This essay focuses on the status of Spanish within the American educational system. The central argument of the article is that the high number of native speakers of Spanish and non-native learners of the language in the United States should not mask a number of serious issues facing the language in that country.

Initial studies on the acquisition of two Spanish copulas, "ser" and "estar", emerged from a research agenda exploring whether second language (L2) development was driven by universal mechanisms manifested in stages rather than an accumulation of entities (Rutherford, 1987). Concerning the Spanish copulas, the stages of acquisition through which…

This study responds to regional and national needs by examining the impact on students' English language proficiency of a particular set of ELL-specific classroom materials in combination with a specific teacher professional development program. The classroom materials used in this study, entitled On Our Way to English (OWE), were authored by…

In 2011-2012, AISD provided a tuition-supported pre-K program to 4-year-old students who were not eligible to enroll in the state-mandated program. Overall, pre-K students in the tuition-supported program demonstrated meaningful growth on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test. [Funding for this report was provided by Title I funds. For…

Immigrants constitute a population vulnerable to the problem of violence. This study sought to ascertain the prevalence of violence reported by the immigrant population in the Murcian Region of Spain and characterize the related factors, taking the country population as reference. A cross-sectional study was carried out based on a representative…

Objective: To evaluate the reliability and validity of the English and Spanish versions of the Strengths and Weaknesses of ADHD-symptom and Normal-behavior (SWAN) rating scale. Method: Parents of preschoolers completed both a SWAN and the well-established Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) on two separate occasions over a span of 3…

This study reports the outcomes of undergraduate students completing a pilot Interdisciplinary Intensive Course Abroad (IICA) with a service learning component. The IICA model is comprised of a three-part sequence of study that includes a seven-week course on campus, followed by three weeks of study abroad, and a summative seven-week course back…

The study involved 16 American undergraduate students who used weekly blogs and conducted ethnographic interviews with native speakers to develop their intercultural competence over the course of one semester abroad. Selected blog entries, post-surveys, and final interviews were collected and analyzed to report the findings. The results show that…

Whether the simple view of reading (SVR) as incorporated in the componential model of reading (CMR) is applicable to other orthographies than English was explored in this study. Spanish, with transparent orthography and Chinese, with opaque orthography were selected because of their diverse characteristics. The first part reports a study of…

Research on immersion teaching has consistently shown that immersion teachers tend to focus on subject matter content at the expense of language teaching. The response to that research has often entailed suggestions for teachers on how better to integrate language and content in their instruction. However, missing from the discussion are rich…

In content and language integrated learning (CLIL), as in any other type of bilingual education, two languages are used to promote cognitive and language learning. Whereas in the bilingual classroom the two languages are always present, in CLIL they may appear together or be used in totally separate circumstances. Although the relationship between…

The present study adds to the computer-mediated communication (CMC) literature by exploring oral learner-to-learner interaction using Skype, a free and widely used Internet software program. In particular, this task-based study has a two-fold goal. Firstly, it explores possible differences between two modes of oral CMC (audio and video) and…

Using the frameworks of critical discourse analysis, representation theory, and legitimization theory, this study examines the political discourse of the campaign for Proposition 227 in California--particularly, the key social representations of languages, their speakers, and the main political actors in the campaign. The analysis examines the…

Novel word learning in the context of shared storybook reading has been primarily investigated with monolingual children, while experiments with Hispanic dual language learners (DLLs) are less prevalent. This exploratory study investigated the extratextual stylistic behaviors of storybook reading that promote novel word learning in DLL…

This study contributes to ongoing investigations of what linguistic gains are feasible in a second language (L2) during study abroad (SA). Through case-study methodology, one participant's written production is analyzed in detail to investigate the processes of SA and L2 acquisition. The participant wrote weekly journal entries in Spanish during…