This paper explores the role teacher education can play in improving the education of Latino children and youth in the US. By first suggesting that preservice teachers cannot reasonably be prepared for each and every student population, it promotes reforms in three areas of teacher education policy and practice, each oriented towards improving the…

This study investigates whether proficient second language (L2) speakers of Spanish and English use the same parsing strategies as monolinguals when reading temporarily ambiguous sentences containing a complex noun phrase followed by a relative clause, such as "Peter fell in love with the daughter of the psychologist who studied in California."…

Research has begun to address the question of transfer of language usage patterns beyond the idea that people's native language (L1) can influence the way they produce a second language (L2). This study investigated bidirectional transfer, of both lexical and grammatical features, in adult speakers of English and Spanish who varied in age of L2…

This article reports on the practitioner research conducted by the English participants in a European Co-operation Programme project entitled "Lateral Language Learning." The project was based on the belief that there is much that teachers of a first foreign language can do to prepare their students to access other languages in the…

There is a dearth of research involving advanced second language (L2) learners in the USA [Brantmeier, C., 2001. Second language reading research on passage content and gender: challenges for the intermediate level curriculum, Foreign Language Annals 34, 325-333; Young, D.J., 2003. Workshop on overcoming anxiety in the foreign language classroom.…

Fourth semester students of Spanish as a foreign language at the university level in the US participated in two kinds of comprehensible-input based instruction, an extensive reading class that combined assigned and self-selected reading, and a "Reading-Discussion" class that consisted of assigned reading, debates and discussions. Students in both…

Recent research on second language acquisition (SLA) has strengthened foreign (FL) and second language (L2) teaching methodologies supporting the development of communicative tasks, interactive activities in the classroom, and learner-centred instruction. However, these and any other trends in FL and L2 teaching and learning could be more…

This article reports on a diary study conducted to explore third language acquisition in the immersion setting in Mexico as experienced by a bilingual Russian/English learner of Spanish who had recently immigrated to the USA from Russia. Language learning is approached as a socialization process that involves negotiation of meaning (Vygotsky,…

Paired listening was originally developed as a research tool with the aim to understand the strategies used by L2 learners when listening to recorded speech in the target language. It offers researchers a useful combination of direct observation and verbal data, whilst avoiding the common drawbacks of subjective introspection. This paper examines…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of using Spanish captions, English captions, or no captions with a Spanish language soundtrack on intermediate university-level Spanish as a Foreign Language students' listening/reading comprehension. A total of 213 intermediate (fourth semester) students participated as intact groups in the…

Late in 2007 New Visions for Public Schools, a New York City reform organization, received a grant from the C.S. Mott Foundation to organize select high schools and community partners into delivery systems that could improve student achievement. New Visions asked Policy Studies Associates, Inc. to provide research support for this effort in the…

The Standards of Learning in this publication represent a major development in public education in Virginia. Adopted in February 2007 by the Virginia Board of Education, these standards emphasize the importance of foreign language instruction in the Commonwealth and, therefore, are an important part of Virginia's efforts to provide challenging…

Research on the development of efficiency in spoken language understanding has focused largely on middle-class children learning English. Here we extend this research to Spanish-learning children (n=49; M=2;0; range=1;3-3;1) living in the USA in Latino families from primarily low socioeconomic backgrounds. Children looked at pictures of familiar…

In response to the underachievement of its Latino children, one district implemented Parent Partnership for Achieving Literacy (PAL), a program to build cultural bridges between home and school. Professional development (PD) that helped mainstream teachers develop cultural competence to work effectively with Latino children and their families was…

The purpose of this working paper is to review current literature on literacy programs for parents of English language learners (ELLs). The paper includes a summary of five literacy programs for ELL parents throughout the United States of America. Four of these were system-wide interventions affecting more than one school or classroom. Each…