This paper presents a series of experiments that tested the usefulness of teaching Spanish mood using an approach to Cognitive Grammar specifically developed for the foreign language classroom: "Operational Grammar." Mood selection is one of the most difficult aspects of learning Spanish as a FL, and it is one of the last features…

This study aims to identify the two principal reasons why college students choose a certain language to satisfy a general education second language requirement by polling 172 students enrolled in first-year language courses in 13 languages at a large Northeastern research university. Students answered a questionnaire and chose the two main reasons…

The Garifuna are an Indigenous, Afro-Latino group in Honduras whose distinct cultural, ethnic, and linguistic background has been unacknowledged and frequently misunderstood on a societal level and, consequently, in the schools that serve them. This study argues for the utility of a cultural mismatch approach, one applied primarily to U.S.…

The purpose of the current study was to examine the roles of acculturation, economic value of education, and gender in the academic achievement of Latino adolescents. Participants (N = 143) were 12th-grade students at an urban public high school. Analyses revealed that a higher economic value of education was related to higher academic…

The present research study was conducted to explore how structured Spanish instruction (30 minutes, twice a week, for a semester) impacts the level of class participation and on-task behavior and the reading fluency rate of a group of self-contained, special needs, elementary school children (grades K-5). Data for this mixed methodology study were…

One key issue for models of bilingual memory is to what degree the semantic representation from one of the languages is shared with the other language. In the present paper, we examine whether there is an early, automatic semantic priming effect across languages for noncognates with highly proficient (Basque/Spanish) bilinguals. Experiment 1 was a…

This paper presents two experiments in the acquisition of the nominal domain in English by Japanese and Spanish second language (L2) learners. The first experiment tests the L2 learners' ability to distinguish between count and mass nouns using a grammaticality judgement task and the second experiment tests learners on different types of definite…

In three experiments, we explore the effects of phonological properties such as neighbourhood density and frequency on speech production in Spanish. Specifically, we assess the reliability of the recent observation made by Vitevitch and Stamer (2006), according to which the neighbourhood effect in Spanish has a reverse polarity to that observed in…

Masked affix priming effects have usually been obtained for words sharing the initial affix (e.g., "reaction"-"REFORM"). However, prior evidence on masked suffix priming effects (e.g., "baker"-"WALKER") is inconclusive. In the present series of masked priming lexical decision experiments, a target word was…

During unscripted speech, speakers coordinate the formulation of pre-linguistic messages with the linguistic processes that implement those messages into speech. We examine the process of constructing a contextually appropriate message and interfacing that message with utterance planning in English ("the small butterfly") and Spanish ("la mariposa…

The authors examine dimensions of the home literacy environment relative to oral language outcomes for high-risk Hispanic children. They also illustrate the use of commonality analysis for understanding the contribution of home literacy to oral language outcomes. Forty-eight children and their families participated in the study. Commonality…

The "weaker links" hypothesis proposes that bilinguals are disadvantaged relative to monolinguals on speaking tasks because they divide frequency-of-use between two languages. To test this proposal, we contrasted the effects of increased word use associated with monolingualism, language dominance, and increased age on picture naming times. In two…

IN THIS SPEECH TO THE TEACHERS OF LAS VEGAS, NEW MEXICO, THE AUTHOR REFERS TO THE RICH SPANISH, MEXICAN, AND INDIAN CULTURES AVAILABLE FOR SOCIOLOGICAL STUDY IN NORTHERN NEW MEXICO AND SOUTHWESTERN UNITED STATES. HE BELIEVES THE PLIGHT OF THE INDIANS AND THE SPANISH AMERICAN PEOPLE IS DUE TO DEPRIVATION FROM POLITICAL OFFICE, SOCIOLOGICAL…

Describes how an Albuquerque, New Mexico, community became involved in a bilingual school program. (JF)

Realizing that multicultural education's true goal is academic achievement, a Seattle high school teacher began to add native Spanish speakers to the native English speakers in her advanced Spanish studies class and offered opportunities to hone literacy skills. Over the next 3 years, 19 of 26 native Spanish speakers from the class passed Spanish…