Describes a study conducted to test the hypothesis that focused conversations with native speakers held on a weekly basis will contribute to the development of learners' internal grammars of Spanish. This study centered on college students as they developed an appreciation of the different contexts requiring the preterite or the imperfect tense…

Discusses the complexity of Spanish heritage language learners through a study of a program at the University of San Antonio. Highlights variables to consider in planning programs, such as institutional location, percentage of Hispanics in the student body, types of Spanish spoken, attitudes of teachers toward student language and culture, length…

In Spanish, there is a very common type of sentence that has the following properties: (1) one of the arguments of the verb is a noun phrase that consists of an article and a noun; (2) there is also a dative pronoun dependent on the verb; and (3) the dative pronoun is understood as the possessor of the definite noun. It has been suggested that…

This beginning through advanced Spanish text includes grammar explanations, readings, and exercises with the emphasis on situations involving travel and tourism. The introductory lesson covers the Spanish language, the importance of Spanish in the United States, the Spanish alphabet, pronunciation, capitalization, punctuation, syllabication,…

A method for analyzing acquisition-like patterns in the English consonants used by Spanish-English bilinguals is presented which allows a distinction to be made between individual and group phenomena. An analysis of a bilingual community in southern Texas shows that there is a continuum of use of the standard English consonants not occurring in…

Points out to the anachronistic usage of certain pronouns in Spanish, particularly that of "usted-es" and "vosotros." (Text is in Spanish.) (DS)

A writing activity using both English and Spanish words will help develop vocabularies for the students in a foreign language course, especially if the activity is centered around a holiday. (JH)

A case study of the use of reflexive constructions by a Spanish-speaking child from age 2;5.2 to 3;5.2 is presented. Sixty hours of audiotaped utterances were recorded monthly over a one year period. The utterances are analyzed in terms of self-induced actions, impersonal constructions, and two-argument predicates. The data show the regular…

Examines the way the Spanish-speaking community in Washington, D. C., adapts to urban life in the United States while trying to retain its identity and cultural heritage. (Author)

The ideal learning atmosphere in a Spanish-English Bilingual/Bicultural classroom provides for the learner two models with which to identify, a Spanish speaker and an English speaker, each of which reflects ethnic characteristics associated with the language. (Author)