Examines the role played by voiced stop spirantization in the acquisition of English "b, d, g," and "d" by native Spanish speakers. Results reveal that accuracy in English pronunciation is hindered by native language transfer, including the transfer of spirantization and native language syllable structure constraints, and that…

Presents a model of professional development that is suited to the inservice Spanish teacher with limited time and financial resources. Details a summer program for Spanish teachers in Venezuela that combines an immersion experience with an advanced methodology course emphasizing a standards-based approach to curriculum development. (Author/VWL)

Addresses the help that heritage speakers and other native Spanish speaking students can provide in a Spanish phonetics class. These students can improve the pronunciation of Spanish learners while enhancing their own self esteem, and can also make learners aware of different dialects of Spanish. (Author/VWL)

A study examining the relationship between acculturation and sexual activity, contraceptive use, and attitudes toward self surveyed 290 Los Angeles area Latina adolescents. Less acculturated adolescents were less likely to engage in sexual activity, with place of birth being the most powerful predictor of differences. Implications for pregnancy…

Steps are outlined in the development of an academic language proficiency test in Spanish, to measure teacher candidates' language abilities necessary to conduct instruction in Spanish-English bilingual classrooms. Such tests must consider linguistic tasks that bilingual teachers generally perform and communicative skills in academic interaction.…

Reports a study carried out on bilingual adolescents in a school in the Basque Country in which the language of instruction is Basque. Spanish and English are taught starting in Grade 3. Results show that all students are highly competent in Basque and Spanish, but students who use Basque in more domains get the best scores in English. (Author/VWL)

Explores the implications of the divergence in the language of law, predominantly English, and the language of court proceedings, English and Filipino, for meeting the current social demands of Philippine society and for the future of the communication situation there. An interim solution to the dangers of the miscarriage of justice would be to…

Sought evidence for or against the assumption that significant intercultural variation exists in the rhetorical preferences of national cultures through contrastive analysis of research articles in English (n=36) and Spanish (n=36) on business and economics written by native speakers of each language. (45 references) (Author/CK)

Discusses the results of presenting an animated movie conveying the theme of preserving the natural environment to non-English-speaking Mexican children in English-as-a-Second-Language classes as a stimulus for concentrating on English comprehension. Findings indicate that 42% of the students reviewed showed English comprehension and 30% described…

Notes that beginning foreign language learner-readers lack linguistic and cultural knowledge assumed in foreign language literary texts, gaps often resulting in possible "mismatches" between the readers' actual cognizance of linguistic and cultural norms and the level of understanding assumed in the foreign text. (40 references) (Author/CK)

Examines the construct validity of a scale for 7-year-old children and analyzes the degree of factorial similarity between this analysis and another study performed on 4-year-old children. Results indicate that the cognitive abilities measured by the scale become more general with age and the level of schooling. (RJM)

Examines the processes and interpretations underlying communication in English between Island Puerto Ricans and continental Americans. The article views cross-cultural communication through a lens incorporating the way members of each group interpret their own language and behavior as well as those of the other group. (50 references) (CK)

Discusses the importance of including bilingual English/Spanish picture books in library collections, introduces some recent titles, and describes some programming ideas. Topics include second language study, children teaching English to Spanish-speaking parents, cultural studies, and bilingual presentations. (LRW)

How Spanish-speaking children spell English words was studied with 38 Spanish-speaking and 34 English-speaking second and third graders. Spanish-speaking students produced more errors that were consistent with the correct application of Spanish phonological and orthographical rules (predicted errors). Implications for bilingual education are…

Ten Hispanic families in which bilingual parents had chosen to maintain the use of Spanish in the home were interviewed. Explicit questions about rationales for this choice elicited answers related to instrumental benefits of bilingualism, but analyses of interviews as life stories revealed the necessity of repeated reaffirmation of this…