Describes the development, content, ancillary materials, goals, and testing and evaluation procedure of the AMIGOS educational television project. The aim of the project is to teach Spanish to students in kindergarten through second grade in schools without a qualified foreign-language teacher2 (CB)

Analyzes ethnographic data regarding one prolonged speech event, the negotiation of a driver's license at the Ministry of Transportation in Puno, Peru, from the perspective of Hymes' redefinition of linguistic competence. Implications for the acquisition of second language communicative competence are also discussed. (Author/CB)

Introduces special section in this issue on educating linguistic minority children. Relates the author's own experience as a participant observer in pioneering bilingual education efforts, and comments on the articles in this issue. (BJV)

This paper outlines the objectives for a facilitator of a parent infant program working with Spanish-speaking families of hearing-impaired infants or toddlers. It is recommended that the early intervention program begin counseling in the parents' fluent language and introduce English gradually to both parents and infant, and provide support from…

Presents various learning activities and instructional materials for helping students learn French or Spanish grammar and culture. These materials include flash cards and lists of items to be used on labels. Activities include using the flash cards, writing newspaper ads in the foreign language, and naming the different items in a house. (CK)

Faculty at 11 higher education institutions in California, New Mexico, Texas, and northern Mexico have been experimenting with computer conferencing on the BESTNET (Bilingual English-Spanish Telecommunications Network). The growing system is credited with creating an international student-faculty community that crosses cultural barriers for…

Preterite/Imperfect (PI) usage is one of the hardest grammatical features of Spanish to learn. Some of the blame lies with misleading textbook explanations. A discussion of problematic P/I textbook explanations shows why the presentation of a more reliable set of principles is a preferable alternative to questionable rules of thumb. (18…

Integrating debate on controversial topics into the syllabus enriches learners' interaction with the Spanish language and stimulates intermediate students to express themselves in Spanish. This article lists some practical suggestions for setting up debates as well as criteria for evaluating them. (Author/CK)

Discusses the various components necessary for a formal model of the acquisition of the prosodic phonology of a second language and reports on empirical investigations of the acquisition of English metrical parameters by native speakers of Polish, Hungarian, and Spanish. (50 references) (MDM)

Develops analytical techniques to determine "borrowability," the ease with which a lexical item or category of lexical items can be borrowed by one language from another. These techniques are then applied to Spanish borrowings in Bolivian Quechua on the basis of a set of bilingual texts. (29 references) (MDM)

This study examined 29 second-year undergraduate students of Spanish using a self-access learning environment for the first time, focusing on their language attitudes and learning strategies. The results show that, even as modern languages majors, the students possessed a model of language and strategies for learning that were significantly…

Surveyed 99 Anglo-Argentine students aged 10 through 18 at five Spanish-English bilingual schools in Buenos Aires about their language attitudes and usage. It found that, despite the prestige of the English language, Spanish had become the dominant language for most. Age and place of residency in Buenos Aires also had a significant effect on…

Compared self-deprecation, self-confidence, and fatalistic belief among 1,034 Mexican American eighth graders who reported themselves a biliterate, English monoliterate, Spanish monoliterate, or oral bilingual. Found that Mexican American children who identified themselves as biliterate had higher self-confidence than the other groups. (Contains…

Examined the effects of bilingualism on cognitive ability among 50 third- and fourth-grade Mexican Spanish-English bilinguals with low English proficiency. No relationship was found between degree of bilingualism and nonverbal intelligence, contrary to the level of bilingualism hypothesis. (Contains 36 references.) (MDM)

This article focuses on a change affecting Spanish in contact with English in the United States: simplification and loss of subjunctive mood morphology. Analysis of conversational data from 17 Mexican American bilinguals representing 3 immigrant groups living in Los Angeles reveals a reduced inclination for the obligatory use of the subjunctive in…