The importance of using culturally authentic materials in foreign language instruction is discussed within the context of national calls for American students to understand other cultures. A brief report on a summer institute for Spanish teachers is presented. Participants studied the teaching of culture, some tenets of U.S. culture for awareness…

This booklet is written to provide managers, supervisors, and workers with general information about Latino diversity, Latino language differences, and Latino culture as an influence in the work force. The text emphasizes two themes in particular: (1) the great diversity within the Latino group due to many racial and historical differences; and…

In a study that sought to identify the gains in English oral communication skills of Spanish speaking learning disabled students in the elementary schools, the Basic Inventory of Natural Language (BINL) and the Woodcock Language Proficiency Battery (WLPB) were administered to two groups of students aged 8 to 12 years: an experimental group of 20…

The Bellevue (Washington) public schools' Spanish immersion program is described and program-related information is provided for parents. The description outlines general program goals and the basic educational assumptions underlying them, briefly chronicles the history of immersion education and of the Bellevue program, enumerates curriculum…

This guide has been prepared by the Puerto Rico Department of Public Instruction for special education teachers teaching domestic sewing. It includes informative and easy to comprehend material for students of both sexes with mild to moderate disabilities. The material is developed through varied strategies and activities that relate to the…

A study investigated the role of bilingualism (Basque/Spanish) and motivation in third (English) language acquisition in Spain's Basque country. Subjects were 321 secondary school students in two programs, one with instruction primarily in Spanish and one with instruction primarily in Basque. The following independent variables were analyzed in…

Preventing or reducing exposure to agricultural chemicals is an important focus for health educators serving farmworkers and their families. The need for this health education has been intensified with the development of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Worker Protection Standard (WPS). Among other requirements, WPS states that farmworkers…

Findings from a study of the status of Hispanic Americans in South Minneapolis (Minnesota) are presented. Data are from interviews with 34 individuals identified as knowledgeable about the conditions of Latinos in Minneapolis, 4 focus group meetings with an additional 46 community residents, and information from published sources about the size…

This booklet for Spanish-speaking parents of young children with disabilities describes Colorado's Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP) process. It explains guidelines, shares family stories and reflections for families and care providers, and the describes the values that drive the IFSP process in Colorado. Information is provided on…

This paper describes a project that evaluated World Wide Web resources for language teaching and learning. First, issues of quality of Web resources, the need for an evaluation procedures, and the difficulties of implementing such procedures are discussed. The development of criteria on which to base such an evaluation is then outlined. Criteria…

A fourth-grade teacher in a Spanish partial immersion program describes her search for and use of Latin American folk tales to enhance the curriculum and student learning. Excerpts from the teacher's journal over a period of a year, and covering the beginnings of two school years, reflect on her experiences and on student comprehension and…

In this paper the Spanish International Business Program Abroad at Concordia College (Minnesota) is examined. Students in the program live, work, and study in Mexico City (Mexico) for one 4-month semester after completing prerequisite courses in management, accounting, economics, marketing, finance, statistics, Spanish grammar, composition,…

A report on the Language Assessment Battery (LAB) explains, in question-and-answer form, the causes and results of some changes made in the test norms. The LAB is a test of communicative language competence, written in English and Spanish versions and used for student placement in the New York City Public Schools. The report describes the test…

The partial immersion program at Key Elementary School in Arlington, Virginia, was prompted by work being done in Virginia and Connecticut public schools by the Center for Language Education and Research (CLEAR) at the Center for Applied Linguistics. Established within the gifted and talented strand at the school, for most of the year the class…

Results are presented of an experiment involving the reactions toward accented speakers by immigrated native and near-native proficient English speakers from the same Spanish-speaking ethnolinguistic background. It was hypothesized that: (1) the negative reactions of listeners reflected an observable association with a geographic location such as…