The curriculum guide for Spanish outlines the general and specific objectives and content of the courses to be offered in the Jefferson County (Colorado) public junior and senior high schools. An introductory section describes the district's comprehensive and second language education goals and philosophy, summarizes the findings of the…

It was found that the seemingly greatly increased oral fluency of Middlebury College seniors who had studied in college-sponsored junior year abroad programs did not carry over to written skills or to comprehensive grammatical knowledge. In the oral proficiency interview for Spanish, many returning students had no control of the subjunctive, a key…

Support materials for the last of 40 instructional kits of the Spanish as a Second Language Strand for primary grades are contained in this supplement to Unit 10 developed for third graders. A teacher's guide for this unit, consisting of kits 37-40, gives the timetable for use of materials. These instructional aids are designed to help the teacher…

Supplementary materials for unit seven of Spanish as a Second Language include a packet of instructional aids and ditto masters and two small student readers. Prepared for grade three, the materials are designed to help the teacher conduct learning and assessment activities described in the teacher's guide, which provides a timetable for using…

IN ORDER TO DISCOVER IF PUPILS COULD ARRIVE AT THEIR OWN RULES OR GENERALIZATIONS FROM DRILL (THUS SUGGESTING THAT TIME BE SPENT MORE PROFITABLY IN ADDITIONAL PRACTICE THAN IN EXPLANATION), FOUR DIFFERENT METHODS WERE TESTED. FOUR FRENCH AND FOUR SPANISH HIGH SCHOOL CLASSES WERE SUBJECTED TO EXPLANATIONS (1) BEFORE THE DRILL, (2) AFTER THE INITIAL…

The most basic and simplest act of communicative competence in Spanish involves the appropriate decoding and selection of the pronominal address forms "tu" and "Usted." Their selection and semantic value are not, however, determined by linguistic criteria alone. Since "tu/Ud." mark the relative status of each speaker in a given context, their…

Because of the recent Lau vs. Nichols decision by the Supreme Court, school districts will be looking for various instruments to determine language functionality in bilingual students. Nine tests are reviewed: the Leiter International Performance Scale (LIPS), the Michigan Oral Language Productive Tests Structured Response, the Michigan Oral…

Second language learners of English responded to a questionnaire requiring them to identify the antecedent of a reflexive pronoun. Responses were compared to those of a native speaker control group, and first language transfer and recapitulation of first language acquisition were examined. (24 references) (Author/OD)

Many simultaneous bilinguals exhibit loss or incomplete acquisition of their heritage language under conditions of exposure and use of the majority language (Silva-Corvalan, 1994, 2003; Polinsky, 1997; Toribio, 2001; Montrul, 2002). Recent work within discourse-functional (Silva-Corvalan 1994) and generative perspectives (Sorace, 2000; Montrul;…

A teaching guide for teachers of language arts for native Spanish-speaking primary school students in the Chicago public schools consists of four sections and appendices. Part I introduces the concepts of the language arts program, its behavioral objectives, suggestions for teachers, and notes on the characteristics of students of this age group.…

This essay considers three areas in Spanish grammar that generally cause difficulty to English-speaking learners: the use of "ser" and "estar," the difference in use between the preterite and imperfect tenses, and the use of the subjunctive. Like most problematic grammatical elements in any language, these points are difficult for non-native…

Supplementary instructional aids for unit four of Spanish as a Second Language for second graders, including visual aids and ditto masters for seatwork by students, are contained in this revised supplement. A teacher's guide corresponding to this unit gives the timetable for when these materials are to be used. Illustrations and worksheets are…

Similarities and differences in language acquisition and variations in patterns of language dominance were studied with three four-year-old girls. The ideoqraphic study of child speech involved a monolingual English-speaking child, a monolingual Spanish-speaking child, and a bilingual English-Spanish-speaking child. The following measures were…

A group of activiites for responding to individual learner needs designed by seven teachers of Spanish, French, and Latin, are presented as practical application exercises to meet identified learner problems in their classrooms. The source of learner problems was identified and correlated to specific learning tasks according to the original model…

The communication strategies of eight Spanish-speaking children enrolled in an elementary English as a second language (ESL) program in Austin, Texas were observed and analyzed. Strategies were found to be divisible into three categories: kinesic, paralinguistic, and linguistic. The linguistic strategies resulted in errors, but these are deemed…