Studies of "transfronterizos" have highlighted the potential ways in which these students might draw on their linguistic, cultural, or knowledge capital on both sides of the border. However, because "transfronterizos" may cross borders to participate in institutional contexts, such as schooling, they can find themselves in the…

"Mitigation" is the modification of language in response to social or cognitive challenges ("stressors") in contexts of linguistic interaction (Martinovski, Mao, Gratch, & Marsella 2005). Previous mitigation research has been largely from social perspectives, addressing the word or utterance levels of language. This dissertation presents an…

The theory of Analogical and Exemplar Modeling (AEM) suggests renewed discussion of the formalization of analogy and its possible incorporation in linguistic theory. AEM is a usage-based model founded upon Exemplar Modeling (Bybee 2007, Pierrehumbert 2001) that utilizes several principles of the Analogical Modeling of Language (Skousen 1992, 1995,…

Three experiments provide evidence that the conceptualization of moving objects and events is influenced by one's native language, consistent with linguistic relativity theory. Monolingual English speakers and bilingual Spanish/English speakers tested in an English-speaking context performed better than monolingual Spanish speakers and bilingual…

Portuguese is the sixth-most-spoken native language in the world, with approximately 240,000,000 speakers. Within the United States, there is a growing demand for K-12 language programs to engage the community of Portuguese heritage speakers. According to the 2000 U.S. census, 85,000 school-age children speak Portuguese at home. As a result, more…

Purpose: Identifying children with primary or specific language impairment (LI) in languages other than English continues to present a diagnostic challenge. This study examined the utility of English and Spanish nonword repetition (NWR) to identify children known to have LI. Method: Participants were 4 groups of school-age children (N = 187).…

This paper analyzes the context of Spanish language teaching in Brazil. We examine the representations of and attitudes toward Rioplatense/Argentinean Spanish and Peninsular Spanish--and toward the speakers of each of these varieties--held by Brazilian learners of Spanish as a foreign language. To provide the context in which Spanish learning…

The present study examined the relationship between discriminatory experiences and acculturative stress levels among a sample of 283 Dominican immigrants. Findings from a linear regression analysis revealed that experiences of daily racial discrimination and major racist events were significant predictors of acculturative stress after controlling…

Lexical access was examined in English-Spanish bilinguals by monitoring eye fixations on target and lexical competitors as participants followed spoken instructions in English to click on one of the objects presented on a computer (e.g., "Click on the beans"). Within-language lexical competitors had a phoneme onset in English that was shared with…

In this article, the author talks about strategies for success in recruiting and retaining Hispanic students. One strategy suggested by Raul Lorenzo, account director for Bauza & Associates, a Hispanic marketing agency that helps colleges and universities recruit and retain Hispanic students, is that institutions need to speak to the heart as well…

The present study takes as a point of departure Becker's analysis of the copula "be" in English monolingual data and focuses on the distribution of copula "be" in the data from two English/Spanish bilingual children. Our data analysis shows that, as in Becker's study, the distribution of copula omission in the bilingual data is determined by the…

Introduction: The use of self efficacy has been suggested as an effective classroom intervention procedure. The present research examined the use of self-efficacy training on the writing of Spanish elementary student with learning disabilities. Objectives: We present a research study focused on the improvement of the writing product and the…

Research using online comprehension measures with monolingual children shows that speed and accuracy of spoken word recognition are correlated with lexical development. Here we examined speech processing efficiency in relation to vocabulary development in bilingual children learning both Spanish and English (n=26 ; 2 ; 6). Between-language…

Verbs are one of the basic building blocks of grammar, yet few studies have examined the grammatical, morphological, and phonological factors contributing to lexical access and production of Spanish verb inflection. This report describes an online data set that incorporates psycholinguistic dimensions for 50 of the most common early-acquired…

"Literacy Express" is a preschool curriculum designed for three-to five-year-old children. It is structured around units on oral language, emergent literacy, basic math, science, general knowledge, and socioemotional development. It can be used in half-or full-day programs with typically developing children and children with special…