To raise the achievement of every student in the state, Maryland implemented "Achievement Matters Most," a new plan for public elementary and secondary schools that sets goals in the areas of achievement, teaching, testing, safety, and family involvement in schools. This Spanish-language guide for parents outlines the goals and…

This Spanish language booklet discusses paying for college. The guide presents information in question-and-answer form about things an applicant should ask and how to obtain financial aid. It describes the criteria for receiving aid and provides information about complying with aid requirements. The booklet also describes federal Pell grants and…

If communicative competence is defined by and organized around culturally-framed and linguistically-patterned communicative plans and goals and the linguistic resources of interactive practices, then interaction in the classroom is employed to create social engagement in regularly occurring interactive practices where communicative learning can be…

This Spanish language booklet discusses paying for college. The guide presents information in question-and-answer form about the things an applicant should ask and how to obtain financial aid. It considers the criteria for receiving aid and important data for complying with aid requirements and describes federal Pell grants and other types of aid,…

The paper investigates how adult immigrants with low literacy levels are being taught language skills in Northern Virginia and the District of Columbia. Particular attention is paid to the reasons why large English-as-a-Second-Language programs (ESL) in the area do not offer native language literacy (NLL) courses and why some students seek NLL…

There are compelling reasons for integrating phonics into the adult English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) curriculum. The adult ESL student has the analytical capability to understand phoneme-grapheme relationships and can be taught to use any transferable native-language literacy skills in English spelling. In this essay, the potential of phonics…

This study describes and analyzes the emerging literacy of kindergartners in one bilingual classroom, and focuses on three Spanish-dominant Puerto Rican children in that class. Using a qualitative approach, the study investigated emergent literacy in the classroom, home, and church contexts. The unit of analysis was the literacy event, any…

This document is designed to give support to adult education and family literacy instructors who are new to serving adult English language learners and their families in rural, urban, and faith- and community-based programs. The Toolkit is designed to have a positive impact on the teaching and learning in these programs. The results of two…

A study attempting to disambiguate earlier research on personality orientations and second language learning assessed the influence of ethnicity (English v. French), milieu (unicultural v. multicultural), and target second language (French, English, or Spanish) on the emergence of eighth graders' orientations toward the second language learning…

Hypothesizes that the relationship between L1 and L2 writing is not one of interference, but rather application of L1 to L2 writing. Includes writing samples of first-, second-, and third-grade students enrolled in a bilingual program. (EKN)

Children assumed a subordinate role in conversing with their mothers but created peer conversations similar to those of mothers with other mothers. Data from a second experiment suggested that differences in leadership between mother and child were related to the disparity in relative status of participants rather than to familiarity. (Author/CM)

Relationships between mothers' ratings and teacher nominations for aggressive and withdrawn behavior were examined in a sample of 40 Cuban American male secondary school students. Results were consistent with the extensive concurrent and construct validity of the Behavior Problem Checklist. (CM)

Study results indicated that the TEMAS (Tell-me-a-story), a new thematic apperception test which depicts ethnic minority figures, cultural themes, and urban backgrounds, produced increased responsiveness in 76 Hispanic children to culturally relevant stimuli and may be a promising instrument for assessment of minority children. (CM)

Teachers can use the World Wide Web to create multimedia foreign language activities without expensive software. Describes and includes a lesson plan for a mystery game suitable for high school advanced placement or intermediate university Spanish students requiring students to work together solving clues and writing short compositions. Includes…

Discusses the different varieties of Spanish, the decision of which variety to teach to native speakers, and the concept of a "standard" usage. Basing the decision on sociolinguistic research, this article proposes a spoken and written variety of Spanish to be employed in teaching native speakers in the United States. (Author/JL)