Gives some examples of internal contradictions in the use of the Spanish subjunctive. Details these contradictions to show there is only a tenuous relationship between surface forms and semantic features and categories. (EKN)

This article examines differences in conversational style between British English and Ecuadorian Spanish, which can be the source of communication conflict among speakers of these two languages in telephone conversations, and presumably other types of interaction. (30 references) (JL)

Presents a sociolinguistic study of second-generation Spanish immigrants in Germany. Specific focus is on "diglossia processes," or how Spanish and German are used for different sociolinguistic situations. (Author/VL)

Results of study indicate that vowel reduction is much more marked in English than in French, German or Spanish and that each one of the four languages offers a reduction pattern of its own. (Author/FWB)

Reports on the results of a descriptive study of the noun phrase agreement behavior exhibited by three first-year Spanish language students during a series of oral interviews conducted over six months (two academic quarters).(13 references) (JL)

Advocates that information on student aptitude for foreign language learning be used not, as in the past, for determining the best general method for language teaching but rather for determining the best teaching method for particular kinds of students. (FB)

A study found that, when temporal characteristics of stops in a Spanish utterance by a native English-speaker were computer-manipulated, native Spanish-speakers' perceptions of the foreignness of the speech were affected. Results imply that Spanish language instruction should include instruction to shorten stops to more Spanish-like values,…

Prosodic characteristics of English, German, Spanish, and French are compared and contrasted in this second of a series of articles on general phonetic characteristics of American English. Major attention is given to declarative intonation, place of logical stress in the word and sense group, nature of logical stress, variations in syllable…

Examines the spatial deictic features of Spanish, the study focuses on the topic's pedagogical implications for second- language learning and an accurate description of the contrast between Spanish and English deixis. The article concludes that there is a need to view Spanish spatial deictics as elements "in use" and to see them as…

Analyzes the differences in usage of the Spanish preterite and imperfect by native speakers of Spanish and by nonnative speakers of Spanish whose first language is Dutch. Teaching strategies to enhance the learner's awareness of context and sequencing are suggested. (LMO)

Fluent Spanish-English bilinguals were asked to translate passages containing idioms into everyday conversational English. Results confirmed the use of knowledge of English to produce many idioms and the production of more idioms that were identical in both languages. (Contains 20 references.) (Author/LB)

An experiment measuring the effectiveness of two procedures for presenting pattern drills was devised in order to show that pattern drills are most useful as a learning device if deliberately related to situational or meaningful content. Criteria for the selection of subjects are presented here, as are sample test items and a table of results.…

Phonetic characteristics of English, German, Spanish, and French vowels are compared and contrasted in this third of a series of articles on general phonetic characteristics of American English. Much attention is given to acoustic and articulatory description. Vowel distribution, frequency, and duration are discussed. New vowel sounds for the…

Analyzes the effect of training on perception of English vowels by native speakers of Basque and Spanish. University students who took a training course in English phonetics completed questionnaires and vowel perception tests. Findings confirm that training exerts a positive effect on the perception of English vowels and that this effect is also…