An important component of the teacher knowledge base is how aware a teacher is of language, including how it is acquired and best taught. Equally important are teacher beliefs about language or language ideologies. Because this combination of beliefs and awareness guides most pedagogical decisions, our study used explanatory sequential mixed…

Since 2013, our research team has discovered that English is no longer "foreign" to Colombian language ecologies. As a follow-up to our initial research on physical spaces, this study provides a more personal dimension of these second language literacies. Through our conceptual framework of "city as literacy" and narrative…

This study draws on research regarding content-based second language instruction and metalinguistic awareness, and observes a teacher who attempted to put the concomitant ideologies into practice. The research questions used to guide this study were as follows: a) How does a third grade bilingual teacher encourage and promote student linguistic…

This paper focuses on language diversity in Chicano speech communities in the United States and its relation to the teaching of Spanish to Chicano bilinguals. Attempts to teach standard Spanish to Spanish-speakers in the United States have been unsuccessful for the most part, because the schools recognize only a single standard of "correctness"…

The purpose of this study, which is based on a survey of 116 Hispanic organizations in the United States, is threefold: (1) to explore the organizational background characteristics that might distinguish linguistically retentive from non-retentive organizations; (2) to determine whether there is any differential/ non-differential interest in…

Language switching (language alternation, code switching), the rapid alternation from one language to another, may or may not convey more than the cognitive significance of the message. Linguists have demonstrated the metaphorical or connotative significance of switching, but have not fully discussed the various forms switching takes. The present…

This study examined the language and cultural attitudes of 45 bilingual Spanish/English adolescents of Spanish, Peruvian, and Chilean background enrolled in Saturday Spanish programs in Sydney, Australia. Each student had at least one parent whose first language was Spanish. A 60-item questionnaire designed to elicit information on factors…

A bilingual rating scale was constructed to determine teachers' ratings of attitude and proficiency among Anglo and Spanish children in Title VII classes. This instrument was designed to ascertain how teachers perceive the pupils in their classroom and how two teachers representing different backgrounds perceive children of similar and different…

Sociolinguistically oriented studies of the Chicano speech community cluster around two subject areas: (1) conversational code-switching, and (2) language loyalty and maintenance. Research representative of each of these areas is reviewed. It is felt that the large body of findings regarding the language use of the Chicanos have failed to take the…

A study was undertaken to gather attitudes of Spanish-speakers toward specific types of Chicano Spanish dialect lexical items. Reactions were randomly taken from 11 Latin American students who attended Southern Illinois University at Carbondale during the 1975 spring semester; 20 Mexican residents of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, who attended English as…

Discusses increase in use of phrase "global interdependence;" foreign languages and their relation to security and national defense; the fact that business has been sensitive to the need for more knowledge of foreign languages; and the positive trend that a majority of the American people recognize the value of foreign language study. (BK)

While numerous studies on bilingual education have looked at student test scores, drop-out rates, and parental responses, this study looks at the attitudes of the students directly affected by bilingual education. Interviews with a representative sample of 132 elementary school students (grades 4-6) in El Paso, Texas were conducted for this study.…

A study examined the use of the ethnic language as it relates to ethnic self-identification in three generations of a bilingual family of Mexican origin in San Antonio (Texas). Family members were speakers of Texas Spanish and English. Two questionnaires and follow-up discussions examined fluency in Spanish and English; language preferences;…

Before a bilingual program can be set up, students who are potential candidates for such a program must be identified. A study was made to investigate the interrelationships of three commonly used measures of "language dominance": the Language Facility Test (LFT), the Home Bilingual Usage Estimate (HBUE), and the Teacher Judgment Questionnaire…

A study investigated the stigma associated with not speaking a native language in a Hispanic community. Subjects were 288 male and female university students and staff, both Hispanic and non-Hispanic, in the San Diego (California) area. Two forms of a paper-and-pencil survey were administered to the subjects; one gave a stimulus figure, a Mexican…