This collective case study employs both family literacy theory (Taylor, 1983) and funds of knowledge (Moll et al., 1992) to examine the ways that Mexican American parents conceptualize and practice literacy in the home with their emergent bilingual elementary-aged children. "Emergent bilingual" is used to reference students who are…

The author looks at bilingual first language acquisition Spanish-English Mexican American bilinguals across an elementary school in Colorado. Based on classroom observations, and small group and one-on-one interviews with student participants, their teachers, and immediate family members, these bilinguals reveal how their identity is compromised…

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…

This article examines the efforts of a school in a Mexican community in Chicago to help children and parents capitalize on the language and culture of their 2 worlds. It builds on the concepts of border crossings and hybridity, metaphors used to describe the sociocultural and linguistic reality of people living transnationally. Some US communities…

A questionnaire was administered to twenty-five teachers of the El Paso, Texas, area to determine their attitudes toward the Spanish and English spoken in the area. Most viewed the language as a "border slang" not equivalent to correct English or Spanish. (CK)

A study of 151 bilingual Hispanic students aged 12-18 found that both English proficiency and Spanish proficiency were significantly related to academic achievement (standardized test scores and, to a lesser extent, grade point average). Among Spanish skills, written language had the strongest relationship to academic success. Contains 39…

The Language Facility Test was administered to 48 preschool children in Head Start classes in Ft. Worth, Texas, to determine (1) if the spontaneous production of English speech would be better after the bilingual children were first allowed to perform in Spanish, and (2) if the English language performance of the Mexican-American bilingual…

This article presents a practical approach to assessing Spanish-English bilingualism in Mexican-American children entering school. The general aim of bilingual assessment is discussed. The approach to assessment includes a method of selecting subjects, the use of a sociolinguistic survey, and tests for measuring bilingual communicative competence.…

Article presented in Spanish and English versions. (DS)

Presented are findings from numerous studies in terms of a theory which integrates the theoretical position of Piagetian developmental psychology with the concept of the learning set proposed by Harlow. This integrated theory, called the metaset, is offered as a new approach to explaining the efforts of childhood bilingualism. (NQ)

Presents case promoting foreign languages in elementary schools using study conducted to explore relationships between bilingual and cognitive abilities of Mexican American children. Favors additive over subtractive bilingualism. (BK)