This study sought to determine the effectiveness of supplementing college-level intermediate Spanish courses with formal instruction in pronunciation. It found that this multimodal methodology resulted in significant improvement of target language pronunciation for the 43 subjects in the experimental group. Contains 30 references. (MDM)

Reports on a 9-month ethnographic assessment of the Mexican "Rincones de lectura" literacy program as it was implemented in one rural elementary school. Findings are examined to determine the impact of Spanish language literacy materials on the indigenous language, Nahuatl. (Author/VWL)

Analysis of recordings of spontaneous speech of native speakers of Quechua speaking Spanish as a second language reveals that, using verbal morphological resources of Spanish, they have grammaticalized an epistemic marking system resembling that of Quechua. Sources of this process in both Quechua and Spanish are analyzed. (MSE)

Two studies examined Spanish and English phonological awareness, Verbal IQ, oral language proficiency, single-word reading of Spanish-speaking English as-a-second language first graders who received all their school instruction in English. Implications of this research are discussed, especially the importance of early reading intervention and…

Used teacher interviews and observations to examine the roles five teachers undertook to promote literacy in a classroom of Spanish-speaking kindergartners. Found that teachers' roles could be identified and described as: monitoring, facilitating, interacting, inquiring about, initiating, extending children's play, engaging children in discussion,…

Explores social interactive features of synchronous computer-mediated communication (CMC)--commonly known as "chat"--as such features unfolded in real time and developed over a 9-week period in two college Spanish courses. Invoked a Vygotskian sociocultural theoretical framework and employed discourse analysis as a research tool to…

Observed effects of dialogue journaling through electronic mail on the language produced by learners of Spanish as a second language, compared with the paper-and-pencil version. The electronic version was found to have a positive effect on the amount of language generated and on students' attitudes towards learning the target language but did not…

Investigated the developing metalinguistic capabilities of Hispanic primary school children who are becoming bilingual but whose English achievement is below average. Examines whether native and second-language vocabulary and degree of bilingualism contribute to performance on a bilingual task, and whether native- and second-language vocabulary…

Reports on a study of the development of literacy, bilingualism, and metalinguistic awareness. Subjects were speakers of Spanish and Nahuatl from Central Mexico. Assessments of metalinguistic awareness related to different aspects of the children's consciousness of the languages they spoke or understood were compared to a series of assessments of…

Compares some of the writing behaviors present in the think-aloud protocols of three male Spanish university students while writing in Catalan, their native language, and in Spanish and English. Analysis of the subjects' composing behaviors based on think-aloud protocols shows that their planning and other strategies are consistent across the…

Taking into consideration some gaps observed in SLA research--noticing, recasts, input enhancement (IE),…-- and in CALL/CMC research, a study was conducted among 12 advanced FL Spanish learners to assess whether and how, by communicating with a Spanish native speaker in 5 chat-room sessions, their language competence would develop in the following…

This article describes the usage of linguistic units and instructional strategies that facilitate word recognition for Latino kindergarten students who are beginning to read in Spanish. This case study was based on coding videotaped reading and language arts instruction of two bilingual kindergarten teachers at the beginning, middle, and end of…

Blue Ridge Community College in Flat Rock, North Carolina serves a rapidly growing Hispanic population through its Family-Centered Literacy Program. The Hispanic population in the region has been increasing at a staggering rate of 50% per year, most of which is in-migration. These newcomers frequently face challenges adjusting to their jobs,…

Group therapy with multilingual, multicultural populations is a challenging and unexplored area that is beginning to be addressed because of the growing population of multilingual, multicultural children. In this article, the importance of working with children from different cultural backgrounds, and current research on bilingualism are reviewed.…

This study evaluated the effects of "HeadsUp! Reading" (HUR), a professional development literacy workshop series, with and without supplementary mentoring on early childhood educators' (ECEs) practices and its subsequent effect on preschool children's literacy skills. ECEs who served children in high poverty communities participated in a 15-week…