This exploratory, mixed methods study proposes that pedagogical translation be implemented for biliteracy acquisition in mixed heritage language (HL)-second language (L2) secondary Spanish classrooms. It investigates the mediation of pedagogical translation for reading comprehension in two mixed HL-L2 secondary Spanish classrooms at a suburban…

In a replication of Daly and K. Dounavi (2020), the researchers evaluated the effect of foreign tact and bidirectional intraverbal teaching on the emergence of untaught relations. Three university students learned three stimulus sets through three types of teaching: native-foreign intraverbal teaching (vocalizing Spanish words that refer to a…

The Interface Hypothesis proposes that the pragmatic-discursive interface with syntax is more vulnerable to crosslinguistic influence than the syntactic-semantic interface [Tsimpli, Ianthi, and Antonella Sorace. 2006. "Differentiating Interfaces: L2 Performance in Syntax- Semantics and Syntax-Discourse Phenomena." In Proceedings of the…

A mindful teaching strategy helped improve the language and writing skills of students in a public secondary school in a rural province of Argentina. The authors share how they brought about this development.

This study investigated whether second language (L2) classroom instruction that incorporates a principled approach into the use of the first language (L1) by students and instructors has an effect on beginning learners' development of L2 speaking and writing proficiency, compared to L2-only instruction, over the course of one semester.…

The acquisition of communicative competence in second and foreign languages requires the incorporation of verbal and non-verbal elements. Notwithstanding, few studies have performed empirical research into the acquisition of non-verbal signs. This research studies the learning of emblematic gestures for students of Spanish in the USA using an…

In a present-day global world, immigrant communities manage multiple cultural and linguistic contexts. To better understand these cross-cultural connections, and bridge the fields of linguistics and transnationalism, the present study analyzes the interconnection between language use and symbolic transnationalism among heritage speakers of…

This inquiry into the location of the linguistic repertoire was driven by a pedagogical encounter with mounting putty, the white adhesive used to attach materials to another surface. This encounter began at a community writing center during a writing workshop I was teaching on poesía bilingüe when children took up the putty, creating objects that…

There is no clear-cut division between orality and literacy (Street, 1993). This idea is central to literacy development in the Spanish heritage language (SHL) context because the opportunities to use heritage language (HL) skills are often oral, not written. Furthermore, the cultural situations that speakers find for their language are less…

In this theoretical paper, we aim to (re)imagine and (re)conceptualize biliteracy as an anti-colonial endeavor to destabilize colonial projects that continue to permeate how language and literacy are conceptualized in schools. We build on previous scholarship that has theorized Spanish-English biliteracy and extend this scholarship by centering…

Previous research has proposed a crucial role for critical experiences in language learning to better understand how learners understand and discursively construct their self-concept (Mercer, 2011, 2016; Serafini, 2020a; Thompson, 2020). However, studies have mainly explored critical experiences in the narratives of foreign language learners of…

This study examines the impact of explicit and implicit pronunciation instruction on the segmental pronunciation accuracy of phonemes /s/ and /z/ in an EFL classroom of 11th-grade Spanish-speaking students. The research focuses on transparent and non-transparent words containing the grapheme <s> and the phonemes /s/ and /z/ and was conducted…

This quantitative research focuses on exploring and describing the beliefs of 418 in-service teachers on language teaching approaches and multilingualism in the South of the Basque Country. The findings report key factors and features of multilingual education in the region where Basque (minority language), Spanish (majority language), English…

We present findings from a randomized controlled trial of "Descubriendo la Lectura" (DLL), an intervention designed to improve the literacy skills of Spanish-speaking first graders, who are struggling with reading. DLL offers one-on-one native language literacy instruction for 12 to 20 weeks to each school's lowest performing…

Despite the preponderance of research on extensive reading (ER), the research field still suffers from a lack of common understanding of what ER is and how it should be implemented. From the perspective of Day and Bamford's (2002) seminal ten principles for teaching ER, the present methodological synthesis aimed to systematically review and…