The Short Acculturation Scale for Hispanic Youth is a modification of an existing acculturation scale for Hispanic adults. Initial normative data as well as internal consistency and split-half reliabilities are provided. Exploratory factor analysis on scores of 141 Hispanic youth, grades 5-8, resulted in factors labeled Extrafamilial Language Use,…

Informal teacher-made tests and cross-cultural suggestions are presented as a supplement to a lesson guide for English as second language (ESL) instruction in grades K through 12. The testing ideas are intended as an accompaniment to an activities-based audiolingual language learning program. Following a general discussion of informal language…

The Home Bilingual Usage Estimate was designed to measure a person's home-family language usage and to yield a single classification according to a criterion scale. The following classifications were established: English monolingual, English dominant, apparent bilingual, Spanish dominant, or Spanish monolingual. Validity was determined by the…

A study investigated the issue of language background variability in the college students making up a psychology subject pool. A questionnaire survey of students at New York University revealed that 39 languages were represented and only 10% of the students indicated they were English monolinguals. Comparisons were made among students by…

A study investigated whether teaching techniques and the use of self-evaluation tended to increase student motivation and second language proficiency. Subjects were 59 high school Honors Spanish 4 students with varying levels of academic ability, motivation, and proficiency, and included both non-native and English-dominant Spanish speakers. The…

The determinants and labor market consequences for immigrants of proficiency in speaking the dominant language (English in the United States and English of French in Canada) are explored, with focus on adult men using self-reported data from the 1980 and 1981 censuses of the United States and Canada, respectively. It is shown that the determinants…

This study investigated the role of language factors as potential determinants of Hispanics' educational progress. Language background factors included exposure to, use of, and proficiency in both Spanish and English, and the students' perceptions of those factors. They were studied in relation to standardized measures of college aptitude and…