Text interpretation tips in Spanish for the Enem can make a lot of difference for those who are going to take the Spanish test National High School Exam.
The interpretation of texts consists of an analysis of the message of the text (understanding), carried out through some reading strategies, which lead us to conclusions about the text read. Although it is a subjective action - that is, it can vary from person to person according to the repertoire and reading experience that everyone has — there are certain strategies that help us improve our interpretation.
Many students tend to choose Spanish as a foreign language in the National High School Examination (Enem) due to the proximity to Portuguese, but this strategy is not effective if you don't dedicate time to learning Spanish. These languages are close, but not the same! It takes reading different genres, learning about the linguistic structure of Spanish, Spanish-speaking cultures, learning about reading strategies, and lots of practice.
If you are going to take the Enem and you chose Spanish as a foreign language, keep reading to get 5 valuable tips for interpreting text in Spanish on the Enem. With them, answer the 5 questions of Spanish in the Enem you are eaten (piece of cake).
Read too: Most demanded Spanish topics in Enem
Topics of this article
- 1 - 5 tips for interpreting text in Spanish for the Enem
- 2 - Spanish text interpretation questions in Enem
5 Spanish text interpretation tips for the Enem
1. Study and read to enrich your knowledge of text genres
It seems like an obvious tip, but the fact that the Spanish and Portuguese are sister languages (both come from Latin and share a very similar) causes many people to fall into the famous myth of ease of understanding, ledo deceit (or, in good Spanish, pure mistake). Most students who take the Enem choose Spanish as a foreign language, but, according to data from the National Institute of Educational Studies and Research Anísio Teixeira (Inep), less than 35% manage to get the 5 questions. Recent surveys with high school students also confirm this low rate of correct answers.
The reason for this low index is the belief that the proximity of languages facilitates the process, but it's no use just knowing that there are similar words without focusing on the structure of Spanish and, mainly, in the content present in the exam texts. In the comprehension and interpretation process, the decoding of words, their meaning and their functions are just the first steps. The next ones depend on textual genre recognition and the integration between their knowledge of the world, the content and theme of the text.
To develop all these aspects, try to read news, reports, cartoons, poems, novels, advertisements, comics, everything you can in Spanish to avoid falling into the clutches of Portuguese.
Do not stop now... There's more after the publicity ;)
2. Study and read to enrich your linguistic and cultural knowledge
In recent research on the process of reading Spanish questions on the Enem, teachers Mariana da Silva Miranda, Erica dos Santos Rodrigues and Elena Ortiz-Preuss confirmed that students with more time studying Spanish, and therefore with greater knowledge of the culture, obtained better results in the Enem de 2017. Therefore, “the process of reading comprehension in the L2 [foreign language] requires, in addition to knowledge of the language, also knowledge of the culture and the characteristics of the textual genres in the L2”.|1|
This knowledge encompasses more than knowing about cultural manifestations (such as Día de los Muertos, tango, flamenco) or gastronomic variety. Reading different genres provides information about the concerns of Hispanic populations, current trends in consumption of youth culture, the political, economic and educational landscape, as well as the use of certain expressions idiomatic.
3. Learn the function of verb tenses
Present, past and future are temporal notions present in almost all languages, but the use of verb moods can vary. For example, did you know that in Spanish the future Can it be used to create hypotheses in the present? that the conditional is used to create hypotheses in the past? And that there are two pasts (Undefined It is perfect composite) which are translated as past perfect tense in Portuguese? No? So it's time to take a look at the articles here on the site to stay on top of these subjects! To begin your study of Spanish verbs, click here.
4. Learn the functions of articles and complement pronouns
A lot of grammar, isn't it? But it is necessary to know these themes, because the use of complement pronouns is a lot more intense in Spanish than in Portuguese. For example, the phrase I asked it means that I asked someone for something; in turn, I asked means I asked for something of the female gender.
Furthermore, in the case of articles, Still exist the neutral article it, which has neither gender nor number (hence it is neutral). If I say the most beautiful, it means that I am talking about a singular male being or object that I consider beautiful; on the other hand, the most beautiful means what I consider most beautiful. Quite different, isn't it?
