Analyzes the effectiveness of e-mail as a tool to promote foreign language learning. Identifies the following features of the foreign language generated through the electronic medium: greater amount of language; more variety of topics and language functions; higher level of language accuracy; more similarity with oral language; more…

Investigates the potential role of Internet resources as a means to gain a deeper sense of the culture of the Spanish-speaking world for college students. Data collected demonstrate that the Web is a suitable tool to increase language and cultural knowledge, as well as a means to increase motivation. Pedagogical implications are discussed.…

Perceptions about speakers of Spanish, English, and Chinese were studied among 303 Spanish- and English-speaking Hispanic students in grades 3 and 8 in the southwestern United States. Students' prior experience with a language increased favorable attitudes toward the language, solidarity with its speakers, and perceptions of status associated with…

Investigated the reliability and construct validity of scores on a Spanish version of an academic self-concept measure for economically disadvantaged Hispanic middle school, English as a Second Language students. Results did not completely support five hypothesized constructs corresponding to five factor subscales on the English version. Students…

Suggestions are offered for fostering parental involvement in the education of gifted minority students and two programs encouraging parental involvement of gifted students with limited English proficiency in New York City and a program in Hartford (Connecticut) for Spanish-speaking students are briefly described. A list of national and state…

Describes a teacher research project, designed to motivate 8th-grade Spanish students, that involved creating a unit based on a Zapotec story. Only Spanish was spoken in the classroom. The researcher investigated students' reactions to having Spanish-only lessons focusing on the story. Interviews indicated that students found the class more…

Secondary school teachers invented a context for Louisiana's Eighth Grade French and Spanish Proficiency/Credit Exams based on real-life situations students would encounter on class trips to Disney's EPCOT Center. Test activities assess performance in four language skills areas: listening, reading, writing, and speaking. Students' reaction to this…

Reports on the Minnesota Articulation Project, providing an overview of the projects' three principal working groups: political action, curriculum, and assessment. The article then outlines the theoretical underpinnings of the proficiency-based assessment instruments developed in French, German, and Spanish and describes in detail the content and…

A sample of 150 children referred to child-study teams were administered intelligence tests. One-third of White students and slightly over half of Black and Hispanic students scored in the borderline IQ range (71-85). Of those borderline students who subsequently received special education, the majority were served as learning disabled. (Author/CR)

In response to a study of functions of first-language usage in the second-language classroom, it is suggested the findings extend the scope of sociocultural theory by complementing studies in which language is seen to mediate the learning of concepts, in this case the second language, and gives insight into issues currently under vigorous…

Hypothesized that Bilingual Cooperative Integrated Reading and Composition (BCIRC) would improve the achievement of second and third graders in Spanish bilingual programs during their transition to English by giving students opportunities to use language to find meanings and solve problems and by enabling teachers to apply well-established…

This pilot study investigated Standard American English (SAE) morphological development for 15 bilingual Hispanic preschoolers. Analysis of data from spontaneous language samples revealed emergent use of Brown's (1973) 14 grammatical morphemes. Because mastery generally was later than for SAE speakers, clinicians are urged to use caution when…

Emphasizes that communicating in a foreign language requires understanding the linguistic strategies of its speakers as expressions of their frame of participation and underlying preferred politeness strategies in order to respond appropriately. The article presents results from sociolinguistic research studying a group of Spanish speakers…

Presents an approach for developing oral proficiency in the advanced conversation course that proposes, as an organizing principle, the use of Swales's concept of genre as a class of communicative events that share a communicative purpose. It is concluded that focus on genre can improve proficiency performance and articulation. (eight references)…

Argues that a gap exists in university-level foreign-language curriculum that requires a "bridge," that is, a course designed to take students from where they are to where they should be to study for a foreign-language major and describes the bridge course in Hispanic culture at the University of New Mexico. (four references) (CK)