A followup of 380 limited-English-speaking Hispanic children in 20 Texas elementary schools found that most acquired English oral language skills at expected rates and were reading in English at expected levels by third grade. Reading achievement was related to instructional factors and early oral competence in either language. Contains 22…

This 4-year study in a southern California school district examines parent involvement activities affecting about 100 families to encourage Spanish-speaking parents to participate more fully in their children's schooling. Unconventional activities validating families' social and cultural experience are more successful than conventional means of…

Discusses three models of parent involvement (family impact, school impact, and cooperative systems) and analyzes the parental mentorship process surrounding 18 Mexican American children in a third grade classroom. (SM)

Describes an annual forum of academic and public librarians from the United States and Mexico that discusses common interests such as resource sharing, collection development, and literacy programs and considers longer-range programs. Sidebar articles cover Spanish language publishing in the United States and an annual book fair held in Mexico for…

An interview method for assessing reading processes was pilot tested to examine reader-text interaction among native-Spanish-speaking fifth graders. Subjects were active participants in the reading situation but were lacking in aspects related to the text's cultural content. The reading interview method is highly recommended for use in…

Examines four exemplary classes that participated in a study of secondary schools which successfully promoted achievement for language minority students. Common elements of good teachers included respect for students, enthusiasm for teaching, high expectations, promoting language development, promoting content knowledge development, encouraging…

Reports a pilot study on the use of two Internet technologies (online newspapers and online chat rooms) to enhance college-level advanced Spanish students' learning, improve their language and reading skills, and increase their cultural knowledge. Pre- and post-program student surveys indicated that the program successfully enhanced students'…

Explores the conflicting cultural perspectives associated with studying English, drawing on two studies of Mexican students. P. Ryan (1994) studied the perceptions of culture related to language learning for six college teachers and their urban students. N. Francis (1994) studied the perceptions of rural bilingual (Spanish/Nahuatl) elementary…

Analyzes data on the acquisition of German by Italian and Spanish speakers. Findings reveal that children learning a first language and adults learning a second language build up syntactic structure in much the same manner, and propose that the weak continuity approach of language acquisition accounts for all instances of syntactic acquisition.…

A long-standing challenge for special education personnel is how to appropriately involve Spanish-dominant migrant parents in the Individualized Education Plan (IEP) process, especially in rural agriculturally based school districts. Twelve recommendations for the IEP process are presented related to parent rights, parent orientation to school…

Argues that the ways in which other languages, such as Spanish, have been dealt with in the schools, particularly in bilingual programs, should not be applied to Pueblo languages. Pueblo culture, history, and politics have evolved a different way of thinking about language and require different educational solutions. Partnerships between Pueblo…

Explores the understandings that young Mexican-American students develop about the status of languages and language use in their bilingual school. A case study documents the the social and educational processes through which bilingual children in one U.S. school come to appreciate the prestige and power of English versus Spanish. (Author/VWL)

This cross sectional study used verbal protocol analysis to compare the temporal distribution of formulation processes of Spanish English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) writers composing first and second language (L1, L2) argumentative texts. Studied three groups at different levels of second language proficiency. Results showed the same total…

The town of Greeley, perched on northern Colorado's prairie, is like many other communities across the United States that are experiencing an influx of immigrants. The picturesque town of 85,000 people had a 30 percent minority population as of the 2000 U.S. Census. Estimates place that figure closer to 40 percent today, most of whom are Hispanic.…

This study examines the biliteracy development of a group of bilingual Latino third graders in an elementary school in the south-west USA. It focuses on the role of language in children's reading comprehension of narrative texts in Spanish and English in a school context. The authors frame their analysis within the "Continua of Biliteracy" model…