Relates experiences developing and teaching a library skills class for international students taking an anthropology course. Describes the development of the lesson plan and of a library skills worksheet in both English and Spanish. Offers observations on student learning and students' reactions. (DMM)

Describes how one second-language student gained the opportunity for oral practice in a formal classroom setting. The study, performed in a classroom that had virtually no contact with the target culture, involves observations of various displays of responses from initiations by the teacher and from the student. (46 references) (GLR)

Demonstrates that (1) second-language (L2) textbooks used in the L2 Spanish classroom, at the high school and college level, misrepresent the fundamental concept of dialects, and (2) the textbooks ignore certain important elements of dialects that would be beneficial to the L2 student as listener. (41 references) (GLR)

The applied linguist, who most commonly uses interlanguage analysis for nonstandard language forms, and the language teacher, who relies heavily on error analysis, each need to learn the usefulness and viability of the other method in his own professional context. Examples focus on the written preterit form in Spanish. (44 references) (Author/MSE)

Presents an annotated bibliography of 38 current women's health books that indicates essential purchases for libraries interested in developing a core collection. Topics addressed include general information; gynecological health; premenstrual syndrome; heart disease; cancer; menopause; sexuality; and a sidebar that includes relevant books in…

Comparison of the effects of error- versus message-oriented written feedback on second-language students' essays found that error corrections and rule reminders did not significantly improve students' written accuracy or enhance the ideational quality of their writing, whereas message-related comments promoted writing proficiency. (63 references)…

A study of native-language (L1) use in the collaborative interaction of five dyads of native English-speaking adult learners of Spanish as a second language found that L1 serves a critical function in students' attempts to mutually define task elements, provide each other with scaffolding help, and externalize inner speech. (Author/MSE)

Describes how to teach Spanish to elementary students in multiage classes in a way that allows high comfort and comprehensibility for the first-year students while maintaining the interest of the second-year. The model describes varied expectations that allow a two-year instructional sequence with a single Spanish teacher. (SM)

Investigates how early a developing bilingual who is exposed simultaneously to English and Spanish can make appropriate language choices. Kept detailed records of the child's cumulative vocabulary from the first word at 10 months and on weekly audiovideo recording in both Spanish and English contexts from age 1-3. (Author/VWL)

Illustrates how short contemporary texts dealing with social, historical, cultural, or political issues can be applied to the development of business language proficiency and cross-cultural awareness within an international business curriculum. (Author/VWL)

Varying methodological conditions changed the emphasis of Spanish instruction for 212 English-speaking university students. Evaluation of the cognitive style preferences of first semester students via the Myers-Briggs Type Inventory, Learning Styles Inventory, and a specially-designed questionnaire produced a single cognitive preference score.…

Provides information about some of the activities of the National Forum on the Future of Spanish Departments on College and University Campuses that took place in September 1999 and highlights issues that were discussed including enrollments, curriculum design, Spanish for instrumental purposes, and the structure of foreign language policies…

Data from 77 ninth-grade Spanish students who took an objective test, a performance assessment, and a measure of perceptions of control indicate that control perceptions predict scores on performance assessments, not objective tests. Performance assessments thus reflect motivational variables beyond the constructs being tested. (SK)

Findings are reported from a series of literacy assessments in which four classes of bilingual Grade 3 and Grade 5 students from an indigenous community in Central Mexico participated. Subjects who completed the battery of tests of reading and writing in Spanish and Nahuatl range from balanced bilinguals to Spanish-dominant speakers with at least…

This article uses examples from a study of seven Mexican American mothers of children with language disabilities to discuss the mothers' views about language and disability from a sociocultural perspective. It also considers implications of these views for early childhood intervention such as fostering native language development and respecting…