This article uses cognitive measures previously developed within linguistic relativity research to explore the thinking patterns of Yucatec Maya-Spanish bilingual children in the Yucatan peninsula. These measures were designed to detect cognitive patterns associated with specific language patterns. Here, these measures are used to test whether 12…

The present study contributes to our understanding of the effects of age and type of linguistic input in the acquisition of Spanish as a second language in adulthood. I examine the Spanish syntax (word order) of three groups of speakers, monolingual Spanish speakers from Mexico and two bilingual English-Spanish speakers born and raised in the…

Despite the extensive research on bilingual development, our understanding of how lexical competition unfolds in the bilingual mind remains limited. Previous studies have predominantly focused on crosslinguistic competition, neglecting the examination of the competition process within each language and the influence of diverse bilingual…

For many minoritized communities, sustaining or at least holding on to their home language and cultural identity has been a constant uphill battle. Nevertheless, Latina/o/x who speak Spanish, for example, have demonstrated to be linguistically and culturally resilient against hegemonic societal, institutional, political, and monolithic national…

One of the main controversial issues in the field of teaching English as a foreign language in México is the decision to use students' mother tongue as a means and an aid for language teaching instruction. On these grounds, the purpose of this study was to explore undergraduate students' preferences and perspectives towards the use of their mother…

This study investigates aspects of voice onset time (VOT) of voiceless bilabial and velar stops in monolingual and bilingual children. VOT poses a special challenge for bilingual Spanish- and English-speaking children because although this VOT distinction exists in both languages, the values differ for the same contrast across Spanish and English.…

This ethnographic study explores the literacies of bilingual families living in the Rio Grande Valley on the U.S.-Mexico border. Murillo argues that immigrant families living on the border play an important role in their children's literacy development, but that their voices are seldom heard in schools due to powerful and persistent deficit views…

The Bilingual Advantage draws together researchers from education, economics, sociology, anthropology and linguistics to examine the economic and employment benefits of bilingualism in the US labor market, countering past research that shows no such benefits exist. Collectively, the authors draw on novel methodological approaches and new data to…

The purpose of this article is to investigate whether, despite a shift in political and educational discourses over the last decades that suggests that Indigenous cultures and languages are recognized, any real change has occurred in terms of Indigenous education in Mexico. It is possible that official bilingual intercultural education is still…

This study compares Spanish morphosyntax error types and magnitude in monolingual Spanish and Spanish-English bilingual children with typical language development (TD) and language impairment (LI). Performance across groups was compared using cloze tasks that targeted articles, clitics, subjunctives, and derivational morphemes in 57 children.…

Situated on the Sierra Madre's western slope is Zacapoaxtla, one of the 222 municipios in the State of Puebla, Mexico. From prehispanic times, Zacapoaxtla has been a "region de refugio" where groups of American Indians cluster, isolate themselves from the rest of the world, and maintain their cultural traditions insofar as the national…

A study compared the types of information included in English narratives written by monolingual American students, English narratives by bilingual Mexican students, and Spanish narratives by monolingual Mexican students, and possible differences by grade level. Subjects were in six groups: monolingual (English-speaking) American; bilingual…

A survey of the status of language usage in Mexico begins with an overview of language distribution among the population, mono- and multilingualism, changes in patterns of usage between the 1970 and 1980 censuses, and linguistic issues related to assimilation of the Indian population and the role and philosophy of the Instituto Nacional…