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…

Investigates how second language intake was affected both by awareness and by the conditions under which a problem-solving task was performed. Spanish conditional sentences were presented to learners through five different degrees of explicitness. Intake was measured through a multiple-choice recognition test administered immediately after the…

Describes a model of inservice Spanish for native Speakers (SNS) teacher training called Heritage Language Teacher Corps offered through a collaboration between the university teachers in accordance with several f the necessary teacher competencies for teaching SNS outlined by the American Association of Speakers of Spanish and Portuguese. (VWL)

A protocol analysis of second language (L2) writing of adult speakers of Japanese, English, and Spanish observed how language switching (first language (L1) switching use in L2 writing) was affected by L2 proficiency, task difficulty, and language group. Less proficient L2 learners switched to their L1 more frequently than more advanced learners,…

A study examined the role of intelligence in the definition of reading disabilities in languages with different orthographic systems. The study included 94 Spanish children and 157 English-speaking Canadian children and found significant differences between the languages when reading performances was analyzed as a function of verbal IQ scores.…

Comparison of college students' (N=14) graded and ungraded Spanish compositions revealed that, when they anticipated receiving a grade, students wrote longer compositions with more complex sentences. However, the type and number of errors varied among students. (CB)

The Central Intelligence Agency converted an intensive, two-week, introductory Spanish language course from a classroom course to an interactive videodisk course permitting students to learn the same material in three to five workstation hours, with one additional hour of teacher instruction. The course also integrated other instructional…

Describes college-level Spanish conversation courses that also focus on content to help those teacher education students who cannot or will not take Spanish literature, civilization, or linguistic courses. (CB)