Demand for medical Spanish courses has grown with the rising needs of Spanish-speaking patients in the United States, but while there is no shortage of beginning medical Spanish textbooks, very few target the intermediate level. This article examines eighteen medical Spanish texts published in the last twenty years with respect to seven factors:…

This pilot study investigates whether requiring participation in community-based learning can motivate intermediate level Spanish learners to engage in more frequent interaction in Spanish outside of the classroom and course requirements. Using the theoretical framework of willingness to communicate in a second language, this study combines both…

Describes the use of conversational partnerships (CP) in high school Spanish classes. CPs seek to improve spoken proficiency by allowing students to rehearse conversational roles, plan strategies, and polish pronunciation. (CB)

Presents a total Spanish immersion program designed to improve students' spoken Spanish and deepen their cultural awareness under the auspices of a natural and informal environment. Students and their teachers meet in the forest at the end of the week from 40 to 50 hours and converse solely in Spanish. (Author/CK)

Examines the different spoken conditional verb forms used with reference to future time as manifested in the speech habits of those Mexican Americans living in Houston. The frequency with which certain variant forms appear indicates a definite trend in the evolution of linguistic change. Within this linguistic context, the imperfect subjunctive…

Explores the benefits in using textbook dialogue as script to be performed in the second language classroom. Teachers, in the role of director, can use theatrical techniques and suggest appropriate pantomime, gestures, and voice inflections to enhance the script. (CB)

Discusses the effectiveness of student-created oral presentations and visual displays in helping second-language students personalize and internalize the second language, and proposes structural guidelines that provide students flexibility in developing Spanish-language drama, writing, and art activities. (CB)

Suggests some considerations crucial to maintaining and improving the current acceptance and promotion of foreign language instruction, focusing particularly on notions involving functional language learning and oral language skills. (CB)

Describes the development and validation of the Portuguese Speaking Test, a simulated oral proficiency interview that uses a semidirect approach to examine proficiency in personal conversation, direction-giving, description, narration, topical discourse, and real-life situations. (CB)

Presents a classroom version of a popular television game designed to provide students with practice in listening comprehension and speaking as well as an opportunity to review numbers and names of objects in Spanish. (Author/CK)

The Broward County Elementary Foreign Language Program (grades K-5) provides English-speaking students with an understanding of Hispanic cultures, an opportunity to learn the Spanish language with emphasis on oral communication, and a positive attitude toward learning languages. (LB)

Describes the University of Texas at El Paso's use of a Spanish placement system that seeks to appropriately place both native and non-native speakers of Spanish in the correct track and level of Spanish courses. (CB)

Discusses the validity of a rating scale created by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages for the purpose of measuring the oral language proficiency of bilingual professionals who are speakers of English and Spanish. Notes that this scale measures various levels of competence and features of an individual's speech. (14…

Presents an approach for developing oral proficiency in the advanced conversation course that proposes, as an organizing principle, the use of Swales's concept of genre as a class of communicative events that share a communicative purpose. It is concluded that focus on genre can improve proficiency performance and articulation. (eight references)…

Presents an oral, contextual approach to Spanish subjunctive study (for elementary, intermediate, and advanced levels) and describes sample exercises for: verbs of implied command, impersonal expressions implying command or judgment, verbs of emotions, expressions of wish and desire, expressions of doubt and denial, adjective clauses, and…