For many Spanish speakers, Spanglish is perceived as a bastardized form of Spanish that does not count as "real" Spanish. This view rests on the assumption that there is a "real" Spanish, which operates by a set of grammatical, lexical and morphological rules such that when bilingual speakers mix into these rules elements that…

Bilinguals sometimes code-switch between their shared languages. While psycholinguistics research has focused on the challenges of comprehending code-switches compared to single-language utterances, bilinguals seem unhindered by code-switching in communication, suggesting benefits that offset the costs. I hypothesize that bilinguals orient their…

This article focuses on self-identified Spanish-speaking early childhood educators' experiences with and views of bilingualism as they learned about translanguaging--a dynamic, liberatory, and culturally and linguistically sustaining theory and practice of language. Artifacts and conversations with teachers showed that, counter to many of their…

This study reports how authors use Spanish in award-winning Latinx children's picturebooks in the USA. Teachers, families, and librarians use these books to support heritage language and culture or to broaden children's understanding of cultures other than their own. Thus, how these books use Spanish matters because of the potential of these books…

The objective of the present study is to analyze word-initial voice onset time (VOT) in the context of code-switching (CS). More specifically, this study combines research methods from sociolinguistics and phonetics to investigate how 32 heritage Spanish speakers (HSSs) of Mexican descent, living in Indiana, produce VOT for /p t k/ in word-initial…

Emergent bilinguals (EB) from Spanish-speaking homes are an already large and rapidly growing population in the U.S., yet limited research examines their language environments, particularly in the English dominant contexts where most attend school. This explanatory sequential mixed-methods study first quantitatively examines adults' use of Spanish…

This study discusses the dialect stylization and language ideologies involved in a nationally broadcasted radio prank show, "Carmen Calls." This national prank show permits a discussion on the language practices and hegemonic ideologies involved in the media representation of the show's Latina protagonist; "Carmen Santiago De la…

A qualitative study of language attitudes toward Spanish in contact with English in San Diego county reveals that while Spanish-English bilingualism is highly valued, Spanish-English codeswitching is disfavored. While studies in other border communities along the U.S.-Mexico border have found similar general results, the present study contributes…

In a study comparing executive functions among US Spanish-English bilinguals from low socio-economic (SES) backgrounds to monolinguals of each language, Grote et al. find that bilingual advantages already manifest themselves in pre-school children. This commentary recommends building on this finding, and further investigate the causes underlying…

This ethnography analysis presents the translingual academic moments -- moments in an academic interaction where both Spanish and English are used -- of a group of six Spanish Heritage Language students who work as academic peer tutors in a Spanish for Heritage Speakers Program at a large public university. The analysis of peer-tutor interviews…

This paper reports on a writing programme I started at Bronx Community College to improve academic success among recently immigrated Spanish-speaking students by linking ESL courses to Spanish academic literacy courses within the framework of a learning community. My reflection begins by articulating the pedagogical rationale for looking beyond…

This paper explores how a transnational emergent multilingual (TEM) student established himself in relation to his teacher and peers in a culturally and linguistically diverse, sheltered English Instruction classroom. Specifically, it documents how the student initiated translingual and cross-cultural social interactions positioning himself as a…

The purpose of this study was to create and prototype a dual language assessment task that allows young English learners to use their entire cadre of linguistic resources (language and non-verbal resources) to obtain information about their emergent language abilities. We developed a dual language assessment task in which students described a…

Code-switching has been studied from different approaches, ranging from syntactical, sociolinguistic, psycholinguistic, phonetically and many others. One key area that phonetic studies have explore has been the production of VOT in Spanish-English bilinguals due to the differences across the languages. To understand how bilinguals co-activate…

Shared book reading has positive impacts on language development, yet how it is navigated with young dual-language learning (DLL) children is less well understood. This study explored differences in shared reading practices among families raising Spanish/English DLL children with a survey for primary caregivers (n = 96) of DLLs between 2-5 years…