A study analyzed patterns in one speech act, that of refusal, in 60 native English speakers (responding in English only) and 120 native Spanish speakers (60 responding in English and 60 in Spanish). Native English speakers were college students in the United States and Spanish speakers were students in Spain. A questionnaire was used to elicit…

A study examines two major types of vowel systems in languages, centripetal and centrifugal. English is associated with the centripetal system, in which vowel quality and quantity (rhythm) are heavily influenced by stress. In this system, vowels have a strong tendency to move toward the center of the vowel area. Spanish is associated with the…

The display of Spanish and English communicative competence of two Hispanic children is explored in a study analyzing directive speech acts (orders, requests, suggestions, hints). The linguistic, sociolinguistic, and strategic resources of the Mexican-American children, aged 4-1/2 to 6 years, are examined qualitatively in data taken from…

Discusses how native speakers of Spanish, accustomed to dealing with nonnative Spanish speakers, evaluated 18 taped nonnative speech samples that provided a wide sample of pronunciation. Comprehensibility, voice agreeability/ disagreeability, and nativeness of accent were rated. (32 references) (LB)

One teacher's experience teaching Spanish to a gifted fourth grade class and a traditional class is reported. Three Foreign Language Experience Program (FLEX) objectives were used: promoting interest in a second-language and culture, fostering interest in future study, and exposing students to limited language in thematic settings to acquire…

Several English and Spanish language tests currently used in bilingual education and some less known tests are reviewed, looking at both historic and psychometric factors. It is suggested that practitioners have commonly assumed that all language tests are basically valid, which contributed to the commercial success of some tests of questionable…

A study examined the occurrence of specific grammatical structures (double object pronouns, nominalization with "lo," demonstrative adjectives/pronouns, and possessive adjectives/pronouns) in oral samples of native speaker Spanish and compared the results with the treatment of the structures in six beginning-level college Spanish textbooks.…

A study investigated the role of metacognitive skills and the conception of reading in the reading comprehension of adult native speakers of Spanish and English. The study differed from others in its examination of reading conceptions and comprehension in both the first and second languages. Results suggest that both first language reading ability…

A study to determine whether college students in first-, second-, and third-year Spanish courses who saw and heard dialogs between native speakers would score significantly higher on a listening comprehension test than those who only heard the dialogs had as its subjects 178 students randomly divided into two treatment groups. Twenty-seven…

Argues that communicative competence in Spanish as a second language can not be taught without giving attention to the grammatical component of language. Compares aspects of the traditional and communicative approaches to language teaching, refers to theory on grammar instruction, and offers examples of classroom activities supporting the learning…

A study evaluated the ability of older adults to accurately perceive and retain Spanish in their short-term memory. Specifically, the study investigated differences in native language (English) auditory perception, short-term native language auditory memory capacity, monolingual age differences in auditory perception ability in an unknown…

Sixty bilingual Mexican American children (20 language disorderd, 20 not qualifying for placement, 20 comparison) between the ages of 7-10 from 2 school districts in southern New Mexico participated in the study to develop and validate an assessment procedure to determine language disorders in Spanish/English bilingual children. An ex post facto…

As bilingual education emerges after the 1974 Lau decision, the additional need to test the language proficiency of bilingual education teachers is recognized. Examination of possible means of validating language proficiency of bilingual education teacher certification candidates shows several alternatives, some desirable and some not. A review of…

A 1-year, two-state research program attempted to find effective methods to increase the ability of Spanish speaking parents and siblings to cope with the needs of handicapped children and to determine if problems and strategies would differ in the two settings. One group of 33 families was served in a Texas border area; the other 12 families were…

This anthology of sociolinguistic/anthropologically-oriented articles on ethnic bilingualism and bilingual education seeks to understand bilingual education outside of the methodological-pedagogical issues involved, that is, from a theory and research, rather than classroom, perspective. Bilingual education is seen as the result of societal…