Comparison of how English and Spanish speakers express contrastive emphasis revealed that, while English speakers used pitch and intensity, Spanish speakers used changes in syntax and lexicon as well as pitch and intensity in showing contrasts. (CB)

This document consists of three issues of a newsletter published during 1996 and 1997. Issues contain current events articles in Spanish and classroom language learning activities based on those articles. The articles are brief; topics include: the Beatles; the route of Don Quixote; pets; the climate, architecture, history and food of Castile and…

Clues in the answers given to the Spanish Advanced Placement Examination questions can identify the test-taker as having learned the language in the classroom or as a native speaker. The Educational Testing Service has found mechanisms to ensure that the tests are equally suited to the two groups. (MSE)

The study involved (1) a sociolinguistic description of Spanish/English use by 10 children (ages two to three) and eight mothers in two different bilingual preschool contexts (instruction and freeplay), and (2) an experimental attempt to encourage the use of Spanish, using Spanish "immersion" in a freeplay setting. (Author/DS)

Presents population projections for different linguistic components of the Spanish language group, i.e., for English dominant bilinguals, Spanish dominant bilinguals, and Spanish monolinguals. Although regular speakers of Spanish will number about 16.6 million by the year 2000, this language minority will decline increasingly rapidly in the…

Discusses the practice of teaching minority (ethnic/immigrant) languages as academic subjects in multilingual settings and points to directions in which the field of applied linguistics must move in order to develop adequate principles of language learning that can support such instruction. Particular focus is on the teaching of Spanish to…

Explores Afra-Hispanic literature, the writing of black Spanish-speaking women of the Caribbean and Central and South America. The literary texts of Afra-Hispanic women reveal an emerging feminist consciousness. A more detailed analysis is given of the poetry of Virginia Brindis de Salas and Aida Cartagena Portalatin. (SLD)

Explains how education is essentially about expanding students' literacies by developing sets of social practices that help them understand and participate in different social worlds, describing how to expand literacies through a Hispanic influence across the curriculum and how to increase the Hispanic influence through structural variations in…

Reviews the rationale and research that supports the development of literacy in children's first language. Discusses challenges educators face in using literature to support literacy development for Spanish speakers; discusses resources for teaching using children's literature in Spanish; and offers guidelines for teachers and librarians in…

Discusses the growth of the Spanish-speaking population served by the North Central Regional Library System (Washington) and the library's response which has included improving Spanish language collections, encouraging staff to learn Spanish, developing bilingual programs for children and families, improving publicity, and using translators. (LRW)

Reports views of Hispanic cultures held by a group of high school students who were studying Spanish as a foreign language. Students' perceptions of Hispanic cultures were culled from comments they made during an instructional activity, an interview, a questionnaire, and follow-up interviews. Findings overall revealed some degree of empathy toward…

This paper describes early language development in a deaf Spanish child fitted with a cochlear implant (CI) when she was 1 year 6 months old. The girl had been exposed to Cued Speech (CS) since that age. The main aim of the research was to identify potential areas of slow language development as well as the potential benefit of CI and CS. At the…

Hispanics are the fastest growing ethnic group in the United States. Sixty-three percent of all Hispanics self-identify as Mexican, and 41% of these individuals were born outside of the United States. The purpose of this article is to introduce mental health professionals to the use of the genogram as an intervention to help Mexican immigrants…

The present study revisited the issue of simultaneous attention to form and meaning from a methodological perspective that addressed several potential methodological issues of previous research in this strand of inquiry. Seventy-two second-semester-level participants were randomly assigned to one of five experimental groups, including a control,…

This study investigates knowledge of gender agreement in Spanish L2 learners and heritage speakers, who differ in age and context/mode of acquisition. On some current theoretical accounts, persistent difficulty with grammatical gender in adult L2 acquisition is due to age. These accounts predict that heritage speakers should be more accurate on…