A study found four measures that would discriminate 31 predominantly Spanish-speaking children (ages 5 to 7) with normal language from 31 children with language impairments. The measures were: parental report of the child's speech and language skills, number of errors per terminable units, mean length per terminable units, and family history of…

Explores the ability of children to use discourse markers (DMs) as indicators of register, examining the distribution of various DMs in the role-play speech of Spanish-dominant bilingual elementary students as they played with puppets representing several characters with different social relationships. Children used DMs to specifically mark…

Discusses how Latina educators build bridges for themselves and those who follow, identity factors for Latinas, the growth and diversity of Latina educators their challenges along the career path, their language proficiency, interrupted schooling, perceptions of others, and workplace culture. (Author/VWL)

Examined whether readers in a third-semester Spanish course--reading the second language on a computer screen--accessed glossed vocabulary more frequently when the glosses were written in their first language or their second language. (Author/VWL)

Highlights one elementary school's experiences with foreign languages. The school joined a student exchange program with Italy, introducing Italian lessons into some classes. Spanish classes were soon added. Italian and American students communicated as pen pals and visited each other's countries. This successful foreign-language program has…

Examines the self-concept of the elderly from a cross-cultural perspective utilizing a sample of Spanish and Dutch elderly. Analysis focuses on responses to sentences which probed respondents' motivations and future plans and goals. Differences can be interpreted as reflecting an individualistic (Dutch) versus collectivistic (Spanish) distinction…

Using data from the 1990 Panel Study of Income Dynamics Latino sample, examines three competing hypotheses for understanding extended family living among Mexican, Puerto Rican, and Cuban immigrants. Findings indicate no significant relationship between living with extended kin and cultural indicators. Extended family living represents a resource…

Presents an approach to language and culture instruction for North American students of Spanish that centers on student-led investigations of cultural identity in the Americas, designed to allow students to overcome possible stereotypes and generalizations concerning the target culture(s), and to examine their own cultural identities at the same…

Describes how a bilingual school explores an innovative professional development approach that is shaped by teachers' needs and inquiries. Presents an account in process of one school's work with the National Council of Teachers of English Reading Initiative, that organization's first professional development program for elementary teachers. (SG)

Explored how third-year-level university students represented an assigned reading-to-write task as indicated by the type of papers they produced, and the relationship between the linguistic quality of those papers and the type of task representation. Findings suggest that the ability to interpret a reading-to-write task appropriately is dependent…

Examined the output produced by 46 university students of Spanish at the intermediate level during focused or unfocused communication tasks that required the use of command forms in Spanish. Also examined whether the learners who experienced the focused communication tasks would maintain linguistic accuracy during an unfocused communication task…

The 1983 Catalonian Linguistic Normalization Law made Spanish and Catalan co-official languages in that region. The law's constitutionality was challenged and after more than a decade of litigation was upheld by Spain's Supreme Court, producing a polemic in Catalonia and, tangentially, an impact in the Basque region and Galicia. (21 references)…

Reports on a project to develop and validate a criterion-referenced performance test of listening summary translation ability. This exam is designed to assess ability to comprehend and summarize in written English recorded conversations spoken in Spanish. The Bachman framework is used to present the test and provide evidence for its validity. (12…

Comparison of the pragmatic performance of 40 Latino bilingual adolescents receiving English-as-a-Second-Language instruction or speech-language therapy found that students receiving speech-language therapy scored more poorly in expressing themselves, establishing greetings, initiating and maintaining conversations, and other topics. The group…

Examines the meaning and usage of "piropos" in Hispanic culture and Spanish textbooks. Readings from textbooks and dictionaries define "piropos" as "amorous compliments, flirtatious remarks especially made in the street." Although "piropos" are sexist by U.S. standards, the majority of native Spanish speakers do not consider "piropos" sexist. (29…