This monograph presents data and conclusions derived from one phase of an investigation of objectives and methods in the teaching of modern foreign languages in high schools and colleges. A committee of specialists operating under the auspices of the American Council of Education and with financial assistance received from the Carnegie Corporation…

Unique in its use of several major national data sets to create a data base for future projections, this study reports the projected number of non-English language background and limited English proficient persons in the United States to the year 2000 for the nation, and by state, age, and language. (Author/CM)

Describes features of articulatory shortcuts discovered among middle class, educated native speakers of Spanish in Mexico, Guatemala, and El Salvador. It is maintained that these features should be taught to students of Spanish in order that they may understand colloquial Spanish speech. (AM)

Nine brief essays address Spanish enrollments in Spanish courses in colleges and universities, discussing such issues as staffing imbalances, coping with unexpected rising or declining enrollments, enrollment implications in a small college, social and political influences on study of Spanish, enrollment management, and the changing motivations of…

Preschool teachers from Texas school districts with high and low Hispanic populations completed surveys examining their knowledge and beliefs about early childhood bilingualism and developmentally appropriate practice. Positive beliefs about the use of native language to develop emergent cognitive-academic language proficiency through active…

Eight students taking English as a Second Language in a Puerto Rican university kept dialog journals in which they discussed English as a symbol of U.S. colonial domination of Puerto Rico and the erosion of Puerto Rican cultural identity, the relative importance of English and Spanish, and contradictions related to U.S. citizenship and the need…

Describes a self-contained bilingual primary classroom in a nonsupportive school environment. Details educational practices and activities related to social and academic English, use of both languages for instruction, development of reading and writing in English and Spanish, and home-school connections. Discusses the need for staff development in…

Discusses the experience of Grade four students transitioning from Spanish to English in reading a short story in English and then participating in one of two story-related videotaped lessons: an Instructional Conversation and a basal-like reading comprehension lesson. Findings reveal that the quality of classroom talk can be traced into eventual…

Addresses challenges faced by bilingual children transitioning to literacy in English when answering reading comprehension questions requiring interpretation and synthesis of information related to fictitious characters' thoughts. Notes that understanding a character's perspective may depend on inference, rather than on lexical content within a…

Differences and relationships between home environment and motivational orientation were examined for 28 higher and 29 lower achieving mainland Puerto Rican children in grades 5 and 6. Post-hoc multiple regression analysis revealed that family involvement accounted for a significant amount of variance with regard to achievement. (SLD)

An exploration of the effectivenes of college overseas study programs on improvement of foreign language skills addresses student motivation, academic expectations, curricular changes, language pledge requirements, communication with native speakers, and the purpose and image of study abroad programs. Suggestions are made for improving…

Despite claims that structured immersion programs for language minority students cannot work for low-income students, two immersion projects with low-income Hispanic and Asian children worked; their effects appeared to endure even after students entered the mainstream. (BJV)

Describes a culturally relevant Spanish program in a high school that helped native speakers avoid failure due to culturally inappropriate teaching. The class maintained Latino students' native language and increased language fluency by developing thinking, oral, and written Spanish skills. Eventually, students previously labeled "at…

A discussion of language policy formation and planning in South America focuses on the highland indigenous sectors and covers the following: colonial languages; immigrant languages; and indigenous languages, including planning, acquisition planning, and corpus planning. (Contains 83 references.) (LB)

Analyzes data from a study conducted in Barcelona that examines one day in the life of an English class for MBA candidates. Fourteen points of view are presented: those of the classroom teacher and of an outside observer and those of 12 learners. Teachers and learners operate differently when attributing purpose to tasks. (nine references)…