As a part of the teacher licensure program at the graduate level at The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC), the M.Ed. Licensure candidate is required to complete an action research project during a 3-semester-hour course that coincides with the 9-semester-hour student teaching experience. This course, Education 590 Culminating…

Elementary school children, some of whom were nonnative speakers of English, learned to add and subtract integers in a discovery-based multimedia game either with or without verbal guidance in English or optionally in Spanish (Groups G--verbal guidance and No-G--no verbal guidance, respectively). Group G members chose to listen to verbal…

The present study examines 20 writing samples in English and Spanish selected from portfolios of first grade children at a bilingual school in Ecuador. Based on earlier findings that paragraphs composed in English and Spanish by children, adolescents and adults are different (Lux & Grabe, 1991; Montano-Harmon, 1991; Reid, 1990; Reppen &…

This article presents initiatives used by two elementary schools in the authors' district to meet the learning needs of students who speak Spanish as their first language and are limited English proficient (LEP). Both schools have a 10-20% population of Hispanic students. In most cases, the parents are LEP as well. In this article, the authors…

The educational system in many schools fails to meet the academic needs of minority students. The dramatic shifts in student demographics are demanding changes in the ways teachers are teaching them. It is essential to understand the long term effects of past educational practices and bilingual programs. Research indicates that there are many…

This descriptive study of language use examined the extent to which bilingual Hispanic young adults used their two languages in varying aspects of their lives and analyzed the extent to which they maintained the use of Spanish in these domains. A convenience sample of 202 undergraduate, Hispanic university students completed the Language and…

This article focuses on how data from early literacy assessments can help teachers to better instruct English-language learning students. Data from 52 high-risk schools are used to compare the progress of English learners and English-only students on a variety of literacy assessments. Results reveal that a much higher percentage of…

This paper discusses ways in which young bilingual children understand the principles underlying different writing systems. Six case studies were conducted, involving six-year-olds growing up in London who were learning to write in Chinese, Arabic or Spanish at the same time as English. The children's formal and informal literacy interactions were…

This research analyses possible advantages of using schematic drawings with dyslexic readers in a transparent orthography (i.e. Spanish language). To assess the usefulness of such drawings, the procedure consisted of comparing latency times (LT) for familiar words and pseudo words in a naming task. The experimental group was formed by dyslexic…

This article describes a series of studies that examine the development of literacy in elementary school Spanish-speaking second-language learners. Findings from the research that addresses our first question-regarding cross-language relationships-indicate that first-language reading skills are related to second-language reading skills, but that…

This implementation guide is intended to support the Grade 4 to Grade 6 portion of the Spanish Language and Culture Nine-year Program (the program of studies). It was developed primarily for teachers, yet it includes information that may be useful for administrators and other stakeholders in their efforts to plan for and implement the new Spanish…

Despite the importance of the integration of English language learners with native English speakers for social, academic, and linguistic purposes, few models of integrated bilingual education, other than two-way immersion programs, exist. This article describes one district's effort to design a K-5 late-exit bilingual program with an integration…

This study investigated the effects of two types of bilingual programs (two-way and transitional) on the academic performance and attitudes of fifth-grade students who entered kindergarten or first grade with different levels of English proficiency. A mixed methods design with both quantitative and qualitative data collection and analyses phases…

Although she is now teaching Spanish in a new school full time, Linda Smrokowski, spent 9 years teaching in a once-per-week second language program. Because many once- or twice-per-week programs still exist, she shares strategies for writing and implementing detailed lesson plans that worked for her while she was teaching in a once-per-week…

In the author's experience, Colombia is among the most misunderstood Spanish-speaking countries. Most of the news about Columbia involves drug trafficking or guerilla warfare, due to the many social and political problems that face the country. It is rare that the public is informed about the culture and people of this beautiful South American…