This current study proposes a comparative method of teaching authorial style, using four versions of "Exemplo XI," an often-anthologized tale about the "mago" of Toledo, Don Illán, from the "Conde Lucanor," a series of interlinked tales by the early fourteenth-century author Don Juan Manuel. Teaching a medieval text…

Shows that "usted" has two functions: showing lack of solidarity and showing extreme solidarity, with "tu" falling somewhere in between on the continuum. Discusses the increasing use of "tu," especially among younger people, and presents some possible reasons for this. (SED)

The uses of the eleven Spanish clitic pronouns are discussed for various regional dialects and formal and colloquial speech in Spain and Latin America. (Text is in Spanish.) (CHK)

This paper consists chiefly of a list of 50 paired sentences illustrating three styles of spoken Brazilian Portuguese: Informal, neutral and formal. (Text is in Portuguese.) (CHK)

Northern Andean Spanish (NAS) possesses a complex system of structures used in impositive speech. NAS speakers choose from several grammatical possibilities when asking their interlocutor to act. This article summarizes the grammatical possibilities and explains how the different forms are used to indicate different levels of politeness. (15…

The need to teach students speaking skills in Spanish, and to choose among the many standard dialects spoken in the Hispanic world (as well as literary and colloquial speech), presents a challenge to the Spanish teacher. Some phonetic considerations helpful in solving these problems are offered. (CHK)

Examines variations in current usage that pose problems in teaching Spanish relative pronouns. Discusses their treatment in first-year college textbooks, in the professional literature and in newspapers and magazines prose. Attempts to provide a description of the use of these pronouns applicable to classroom presentation. (MES)

Analysis of the speech habits of Spanish language instructors at the University of Southern California revealed that native Spanish speakers, as well as near-native Spanish speakers, sometimes produce labiodental [v] as an allophonic variant of Spanish /b/. Quantitative analysis by the VARBRUL statistical program indicated that linguistic, social,…

A review of research concerning bilingual (English and Spanish) Chicanos' use of code-switching during spontaneous oral narrative indicates that such code-switching may be organized to achieve more dramatic effects through personalizing (as opposed to objectionalizing) certain parts of the narrative and through techniques of foregrounding and…