Teachers who want to incorporate songs into the curriculum should determine the desired goals to be achieved, which songs to use, techniques for classroom presentation, and what aspects to evaluate. Songs can help improve listening, pronunciation, vocabulary, grammatical, and reading/writing skills. (seven references) (LB)

One of the perceived irregularities in verb morphology, the role of orthography in textbook practices for Spanish as a second language, is addressed. A study is reported that concentrates on consonantal spelling changes in verbs and noun plurals. (47 references) (LB)

A Spanish translation of the Child Abuse Potential Inventory was administrated to 66 perpetrators of child maltreatment and physical abuse and a demographically representative sample (n=829) of the general population of the Pais Vasco in Spain. The measure correctly identified 98.3 percent of the physical child abuse perpetrators. (Author/DB)

Attempts to reconcile the similarities and differences among Philippine Creole Spanish (PCS) dialects by suggesting that Zamboangueno was formed gradually in a downward fashion from received Spanish, aided by two components. The first is pidginization that resulted in the Spanish garrison at Zamboanga, and the second was the arrival of Manila Bay…

Presents data from a study that was designed to find pragmatic motivation of word order variation in main and independent clauses containing only three constituents: a one-valency verb, a lexical subject noun phrase, and a prepositional phrase. (15 references) (GLR)

From 1914 to 1919 El Cosmopolita--a Spanish language newspaper in Kansas City--served as an organ of ethnic unity and cultural reinforcement for the immigrant Hispanic community, carried news from Mexico, pushed the agenda of the Constitutionalists in the Mexican Revolution, and advertised the Anglo owner's Mexican businesses. (SV)

Investigated optimal two-, three-, four-, and five-test short forms of the Escala de Inteligencia Wechsler para Adultos (EIWA), the Spanish form of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (D. Wechsler, 1956). Results with 616 adults suggest that use of the EIWA should be limited to research and tracking cognitive changes over time. (SLD)

Analyzes Spanish second-language oral spontaneous data from adult native speakers of pro-drop and topic-drop languages. Results show that all Spanish nonnative grammars contain null subjects in both matrix and subordinate clauses. Many nonnative pronominal subjects do not have the same value as native Spanish subjects, and subject pronouns are…

Investigates the acquisition of a non-null-subject language (English) by speakers of two different null-subject languages (Spanish and Chinese) in light of recent research in theoretical syntax that shows that different syntactic mechanisms are at work in the expression of null subjects in the two languages.(Author/VWL)

Examines the earliest uses of verbal morphology in Spanish, an inflectional language. Stringent criteria were applied to data from two children to determine what inflections are used productively. Analyses reveal that there is little productive command of verbal morphology at early ages, and that subjects begin with a single form per verb.…

A video on telemarketing fraud was adapted for Mexican American older adults by adding a Spanish voiceover translated by a bilingual committee. Evaluation indicated that the translation was effective and the content communicated what was intended. Editing using digital technology was an efficient production technique. (SK)

Discusses problems and insights gained during the preparation of a bilingual dictionary of Spanish--a Romance and ultimately Indo-European language--and Swahili, a coastal Bantu language of the Niger-Congo stock of African languages. (Author/VWL)

Reviews a collection of high-quality books in Spanish which can help encourage Spanish-speaking children and adolescents to read. From creative books for the very young to the lives of famous women, to fantasies and animated traditional tales, these recently published books are designed to appeal to Spanish speakers and those wishing to learn…

Determines the pattern of errors in Spanish spelling. Analyzes and proposes a classification system for the errors made by children in the initial stages of the acquisition of spelling skills. Finds the diverse forms of only 20 Spanish words produces 36% of the spelling errors in Spanish; and substitution is the most frequent type of error. (RS)

Discusses the bare-noun phrase (NP) complementation pattern of the Spanish verb "tener" (have). Shows that the maximality of the complement NP is dependent upon three factors: (1) idiosyncratic valence requirements; (2) encyclopedic knowledge related to possession; and (3) contextualized semantic construal. (Author/VWL)