5. Learn to use reading strategies
Reading strategies are techniques or procedures chosen/developed to help you in the process of textual comprehension/interpretation. Note what Inep says about the reading skills associated with the foreign language test:
associate words and expressions from a text in a modern foreign language (LEM) to its theme; use the knowledge of the LEM and its mechanisms as a means of expanding the possibilities of accessing information, technologies and cultures; relate a text in LEM to linguistic structures, its function and its social use; and recognize the importance of cultural production in LEM as a representation of cultural and linguistic diversity.
To achieve these skills, it is necessary to make use of certain strategies, such as:
- access their knowledge of the world, relating it to the content of the text (connections);
- create hypotheses or deductions for reading (inferences);
- creating mental images based on the text and personal experiences (visualization);
- ask questions to the text in order to undo confusion, analyze and deduce (questions to the text);
- summarizing the essential ideas of the text (summarization) or even creating a new opinion or personal perspective after reading (synthesis).
Take into account that readers who explore the full visuality of the text are more likely to choose the correct answer alternatives. This happens because every text has a structure that makes it recognizable, and in this structure all elements are essential for interpretation. So, pay attention to the title; in the discursive markers and connectors used; in the images and position of verbal and non-verbal languages; in the references, which can bring relevant information to fit the text in a certain textual genre; finally, what to compose the structure of the text.
Efficient readers generally use the technique of expedition reading, that is, they read the alternatives first and then the text; thus, they establish a goal in the pre-reading phase, as the reading is carried out in search of relevant information that leads to the correct alternative.
Read too: Reading Interpretation — What It Is and Tips for Developing the Skill
Spanish Text Interpretation Questions in the Enem
question 1 Enem (2022)
little brother
It is, without a doubt, the most present and most powerful instrument of all those who will enter our lives. Neither the television nor the computer, we do not know how to use the obsolete fax machine or the electronic books, there has been such an influence, such a predicament over us. El móvil Somos nosotros mismos. All deactivated and inert, innocuous, I tell you. And suddenly, after a trip and three or four reckless photos, a warning pops up on the screen. With sound, in addition, despite the fact that I also have all the alerts deactivated. And my domestic monster tells me: you have a new memory. It will repeat: you have a new memory. What do you know? And you, demonic machine, what do you care? How dare you decide that I am or I don't remember? What is this intrusion, this impudence? The little brother knows almost everything. There is only one hope: that planned obsolescence kills the little brother first and that we live on, with the memories that make us hungry.
FERNANDEZ. d. Available at: www.lavanguardia.com. Accessed on: 5 Dec. 2018 (adapted).
In the base text for the question, the author makes a critical analysis of the presence of cell phones (mobile, in Spain) in our lives. He claims that the cell phone is a present and powerful instrument, going so far as to call it little brother (little brother), a reference to El Gran Hermano (or, as we know in Brazil, big brother). This comparison is made because, according to the author, the cell phone keeps an eye on our lives even when notifications are deactivated, which he exemplifies with the posting of photos and the alerts we receive from the reactions of our friends or virtual followers on the networks social.
In this opinion article (notice the use of the first person singular, the adjectives used to qualify the device and even the reference – The Vanguard it's a newspaper), the author ends the text with some rather outrageous questions for the apparatus – which he calls domestic monster – and wishing that planned obsolescence – commercial strategy that develops products whose lifetime is purposefully smaller – do away with the cell phone, leaving us with the memories we want and not the ones he judges necessary.
Next, let's look at the alternatives:
In the text, the author criticizes the
a) knowledge of people about technologies.
b) use of someone else's cell phone by unauthorized persons.
c) functioning of obsolete technological resources.
d) cell phone interference on users' choices.
e) lack of information about configuring alerts on cell phones.
Response: letter D. To answer this question, in addition to linguistic knowledge, you need to mobilize cultural knowledge (such as gran brother) and gender to reach the conclusion that the text criticizes the intrusion of cell phones in our choices about what to remember.
question 2 Enem/PPL (2018)
Eduardo Galeano
1976
Freedom
forbidden birds
Uruguayan political prisoners cannot talk without permission, hiss, smile, sing, walk fast or greet another prisoner. Nor can they draw or receive drawings of embarrassed women, couples, moths, stars or birds.
