Examines the role of intrapersonal communication in connection with second language learning through internalization. In internalization, learners imitate the linguistic affordances made available by the classroom community. Presents an analysis of a case study of an adult learner of Spanish and discusses its implications for learning. (AS)

Data from three children learning Spanish are explored for the development of linguistic person in an inflectional language. Contrastive use of person, tense, and number and the presence of overt subjects and overt objects are examined. (Author/VWL)

Reports on a study of the early lexical acquisition of two children who acquired Spanish and English simultaneously. Data provide strong counter evidence to Faingold's (1996) proposal that children acquiring languages not closely related tend to favor a reduction strategy, whereas those acquiring closely related languages favor a maintenance…

Explores data regarding the elision and epenthesis of the Spanish intervocalic /y/ and the underspecification of Spanish vowels and semivowels. Results lead to the proposal that such elision results from the Obligatory Contour Principle, operating on an autosegmental tier defining front vowels and /y/. (56 references) (CB)

A review of the literature regarding native and second language reading leads to suggestions for reading strategies to use in the foreign language classroom. These strategies involve appropriate text selection, prereading activities, and such aspects of reading as skimming, decoding, intensive reading, and comprehension. (CB)

Determines the patterns of analogy underlying medically terminologized words that carry a metaphorical status. Study results show that the patterns of analogy underlying medical metaphors are language independent and differ from those underlying nonscientific metaphors. Pedagogical guidelines are provided encouraging new vocabulary usage to…

Relates language acquisition theories regarding comprehension, early speech, and speech emergence within the Natural Approach, which returns language learning to the living context and maintains the isolated fragments of language as a whole, to those theories expressed in a comparison between the experience of an apprentice singer of tales to that…

The Spanish verb "haber" presents unresolved puzzles concerning its meaning and derivations. Apart from its familiar and recent function as auxiliary in the perfect tenses, the verb's underlying meaning "to have, to hold" persists in the impersonal "hay" while other morphemes previously associated with "haber" may prove unrelated. (Author/MSE)

The first of two bibliographies describes 20 children's books about Mexican Americans; the history, government, people and economics of Central and South American countries; the artists, food and government of Spain; and legends from Nicaragua, Mexico and Puerto Rico. The second identifies 21 books for young Spanish speaking children and children…

Examines relationships between levels of phonological awareness and early reading ability. Finds significant correlations between metaphonological abilities and reading for kindergarteners but weak or nonexistent correlations in the tasks involving sensitivity to phonological similarities for first graders. Notes that all children who developed…

Three experiments compared the assignment of gender to masculine and feminine pictured objects as classified by Spanish grammatical gender, by English- and Spanish-speaking children, and by adults. Results revealed artificial-male/natural female conceptual division among speakers of English and delayed effects of grammatical gender among speakers…

Reexamines a claim that the indicative is the mood of assertion and the subjunctive that of nonassertion. The article discusses counterexamples to this claim and proposes an alternative analysis. The discussion argues that understanding the pragmatic context of an utterance is crucial to characterizing the distribution of mood in Spanish. (17…

Two mnemonic devices, "4A Rule" and "PERFECT," are described to simplify the learning of two grammar points: the placement of object pronouns with respect to commands and the distinction between "por" and "para." (five references) (LB)

Examination of the behavior of different types of Spanish complements in two different grammatical constructions supports the argument that behavior differences result from the complement's different pragmatic status. Empirical evidence supports the hypothesis that complements representing old information appear in the subjunctive mood. The notion…

Discusses one highly visible and often stigmatized feature of Chicano Spanish--lexical innovation due to intimate contact with English and mainstream culture. Discusses socio- and psycholinguistic factors that play a role in loanword formation. (Author/VWL)