Autonomy in language learning does not simply equate with independence, as language learning is a social activity that requires interaction with others. This also applies just as much to distance language learners, who need to reconcile independent language learning and interdependence with others. This article draws on findings from 43 mid-course…

Research Findings: This study investigated the relationship of the Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY) program to mothers' involvement in education at home and school, student school readiness in kindergarten, and student academic outcomes at 3rd grade. HIPPY serves a mostly minority, low-income family population and…

This longitudinal study examined the effects of a paired bilingual program and an English-only reading program on English reading outcomes for Spanish-speaking English learners (ELs) in first, second, and third grades. Participants were 214 ELs enrolled in first grade in 12 high-poverty, low-achieving schools at the beginning of the study. Results…

Foreign Language Elementary Summer Camp is a fantastic way to spend part of the summer. For the past ten years in Glastonbury, Connecticut, the authors have offered a variety of foreign language elementary camps that meet daily for three hours for three to four weeks during July. Currently, they offer camps for Chinese, English Language Learners…

Reach Out and Read is an evidence-based nonprofit organization that promotes early literacy and school readiness in pediatric exam rooms throughout the United States by giving new books to children and advice to parents about the importance of reading aloud. The program began in 1989 at what was then called Boston City Hospital, and is now known…

Simultaneous speech and turn-taking patterns vary considerably across cultures. Research on varieties of Spanish has confirmed that frequent, lengthy overlaps within and between turns are common. In this paper it is suggested that when speakers engage in simultaneous talk, they observe Grice's Cooperative Principle by adjusting their utterances so…

This article reports on an investigation of high-school students' motivations to study Spanish. An online Likert-scale questionnaire was administered to 631 students and 19 teachers. The most influential factors were determined and a principal axis factor analysis with Promax rotation was performed on the responses. The data indicated that the…

The present study investigates the locus of language selection in less and more proficient language learners, specifically testing differential predictions of La Heij's (2005) concept selection model (CSM) and Kroll and Stewart's (1994) revised hierarchical model (RHM). Less and more proficient English dominant learners of Spanish participated in…

Among 96 Latino adults, active coping accounted for variance in global self-esteem beyond that of biculturalism and sociodemographic indicators. The findings highlight the importance of accounting for the way Latino adults approach negotiating multiple cultural contexts. Extending acculturation research to integrate competence-based formulations…

One 9-year-old child was taught conditional discriminations between dictated names in Spanish and their corresponding pictures across three stimulus sets while her 10-year-old brother observed. Posttests revealed the emergence of symmetry relations in the form of oral naming skills by both children. (Contains 2 figures.)

Bilinguals report more tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) failures than monolinguals. Three accounts of this disadvantage are that bilinguals experience between-language interference at (a) semantic and/or (b) phonological levels, or (c) that bilinguals use each language less frequently than monolinguals. Bilinguals who speak one language and sign another…

The purpose of this study was to investigate if heritage students of Spanish experience foreign language anxiety and, if so, what levels of anxiety they experience. The data were collected using the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS). A total of 413 students (209 heritage students and 204 nonheritage students) participated in this…

The present study investigated phonological whole-word measures and consonant accuracy in bilingual and monolingual children to investigate how target approximations drive phonological acquisition. The study included eight bilingual Spanish- and English-speaking 3-year-olds and their monolingual peers (eight Spanish and eight American English).…

Learners of third language (L3) German and L3 French studied unfamiliar verbs that were cognate with first language (L1) Spanish equivalents, second language (L2) English equivalents, or neither. We examined whether learners would assume that the verbs shared syntactic frames with cognate forms in the typologically closer language. In immediate…

Introduction: We present some aspects of a wider investigation (Canadas, 2007), whose main objective is to describe and characterize inductive reasoning used by Spanish students in years 9 and 10 when they work on problems that involved linear and quadratic sequences. Method: We produced a test composed of six problems with different…