Didaskó Pérez, school teacher, tortured and arrested for having ideological ideas, receives a visit from his five-year-old son Milay on a Sunday. La hija le trae un dibujo de pajaros. The censors break off at the entrance to the jail.
The following Sunday, Milay brings a tree sketch. The trees are not prohibited, and Sunday passes. Didashkó praises the work and asks about the colored circles that appear in the treetops, many small circles between the branches:
— Are they oranges? what fruits are they?
La niña lo hace callar:
— Ssssshhhh.
Y en secreto le explains:
— Bobo, ¿no ves que son ojos? The eyes of the birds that I dress you in secret.
GALEANO, E. Memoria del fuego III. The siglo del viento. Madrid: Siglo Veintiuno de España, 1986.
The story by Eduardo Galeano, Uruguayan writer, refers to a historical event common to most Latin American countries: the military dictatorships. As it is a short story, the author narrates, in a few lines, a visit that Professor Didaskó Pérez receives in jail: his five-year-old daughter. In the story's initial situation, the author explains that political prisoners have a series of prohibitions, such as speaking without permission, whistling (hiss) and even draw (sketch) or receive drawings (sketches) of simple things like a bird. This professor has a five-year-old daughter who, on one of her visits, brings him a drawing of a bird, but the censors tear it up (if they break) — there we have the moment of conflict in the short story. Already on another visit, she takes a drawing that is not prohibited, of trees. At the climax, the father asks what fruits are drawn on the trees, but the girl explains that, in fact, they are the eyes of the birds that she had hidden. It is a text with a very poetic language that highlights both the coldness of dictatorships in censoring everything from speech to artistic expressions, as well as the innocence of children. Now let's look at the question:
The narrative of this short story, which has the backdrop of the Uruguayan military dictatorship, reveals the
a) social disengagement of political prisoners.
b) Precarious condition of Uruguayan prisons.
c) perspicacity of the child in circumventing the censorship.
d) lack of sensitivity in dealing with children.
e) difficulty of communication between political prisoners.
Response: letter C. To answer this question, it is necessary to mobilize knowledge of history and linguistics, especially of complement pronouns. It is through this knowledge that it becomes possible to understand that the phrase the censors break it means "the censors tear up the drawing". This is a question that can lead to error if we do not observe that the dictatorship, as the statement says, serves as a background for the story. The true protagonist, what one really wants to narrate, is like an innocent child who was smart and cunning in circumventing censorship by taking birds hidden in the trees she drew for the father.
Note
|1| MIRANDA, m. from S.; RODRIGUES, I. of the S.; ORTIZ-PREUSS, I. The process of reading Enem Spanish questions: eye tracking evidence. Letrônica, Porto Alegre, v. 13, no. 4, p. 1-18, Oct.-Dec. 2020. Available in: https://revistaseletronicas.pucrs.br/ojs/index.php/letronica/article/view/37530/26432.
Sources:
BAX, S. The cognitive processing of candidates during reading tests: Evidence from eye tracking. Language Testing, London, v. 30, no. 4, p. 441-465, 2013. Available in: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0265532212473244.
MIRANDA, m. from S.; RODRIGUES, I. of the S.; ORTIZ-PREUSS, I. The process of reading ENEM Spanish questions: eye tracking evidence. electronics, Porto Alegre, v. 13, no. 4, p. 1-18, Oct.-Dec. 2020. Available in: https://revistaseletronicas.pucrs.br/ojs/index.php/letronica/article/view/37530/26432.
NETO, I. A. M.; SILVA, m. F.; SOUZA, R. j. Reading and comprehension strategies as a meaning building activity. VII International Colloquium Education and Contemporaneity, São Cristóvão-SE, p. Sep 1-9, 19-21 2013. Available in: https://ri.ufs.br/bitstream/riufs/9898/25/24.pdf.
Reading and Comprehension: Click and discover five tips to improve your reading comprehension!
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