arguments (Argumentos)

Affirmative statements that support the thesis, accompanied by evidence such as data, facts, quotations, or verified examples.

Main Idea (Idea principal)

The central idea of a paragraph from which the remaining sentences originate and depend; if eliminated, the paragraph loses its meaning.

Secondary Ideas (Ideas secundarias)

Sentences that extend, explain, exemplify, or provide evidence for the main idea, and can be removed without causing the core meaning to fail.

Persuasion (Persuadir)

An argumentative purpose aiming to influence others to modify their actions or ways of thinking, typically found in speeches and essays.

Demonstration (Demostrar)

An argumentative purpose focused on transmitting knowledge with truth value following investigation or experimentation, typically found in scientific articles or publications.

IDC Structure (Introducción, Desarrollo, Conclusión)

A standard text structure consisting of an Introduction (topic, context, and thesis), Development (supporting arguments), and Conclusion (synthesis reaffirming the thesis).

Argumentative Paragraph Structure (1-3-1)

A paragraph organization consisting of 1 main sentence asserting the thesis's validity, 3 support sentences explaining or exemplifying it, and 1 evidence sentence citing an authority.

Argument from Authority (Argumento de autoridad)

An argument supported by verbatim citations, figures, or statistics attributed to named specialists or recognized specialized institutions.

Argument by Exemplification (Argumento por ejemplificación)

An argument supporting a generalization through multiple, representative examples that provide proper context.

Argument by Analogy (Argumento por analogía)

An argument that compares two distinct things or events to prove a premise by demonstrating their similarities despite differences.

Cause-Effect Argument (Argumento de causa-efecto)

An argument explaining the causes and effects of a phenomenon to demonstrate that one event triggers or contributes to another.

APA Format

The most widely used citation and manuscript style across academic disciplines, designed to keep texts orderly, readable, and grounded in quality references.

Reading / Leer (RAE definition)

Passing one's eyes over written material while comprehending the meaning of characters, understanding the sense of a graphic representation, or interpreting a text in a specific manner.

Reading / Lectura (RAE definition)

The interpretation of the meaning of a text.

Prediction (Predicción)

The reading strategy of hypothesizing what a text is about, its purpose, or its conclusion, conducted both before and during reading.

Prior Knowledge (Conocimientos previos)

Previously acquired knowledge from personal experience, reading, or schooling that facilitates the understanding of new information.

Sampling (Muestreo)

A pre-reading strategy of inspecting key structural parts of a text, including the cover, title, table of contents, subheadings, bibliography, author, and publishing outlet.

Typography (Tipografía)

The typeface (font style) and size used in a written text.

Academic or Scientific Text Structure

A textual layout containing a title, author, abstract (resumen), keywords, followed by Introduction, Development, Conclusion, and References, with numbered and bolded subtitles.

Em-Dash / Guion largo (—)

A typographical mark used to indicate dialogue in narrative texts or to enclose author clarifications within expository and academic texts.

Argumentative Text (Texto argumentativo)

A text classification characterized by the communicative intention to convince, defend, and demonstrate ideas.

Descriptive Text (Texto descriptivo)

A text classification characterized by the communicative intention to show details of situations, objects, places, or people.

Informative Text (Texto informativo)

A text classification characterized by the communicative intention to make known facts, concepts, or discoveries.

Literary Text (Texto literario)

A text classification characterized by the communicative intention to narrate fictional situations.

Skimming

A rapid reading technique consisting of a glance over titles, subheadings, the first and last sentences of paragraphs, and visuals to identify the text's main idea and purpose.

Scanning

A rapid reading technique focused on searching for specific information, keywords, bold/italic text, dates, or figures without reading whole pages in depth.

Discourse Markers (Marcadores discursivos)

Textual markers that link sentences and paragraphs to give coherence to the overall text.

Structural Markers (Marcadores estructurales)

Discourse markers that organize and sequence information, categorized as order markers (e.g., en primer lugar), commentators (e.g., pues), and digressive markers (e.g., por cierto).

Connectors (Conectores)

Discourse markers that link sentences and paragraphs, divided into additive (e.g., además), consecutive (e.g., por lo tanto), and counterargumentative (e.g., sin embargo).

Reformulators (Reformuladores)

Discourse markers that introduce a new formulation of previous statements, including explanatory, rectification, distancing, and recapitulative expressions.

Operators (Operadores)

Discourse markers that manifest the author's attitude to guide interpretation, such as argumentative operators (e.g., en realidad) and specification operators (e.g., por ejemplo).

Conversational Markers (Marcadores conversacionales)

Discourse markers appearing in conversational contexts indicating author-reader dialogue, categorized into epistemic modality (e.g., claro) and deontic modality (e.g., bueno).

Elucidation (Elucidación)

A higher-order reading strategy that synthesizes information to evaluate how, why, and ethically a text conveys its message, enabling personal interpretation and critical dialogue.