This study confirmed that young Spanish-speaking readers use contextual clues when they read in Spanish. (HOD)

Despite predictions that the Latino population will become the nation's largest minority group, mainstream publishing offers few titles for Spanish-language collections development. This article describes how the San Antonio (TX) public library has developed a "Latino Collection." Includes highlights on how the Queens Borough (NY) Public…

Notes that although the popularity of Spanish as a foreign language has increased in Yugoslavia, little attention has been paid to Spanish teachers' attitudes toward foreign language teaching or to their continuous education. Presents a survey of teacher attitudes regarding curriculum and teaching methods. Results indicate that the teaching staff…

A Spanish-language program was developed to educate California migrant farmworker families about motor vehicle safety using a bingo-like game similar to one popular in Mexico. The game disseminated safe-driving information in weekly bilingual newspapers and on Spanish radio and television. Assessments suggest that the media campaigns favorably…

Argues that a pattern analogous to that in speech errors also appears in intrasentential code-switching, i.e., the alternating use of two languages in a sentence by bilinguals. Notes that studies of spontaneous conversation of bilinguals indicate that open class items may be code-switched, but closed class items may not. (41 references) (Author/CK)

Describes intensive, community-based, experiential foreign language course titled "Spanish in Ohio" implemented to meet needs of nontraditional students bound to campus and unable to participate in study abroad opportunities. The course, offered during the summer at Ohio State University, is conducted entirely in Spanish, requires…

Explores several aspects of Spanish mood use within the single dialect area of the Texas-Mexico border that exhibits two slightly different varieties of Spanish. Findings reveal an overwhelming variability in mood use in every example studied on both sides of the border. Age does not play any role in mood selection for either group. Other findings…

Extends previous research on the relative effects of input processing and output processing on the use of Spanish clitic pronouns. Results of a repeated measures analysis of variance reveal that input and output processing students significantly explored their scores on various comprehension tests compared to a control group. (35 references)…

Two studies examined whether differences in the lexical explicitness with which languages (English, Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish) express false belief and preschoolers' socioeconomic status (SES) influenced children's performance on standard false belief tasks. Found that lexical explicitness influenced responses on the "think" false…

Interviews with Latinos in the Northeast and the Southwest found that they watched Spanish-language soap operas (telenovelas) as a way of maintaining family ties and Hispanic culture, while watching American soap operas provided information about U.S. society and behavioral norms as well as opportunities to learn English. (Contains 21 references.)…

A study was conducted of 10 bilingual (English/Spanish) and 10 monolingual English elementary school students with visual impairments to determine any differences in their knowledge of basic concepts. No significant differences were found. There was a correlation between vision levels and scores on a tactile test of basic concepts. (CR)

Discusses a special education program for children with lower intelligence quotients and emotional problems, to study introductory level Spanish with a teacher whose native language is Spanish. In addition to language content, the classes included instruction in social science. The program assisted these children in improving their knowledge of…

Notes that one way to ensure that students understand the importance of developing communicative abilities is to utilize Spanish language resources in the United States, as in an excursion to a "tienda" (shop), where they negotiate with the Spanish-speaking owner. (seven references) (Author/CK)

Uses "word length" (syllable count) and "spoken duration" to examine cross-language equivalence of tests measuring short-term memory. Although the English and Spanish versions of the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test had considerably different word length, the performance of bilingual college students did not differ between…

A study examined how 44 bilingual (Spanish-English) children (ages 4-7) used taxonomic versus slot-filler strategies in a category-generation task presented in both languages. Younger bilingual children generated approximately equal numbers of items in both conditions, however, older bilingual children were beginning to demonstrate a taxonomic…