Young English learners (ELs) whose home language is Spanish continue to lag behind in several school readiness areas including language and literacy skills in spite of their strong social skills, which are positively related to language and literacy. The purpose of this article is to identify challenges that preschool Spanish speaking ELs face,…

Transnational educators can be a tremendous resource for bi/multilingual students, but teacher preparation has not adequately supported their pedagogical development for teaching writing to bi/multilinguals in U.S. contexts. Using three cases from a qualitative self-study, we explore the narratives of three transnational teachers in a biliteracy…

This study examines the difficulty shown by Spanish-speaking university students in decoding pre-modified noun phrases (NPs) in English. NPs carry a heavy lexical and conceptual load and foreign language (L2) readers may be challenged by first language (L1) crosslinguistic influence triggered by cognate NPs. Therefore, this study also attempts to…

This autoethnography explored how two third-grade dual language teacher partners (English/Spanish) managed challenges such as lack of leadership support, testing pressures, and English hegemony, to help their students grow personally and academically. Autoethnography was chosen as a method because it enables researchers to write evocatively…

The present study examined the production of inalienable possession with body parts in Spanish among 20 school-age children of Mexican-born parents born and raised in the United States. The results were compared to those of 20 first-generation immigrant parents (main input providers), 27 Spanish-dominant children of similar age, and 12 Spanish…

Although the terms 'heritage speakers' and 'heritage languages' are relatively new, the phenomena themselves date back to the beginning of migration. In many situations heritage languages do not survive these changes, but in others they are maintained successfully. This research explores the individual factors that promote the maintenance of…

Language teacher learning and professional identity can be understood as intertwined. Radical changes in practice entail changes in how teachers understand themselves. Thus, narratives of identity should be considered a significant concern of professional learning. Employing a narrative conception of identity, we argue that narrative identity work…

As the Latinx Spanish-speaking and emergent bilingual population grows, there is an urgent need for more inclusive language and literacy programs in schools. It's essential to recognize Latinx parents' educational aspirations for their children and the crucial role of Spanish within families. This article explores the language and literacy…

This mixed-methods, cross-cohort efficacy study evaluated "Just Right Reader's Classroom Libraries" first-grade students across six schools in a diverse Texas district. The Classroom Libraries consisted of decodable literacy resources appropriately matched to instructional needs and were available in English to all students and in…

This paper presents a research project, funded by Durham University, investigating the potential of Generative AI (GenAI) for Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) learning, teaching and assessment within the School of Modern Languages and Cultures (MLaC) at Durham University. The study explores how Generative AI can support writing skills and feedback…

Despite the increasing number of U.S. born Latinos, placing heritage and native speakers in the Spanish curriculum is still a challenge (MacGregor-Mendoza & Moreno, 2020). The present article: (1) addresses the unique needs of heritage speakers in the Spanish curriculum; (2) problematizes traditional grammar-based placement exams; and (3)…

Breast cancer (BC) is the most common cancer in Latinas and the leading cause of cancer death. Latinas tend to be diagnosed at later stages, receive poorer quality care and have a higher risk of mortality than non-Latina White (NLW) women. Among women with a genetic predisposition to hereditary BC, genetic counseling can be beneficial. Latinas…

Laboratory observations are a mainstay of language development research, but transcription is costly. We test whether speech recognition technology originally designed for day-long contexts can be usefully applied to this use-case. We compared automated adult word and child vocalization counts from Language Environment Analysis (LENA[TM]) to those…

This quantitative study was based on a parental intervention focused on children's language development. The Test de Vocabulario de Imagenes Peabody-III was used to assess children's vocabulary in Spanish pre- and post-intervention. The data was collected during five semesters from Fall 2015 to Fall 2017 from 421 economically-disadvantaged urban…

This study examines the second language (L2) development of variable /s/-weakening in the spontaneous speech of L2 learners of Spanish who studied abroad in either Dominican Republic, where /s/-weakening is widespread, or central Spain, where /s/-weakening is much less common. Learners' realizations of /s/ were coded impressionistically and…