Liliana Sanchez' paper is a welcome contribution to the growing body of literature on Andean Spanish (cf. a recent survey in Muysken, 2004a), welcome both because a well-motivated and clearly described methodology is used and because it is embedded in an explicit theoretical framework. I do not have reservations about the overall conclusions of…

This article considers the role of language learners in the global society and the extent to which interaction between different language communities can be regarded as possible without intercultural competence. It moves on to review the skills and competencies that can be taught to undergraduates in an attempt to enable them to engage more…

The aim of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of a Spanish version of the Social Skills Scale of the Social Skills Rating System-Teacher Form (SSRS-T) with a sample of children attending elementary schools in Puerto Rico (N = 357). The SSRS-T was developed for use with English-speaking children. Although translated, adapted, and…

Lexical bias is the tendency for phonological errors to form existing words at a rate above chance. This effect has been observed in experiments and corpus analyses in Germanic languages, but S. del Viso, J. M. Igoa, and J. E. Garcia-Albea (1991) found no effect in a Spanish corpus study. Because lexical bias plays an important role in the debate…

This article describes a responsive evaluation study of ESL services and Spanish language services for immigrants in a rural county in Indiana. An ESL specialist led the evaluation of language services in the county from the perspectives of language providers and recipients. The responsive evaluation--a form of action research that uses…

Ethnographic "New Literacy Studies" question the idea that literacy as such has any uniform effects, arguing instead that effects of literacy inhere in the social practices that impart it. What change, then, does literacy produce where it arrived from two opposed sets of practices? In Quechua-and Aymara-speaking villages on the high…

This brief provides highlights from "Advancing Achievement: Findings from an Independent Evaluation of a Major After-School Initiative." The brief underscores the potential of after-school programs in the ongoing drive to advance children's academic achievement. It shines a light on some of the issues that matter most for programs striving to…

Many informal science educational programs aim to help students improve their understanding of science. Little research, however, has focused specifically on the direct experiences and subsequent ideas of culturally and linguistically diverse girls when they engage with science in informal learning settings. The research described in this report…

In 2002, Massachusetts voters passed Question 2, a law similar to its predecessors in California (Proposition 227) and Arizona (Proposition 203) to replace bilingual education with structured English immersion (SEI) programs. Using Ruiz's (1984) framework for language planning as an analytical lens, this study examined how three Massachusetts…

What challenges do political science educators face teaching in the Hispanic-serving classroom? How do they adapt their teaching styles and strategies when confronting these challenges? This preliminary study explores these and related questions through a survey conducted of political science instructors at colleges and universities across Texas.…

The promise of dual language education has spurred a movement in the field of bilingual education to shift from remedial programs to enrichment forms of bilingual education. Although research supports the effectiveness of such programs, many programs do not maintain their level of implementation and quickly revert to their original remedial form.…

The City of Chicago's curriculum guide for public school Spanish native language instruction in grades 7, 8, and 9 has two sections, one in English and a corresponding one in Spanish. The program is primarily, though not exclusively, oriented toward the large Mexican immigrant community in the city with varied academic skills and experience with…

Project SUCCESS, a combined bilingual education and college/career orientation program for Spanish speaking and Asian high school students of limited English proficiency, is described in this report. Located at Theodore Roosevelt High School in New York City, the program, in 1980-81, provided courses in English as a second language, English…

Changes in the demographic-socioeconomic characteristics of Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, Cubans, Central and South Americans, and Hispanos were examined using primarily 1970 census data. The study briefly reviewed the history of these groups--when they first came to the U.S., the types of immigrants, etc.; noted their geographic distribution…

This is one of a series of curriculum guides designed to assist bilingual teachers to provide a coordinated program of studies for students in the Connecticut Migratory Children's Program and for any other students whose native language is Spanish. It is felt that an effort should be made to discover the skill level at which a child is…