This article extends two conversations in the heritage language (HL) scholarship: 1) the need to strengthen the linguistic self-confidence among receptive bilinguals (who are typically associated with beginning-level HL students); 2) the need for more critical explorations of receptive bilinguals' self-reported, albeit minimal, spoken Spanish in…

In the U.S./Mexico borderlands, local language varieties face frequent discrimination and delegitimization or "linguistic terrorism." The present study uses the three-level positioning framework to analyze how young adults in the Rio Grande Valley (RGV) in south Texas construct borderland identities by positioning themselves with respect…

This morphosyntactic dissertation study compares the use of MOOD (indicative & subjunctive) in first- and second-generation Spanish speakers in New York City. The data for this study are from a transcription of naturalistic Spanish conversations with New Yorkers of different generations, representing the six primary Spanish-speaking groups in…

Many young children of Mexican heritage enter U.S. schools with knowledge of two language systems and emergent biliterate abilities. Bilingualism in young children may go unnoticed when instructional practices favor English. This case study describes how Lucía's bilingualism and emergent biliteracy parallel competencies essential to literacy…

This article presents an ethnographic study of how bilingual teachers and children use their home language, TexMex, to mediate academic content and standard languages. From the premise that TESOL educators can benefit from a fuller understanding of students' linguistic repertoires, the study describes language practices in a second-grade classroom…

Critiques controversies about Chicano dialects and, particularly, the linguistic status of Chicano English. Proposes a model of Chicano languages/dialects based on assumptions about the nature of the speech setting of Chicanos. Characterizes Chicano English as the autonomous vernacular dialect of native-English-speaking Chicanos. (70 references)…

A study of integration of English lexicon into the Spanish spoken in New Mexico considers formal English, formal Spanish and the informal mixture spoken by local Chicanos. (CK)

Investigated in this study were: (1) the sociolinguistic background of bilingual students at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP); (2) the socioeducational side of bilingualism; (3) the relationship between skill in English and academic performance among bilinguals; and (4) the language attitudes of these students. A stratified random sample…

The Chicano population in the Southwest is primarily bilingual. Chicano bilingualism persists amidst two opposing currents: language reinforcement through continuous contact with incoming Mexicans and isolation from other linguistic groups; and language shift, often the stronger current, from the permeation by the English language of all spheres…

The notion of "relational" bilingualism is a construct based on the possible relationships of the bilingual-bicultural status to demographic, sociological, psychological, educational, and other societal variables. (Author/AM)

Describes attempts to systematize information about the linguistic varieties present in the Spanish and English of the American Southwest. (CDSH/AM)

A study is reported in which Mexican-American and Anglo adolescents rated the personalities of sixteen speakers representing four language categories: English-Home, Spanish-Home, English-School, and Spanish-School. The study sought information about the Mexican-American bilingual adolescent and his reactions to his position as a bilingual.…

A study of attitudes toward bilingualism among a national sample of persons of Mexican descent indicated that politically framed ethnic identity fosters positive views of bilingualism. Traditional self-conceptions as Mexican and Spanish-speaking directly encourage support of bilingualism but at the same time engage conservative political attitudes…