Discusses linking language with notions of collective identity and peoplehood by undertaking an historical inquiry into the ways conceptions of language, peoplehood, and nationhood have been interconnected in Guatemala. Focuses on Mayan languages and how they constitute Mayans as a distinct people, as distinct nationalities with a long history.…

Discusses ways of teaching of English phonetics to native speakers of Spanish in Spain. A summary of the basic problems students of phonetics face and the possible solutions are discussed. (Author/VWL)

Explains why it is difficult for the majority of bilingual-education teachers to develop teacher-like proficiency in Spanish in the context of the United States. Explores the "subtractive" orientation of U.S. society toward bilingualism that favors replacing the native language with English. (SLD)

Mexican-American college students (N=186) were exposed to a counselor introduction that identified her as either Mexican American or Canadian American, followed by a recorded bogus counseling session in which the counselor spoke English only or English combined with cues of Spanish-speaking ability. No effect was found on ratings of counselor…

Recounts experience with the Segovia Virtual Study Abroad Program as one attempt to use technology to expand the curriculum by incorporating study abroad into the curriculum at home. The project's success suggests that a course on contemporary Spain can be designed around a virtual study abroad Web site, incorporating civilization and culture…

Describes the project of translating Palomar College Library's web into Spanish. States that WebSpan is a mirror image of the Library's web in Spanish but will eventually evolve to take on a life of its own. Discusses how to translate the web site into Spanish and the process of applying for Partnership for Excellence grants. (VWC)

Reconsiders the general question of the role of articulatory phonetics in the second language (L2) classroom and reviews the phonetic presentation in 10 recent first-year Spanish texts. Proposes a phonetics program based on the notion of a learners' dialect, then measures the phonetics of the textbooks against a learners' dialect. Argues against…

Data from 45 studies involving 9,149 people were used to develop a short form of the Spanish version of the Nottingham Health Profile through Rasch analysis. Results confirmed the validity of using the developed 22-item short form to measure different groups of people categorized by gender, clinical, and health status. (SLD)

The dequeismo phenomenon is occurring more frequently in spoken Spanish in both Spain and in Latin America. Introduction of the preposition "de" before "que" in nominal complements exploits one recourse in Spanish, namely the deictic capacity of prepositional "de" as a marker or introducer of the speaker's…

Investigated the effects of modality, information type, and language experience on recall by foreign language learners of Spanish. Fifty-four intermediate and advanced level university students participated in the study by reading and listening to an expository passage, and then performing a recall task. The protocols were then statistically…

Interviewed four Latina teachers regarding relationships between their bicultural identities and attitudes toward English and Spanish. Results illustrate how bilingual people cope with pressures of living in a society that promotes conformity to the dominant culture, highlighting the strong correlation between identification with Latino culture,…

Provides a description of the Nuevos Destinos CD-ROM, a joint production for students learning Spanish at the advanced-beginning, intermediate-low, or native-speaker level. Nuevos Destinos involves students in meaningful ways by asking them to solve real-world problems encountered in law offices. (Author/VWL)

To show students the interdisciplinary relevance of language study and to encourage non-language majors to study abroad in programs where English is not the principal language of instruction, interdisciplinary short-term study abroad programs were proposed. Offers evidence that short-term programs provide students with exposure to a foreign…

Suggests that one of the reasons that schools are not as successful supporting the literacy development of Latina/o students is that school literacy, whether it be in Spanish or English, envisions forms of literacy that these students do not recognize. Notes that low academic achievement for many Latina/o students is not due to a lack of…

Attempted to address two methodological problems found in current investigations of the role of awareness in second language behavior: defining what constitutes awareness and operationalizing and measuring different levels of awareness and their effects on second language behavior. (Author/VWL)