Presents population projections for different linguistic components of the Spanish language group, i.e., for English dominant bilinguals, Spanish dominant bilinguals, and Spanish monolinguals. Although regular speakers of Spanish will number about 16.6 million by the year 2000, this language minority will decline increasingly rapidly in the…

This paper presents a linguistic analysis of Spanish-English bilingual speech for scholars and practitioners of bilingualism. More specifically, the study surveys several outcomes of language contact, among these, inter-lingual transference, codeswitching, and convergence, as evidenced in the speech practices of heritage Spanish speakers in the…

This document, comprising volume 5, issues 1-3 of Learning Languages: The Journal of the National Network for Early Language Learning (NNELL), includes the following articles: "Poverty, Race, and Foreign Language Immersion: Predictors of Math and English Language Arts Performance" (Stephen J. Caldas, Nicole Boudreaux); "Meet a…

Word lists spoken in Castillian, Caribbean, and Mexican dialects were compared to identify speech reception thresholds in 12 Spanish-speaking, Puerto Rican children (ages 6-7). No statistically significant differences were found among the dialects. (Author/DB)

Monolingual children were assigned to two groups to examine the role of reinforcement in language acquisition. One group was differentially reinforced for use of foreign vocabulary. The other group was first reinforced nondifferentially for use of either native or foreign language and later differentially reinforced for foreign language use. (PCB)

Data from 304 family service center clients were analyzed to assess how the Client Satisfaction Questionnaire (CSQ-8) operated when used with different ethnic populations. Results indicated the CSQ-8 operated about the same, whether administered to Anglos or to persons of Hispanic origin, or in English or Spanish. (NQA)

A Spanish translation of the Child Abuse Potential Inventory was administrated to 66 perpetrators of child maltreatment and physical abuse and a demographically representative sample (n=829) of the general population of the Pais Vasco in Spain. The measure correctly identified 98.3 percent of the physical child abuse perpetrators. (Author/DB)

This study tested the production of 18 Spanish consonants by 120 Mexican-American preschool children (ages 3-5), to determine the age of acquisition of Spanish consonants. Data are provided on percent of correct production of each sound at six different age levels and are graphically illustrated to compare age of acquisition with another study's…

Videotaped conversations of Spanish-speaking children aged two or four years, first with their mothers and then with each other, were compared. Results support Vygotsky's hypothesis that children's skills in following regulations by others and in regulating others emerge in the social context of conversations. (PCB)

The study found differential learning rates in a group of bilingual children (ages four to six) with limited English proficiency (LEP) when they all were taught an invented morpheme. The language-impaired children in the group learned the morpheme at a slower rate than the nonimpaired children. Results have implications for identifying language…

A total of 102 Spanish-speaking and 104 English-speaking preschool 4-year-old pupils were individually administered the Spanish and English versions of the Cooperative Preschool Inventory (CPI) to examine item responses for possible bias. Miminum logit chi-square regression was applied to each of the 30 items of the CPI verbal scale. Each of the…

Discusses how current procedures for selecting/constructing equivalent texts may lead to error because of their specific limitations; proposes the utilization of micro-propositional analysis coupled with word-frequency lists and readability formulas for constructing "matching" texts; presents some procedures which researchers working in…

Evaluates the effects of presenting verbal models following the initiations or expressions of interest of 16 children aged 28 to 34 months on both production and comprehension abilities measures. Results suggest that the timing of exposure to language models plays a critical role in language acquisition. (RJC)

This pilot project was designed to provide professional development to teaching assistants (TAs) and improve undergraduate instruction in an intensive Spanish course through the use of collaboration and experiential instruction. TAs improved their teaching strategies, learned techniques to solve classroom problems, and reported satisfaction from…

In 1970 there were about 68,000 persons of minority, racial, and ethnic background who had occupations as actors, architects, authors, dancers, designers, musicians, composers, painters, scupltors, photographers, radio and television announcers, university teachers of art, music, or drama, and other types of artists and entertainers. In this…