The process of any language learning is a complex construction of objectives. Any goal is influenced by internal or external factors such as motivation, culture, previous experiences, attitudes, etc. This study aims to recognize and understand the distinct learners' attitudes during their learning progress. This research is conducted as a case…

This article focuses on the use of the repertory grid technique as a research instrument for conducting and analyzing interviews in the field of teaching English as a foreign language. As a demonstration of the explanatory usefulness of this methodological framework, a pilot study was carried out to elicit second language teachers' tacit beliefs…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the literacy practices of the families and communities of first-generation college students in Latin America, and how community and family literacies can inform the understanding of first-generation college students' identity and cultural values. Design/methodology/approach: This transnational…

In this case study, I use an ethnographic-style approach to understand the funds of knowledge of immigrant families living in "colonias" on both sides of the US/Mexico border. I focus on how these "knowledges" and concomitant experiences impact the ways we perceive and treat immigrant students who have all too often been viewed…

This paper investigates Mexican and New Zealand children's conception of the environment and their understandings of environmental issues, focusing on how personal experiences, culture and school-based environmental education (EE) programmes influence their perspectives. Sixty Year 5 children (age 9-11) from three schools in Dunedin (New Zealand)…

Transforming low performing schools to ensure the academic success of Hispanic children situated in poverty remains an educational challenge. External factors impacting student learning are often targeted as the main reasons for poor academic achievement, thereby advancing the culturally deficit model. This study is about an elementary school that…

Conjunto music is representative of Tejano identity and is an important American musical expression. It is a symbol of a physical and cultural sphere where "Texas Mexicans" have had to "negotiate a life on the border between two countries with different attitudes regarding history, culture, language, economics, and politics.…

We start from the assumption that school mathematics knowledge could be better explained if social practices were considered to be generators of knowledge. This perspective changes the way we look at what school mathematics knowledge is and what it takes to teach and learn it. In this article, we will present a teaching situation about periodic…

Characterizes Mexico as a nation of divergent cultures and indicates how a social science framework has been incorporated into the elementary school history curriculum to reflect this diversity. Provides a brief description of curriculum in grades 1-5. (DB)

High school students in Seattle's Global Technology Academy bring refurbished computers to schools and orphanages in developing areas of the world and teach young people the skills they need to advance in an increasingly information-based global marketplace. In 19 trips to date, teams of 5-15 students have taken computers and knowledge to such…

Presents a lesson plan on the early settlement of California by Spanish and Mexican colonists. Discusses the physical and cultural changes in the region from Spanish colonial days to modern times. Includes two primary source readings, two maps, and diagrams of a colonial ranch site, now on the National Register of Historic Places. (CFR)

The American School in Mexico City is a multicultural school drawing its students from the upper middle class with a pupil population of about 40% United States citizens, 40% Mexican, and 20% other nationalities. Admission is based on language proficiency, scholastic achievement, and ability to pay. The school admits monolingual Spanish speakers…

This two-week unit, appropriate for bilingual education settings as well as foreign language programs, deals with the three primary cultural influences found in Mexican contemporary art. The multisensory materials, pragmatic focus, and direct creative student involvement are designed to make it a microcosmic, real-life experience. The first part…

Spanish, English, and American Indian languages in the southwestern United States and northern Mexico and bilingualism and language contact in the region are addressed in a collection of articles. Approaches to research in the languages of this region are discussed in articles by Valdes, Lope Blanch, and Brandt. Cultural and sociolinguistic…

Designed to be used as part of a comprehensive social studies program on Mexican culture, this two-volume manual, written in Spanish, offers an instructional package on Mexican culture, stressing an art-architecture perspective, which can be used at the secondary, college and adult levels. The teacher's guide, Volume I, includes a discussion of a…