Describes and assesses Florida State University's two-week summer institute on the use of video materials in the classroom. Four general methodological statements for initiating the presentation of Spanish language films to high school students are provided as well as recommendations about presentation of full length movies in Spanish. (nine…

Briefly discusses the theoretical and empirical literature regarding the "negotiation of meaning" as a construct, presents and discusses selected findings from a longitudinal study of an intact Spanish conversation course at the college level relative to learner-to-learner conversation and the "negotiating of meaning," and…

Describes the use of authentic Spanish language materials to design activities to help students discover and understand a text's underlying sociocultural context, using both pre- and postreading strategies to foster cultural awareness and understanding. (two references) (Author/CB)

The Nativity Mission School in Manhattan's Lower East Side offers an alternative to public schools for poor immigrant families unable to afford tuition in local Catholic Schools, preparing students to transfer to Catholic high schools and college. Features small classes, committed teachers, extended school day/year and scholarships for graduates.…

The early introduction of literary materials and authentic materials in foreign language classes is discussed. Difficulties with cultural context are emphasized, and a variety of written cultural-schema sources for Spanish are provided. (seven references) (LB)

Suggestions are offered for ways to modify a typical community college language laboratory to serve diverse student needs. The discussion is based on experiences of Anchorage Community College, which modeled its lab on a learning resources center rather than a traditional lab. (LB)

Videotaping student skits is described as a means for accommodating communicative tasks into curricular and time restrictions of college and university second-language classrooms. Suggestions for preparing and performing the tasks are provided. (four references) (LB)

An experiment is described in which learners listened to two radio broadcasts in Spanish, then reported on their strategies, comprehension, learning, level of confidence, and affective response to the input. Elements that the learners had in common are cited, as well as some that seem idiosyncratic. (24 references) (Author/LB)

One teacher's experience teaching Spanish to a gifted fourth grade class and a traditional class is reported. Three Foreign Language Experience Program (FLEX) objectives were used: promoting interest in a second-language and culture, fostering interest in future study, and exposing students to limited language in thematic settings to acquire…

The relative effects of various types of negative feedback on the acquisition of the English dative alternation by 100 adult Spanish-speaking learners of English as a Second Language were investigated. Results suggest that adult learners can and do use feedback to learn specific and abstract linguistic generalizations. (75 references) (Author/LB)

This study compared 112 younger and older adult monolingual English speakers and English/Spanish bilingual speakers on measures of auditory perception and memory span. The results revealed no age difference in auditory memory span in English but found that both older and younger bilinguals performed better than monolinguals on these tasks.…

Describes a study that investigated the types of rhetorical structures that beginning-level Spanish students encounter in their textbook reading materials. The intent of the study was to determine whether there was a match between the types of structures that English-speaking students are most typically able to demonstrate awareness of and the…

Examined the intonation of second-language speakers of English from three language groups--Spanish, Japanese, and Thai--focusing on how native nonnative speakers use intonation to signal meaning in the structure of their discourse. Results revealed that nonnative speakers did not consistently use pitch to signal meaningful contrasts in many…

This study examined the receptive vocabulary of 102 first-, third-, and sixth-grade Spanish/English bilingual students of Hispanic origin. It found that, although students in all three grade levels functioned comparably well on the Spanish instruments, performance on the English instruments increased with grade level. (41 references) (MDM)

Describes one class' experience with Tele-class, where university students used a telephone-like device that showed a still picture of the speaker to talk with students in Spain, pointing out linguistic and cultural gains as well as limitations in enhancing motivation, language awareness, and cultural awareness. (13 references) (Author/CB)