The goals of the Bilingual Children's Project (B.C.P.) were to help students acquire skills in the English language content area subjects, critical thinking, and problem solving. In its first year, the project served 740 kindergarten through third grade students of limited English proficiency at 12 schools. Participants' native languages were…

A sample of 15 eighth-grade Hispanic students in a bilingual classroom were used for a descriptive analysis of students' writing samples to compare their growth between pre- and post- writing samples in Spanish and English. This was accomplished by juxtaposing English and Spanish pre- and post-tests using the same holistic rubric developed by the…

This annual publication of the Rassias Foundation at Dartmouth College (New Hampshire) includes these articles and commentaries: "Clio and Hermes: Languages in the Study of the Past" (Kent J. Rigsby); "The Micrologue in a Student-Directed Conversation Class" (Stephen A. Canfield); "Baby Pictures and the Spanish Preterit…

This eight-volume final report of a federally-funded longitudinal study on the teaching of reading to bilingual children provides information on and insight into characteristics of a favorable learning environment for Spanish-speaking children, instructional sequences and events that promote successful and efficient learning of literacy skills,…

Four writing samples were obtained from 638 foreign college applicants who represented three major foreign language groups (Arabic, Chinese, and Spanish), and from 60 native English speakers. All four were scored holistically, two were also scored for sentence-level and discourse-level skills, and some were scored by the Writer's Workbench…

Adults in a multi-ethnic, small, rural school district were surveyed to determine their evaluation and expectations of district schools. Of the 301 respondents, 72% were Jicarilla Apache/other Indian, 14% Spanish/Mexican, and 14% Anglo; most were aged 19-45; 81% had completed high school; 76% were employed. Respondents rated the elementary, high,…

This study followed longitudinal achievement data from Hispanic students with limited proficiency in English who participated in a pilot instructional program. The program involved bilingual curriculum content (BCC) in the home language and was initiated in the winter of 1983-84 and continued through the 1986-87 school year. Six elementary schools…

A federally-funded three-year project is described that was undertaken by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages to train a group of Texas-based college level foreign language educators in French, German, and Spanish to serve as oral proficiency interviewers and evaluators of all applicants for a Texas state teaching certificate…

This Spanish-language version of a literacy handbook provides an introduction to literacy work for Peace Corps volunteers and other development workers in situations where the literacy work is a primary project or secondary activity. It presents information on planning and preparing for literacy work, offers guidance on program and material…

The El Paso (Texas) Independent School District's district-wide program in majority-language (English) immersion is examined to determine the source of its success. The program's similarities to and differences from the Canadian immersion model are explored. The program's superior results in comparison with the same district's transitional…

Second in a series of state publications providing suggestions to school districts for serving limited-English-proficient (LEP) students, the handbook on school support services discusses several areas that may require special attention: working with parents of LEP students; staff development or in-service education; transfer of student records;…

A community outreach program of the Queens College (New York) Linguistics Department is described as an example of the potential for institutional involvement with the community through linguistics. The report outlines the program's origins and early activities, and then describes a period of active program development, from 1983-1986, resulting…

A guide for curriculum development in New York City's Spanish second language programs to be piloted in junior and senior high schools contains six cultural theme units for level 1 and the grammatical structures in Spanish for levels 1-3. The cultural theme units are designed to be used as a core for the acquisition of language patterns,…

Demographic and economic characteristics of Spanish Americans in North Dakota in 1980 are presented, using data from the Bureau of the Census. Statistics show 3,902 Spanish Americans were living in North Dakota (0.6% of the state's population): 59.4% were Mexican; 6.3% Puerto Rican, 1.5% Cuban, and 32.8% of other Spanish descent, with more males…

Sample materials demonstrating the use of a five-step procedure for teaching reading in another language, are provided as part of an inservice program for teachers. The manual includes passages, class activities, and instructional suggestions for each step of the learning process in these languages: Mandarin Chinese (intermediate), English as a…