To examine some of the linguistic aspects of Chicano English (a variety of English commonly spoken by Mexican American bilinguals in the Southwest) which present problems in the acquisition of written Standard English, sample writings were collected from 15 University of Texas-El Paso students enrolled in an English as a Second Language course. To…

The academic fate of students from different ethnic groups under open admissions at City University of New York is examined. Three central questions are addressed: (1) Who came and how was the ethnic composition of the university affected by open admissions? (2) To what degree did different parts of the university become ethnically integrated? (3)…

Despite the rhetoric as to its importance, this analysis concludes that there is no federal interest in promoting meaningful, substantive parent-community involvement in bilingual education. The absence of policy, data, theory, specifically worded governing rules and regulations, established models of involvement, training programs, or technical…

This collection resulting from a workshop on language teaching methodology contains the following papers: (1) "The Role of Culture in Foreign Language Learning," by N. Brooks; (2) "Guidelines and Ideas to Boost the Enrollment in Foreign Language Courses," by L.F. Gonzalez-Cruz; "Cooking in the Classroom," by K. Boykin; (4) "Performance Based…

The articles included in these proceedings are presented in order to give some insight into the meaning and scope of bilingualism and bilingual education. The volume is divided into sections respresenting the following five areas of concern in bilingual education: philosophy, legal aspects, language and linguistics, culture, and techniques and…

This paper discusses a series of oral proficiency tests in six languages developed under the auspices of the Center for Applied Linguistics and the Seattle Public Schools District. The prototype is an English test, totally oral, for use in grades K-4, designed to: (a) determine the child's ability to (1) understand and produce the distinctive…

This paper reports on the techniques developed by Valdosta State College's Department of Modern Foreign Languages to promote interest in the study of foreign languages and culture. The techniques are divided into two major categories: internal and external. External activities include those for the benefit of high school students and teachers and…

This paper describes the use of folktales in the classroom, noting the instructional benefits, challenges and potential problems, and techniques for presenting and expanding on the stories. Of nine folktales told during the school year, five are told in English and four in Spanish, and most are closely tied to the social studies curriculum. Four…

A 16-week office specialist certificate program was developed for Spanish-speaking adults who have the ability and desire to obtain an entry-level office administration position but who have limited English proficiency and basic occupational skills. The program, which is based on the vocational bilingual training model, takes advantage of the…

Within a 3-year period, a rural Midwestern school district's Hispanic student population increased from 3 to over 180 due to the hiring of migrant workers by a local meat packing plant. A qualitative study using interviews and classroom observations examined the processes through which 23 teachers and 5 administrators in this school district…

This edited volume includes the following chapters: "Three Kinds of Sociolinguistics and SLA: A Psycholinguistic Perspective" (Dennis R. Preston); "Getting Serious about Language Play: Language Play, Interlanguage Variation, and Second Language Acquisition" (Elaine Tarone); "Oppositional Talk and the Acquisition of Modality in L2 English" (Tom…

An experimental English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) program at City College (New York) is reported. The federally funded project investigated the effectiveness of an instructional method entitled "Fluency First" and based on whole language theories of learning. It requires large amounts of reading and writing, collaboration with peers,…

Searching for additional bilingual-crosscultural teachers, the California State University (CSU) system plans to combine teacher education and the CSU International Programs approach. Basic elements of this program are: (1) intensive study of Spanish and immersion in a Spanish-speaking milieu; (2) a living experience in the Mexican culture; (3) a…

A California State University (Fullerton) program brings together faculty in business administration, economics, and foreign languages in an interdisciplinary effort to internationalize the business curriculum. The program has attracted a rapidly enlarging student following, with Spanish the largest language concentration and Japanese the fastest…

In response to the changing world economic market, foreign language teachers of the University of Akron and Akron Public Schools (Ohio) began a joint project, federally supported, to strengthen foreign language teacher proficiency in the area of careers in business, education, and government service, strengthen oral proficiency of high school…