Spanish Skills Research Articles

THE EFFECTS OF L1 OVERUSE IN L2 LEARNING: EVIDENCE FROM THREE CASE STUDIES

Foreign language teaching based on the mother tongue has been the traditional vehicle of instruction in Russian classrooms from the primary to high school levels, at language schools as well in teacher-formation at pedagogical institutes as is evidenced by the results of information obtained through interviews to teachers, observation of the students’ in-class behavior and revision of textbooks produced by national authors. Grounded on data (transcripts, essays, and real class examples) gathered during five years, the paper examines the effects of excessive mother tongue use in foreign language classrooms in Ekaterinburg, Russia. The three case studies as well as other classroom instances reported and discussed here illustrate how previous educational experiences have modeled the students´ learning style to such extent that limited progress in communicative skills in English and Spanish is achieved due to their constant reference to the Russian language system, despite having had enough controlled practice and performed well in the controlled application stages of the learning process. As a result, this varied in its manifestations perceived need on the part of the student to recur to Russian to communicate in the L2 originates time-consuming psycholinguistic processes that affect accurate and fluent language production. The paper also advances ideas on how to counteract this problem in class as well as the areas that require more attention on the part of the teacher. The study concludes that though the more than a century-old teaching dilemma concerning the role of the L1 in L2 foreign language pedagogy is still far from been resolved; one thing, however, is clear: excessive translation from and to the native language hampers greatly the outcomes of the instructional process. Keywords : Mother Tongue; Foreign Language; Translation; Psycholinguistic Processes; Accuracy; Fluency

Language of Instruction as a Moderator for Transfer of Reading Comprehension Skills Among Spanish-Speaking English Language Learners

This three-year longitudinal study investigated the role of language of instruction in moderating the relationships between initial levels of English oral language proficiency and Spanish reading comprehension and growth in English reading comprehension. The study followed Spanish-speaking English language learners in English-only literacy instruction, an early-exit bilingual program, or a late-exit bilingual program, from third through fifth grade. Students in all groups experienced significant growth in English reading comprehension. For the English-only group, initial levels of Spanish reading comprehension were not related to growth in English reading comprehension. However, for students in the two bilingually instructed groups, those who began with stronger Spanish reading comprehension skills grew faster in English reading comprehension than students without initial strong Spanish reading comprehension skills.

Community health center provider and staff's Spanish language ability and cultural awareness.

Many community health center providers and staff care for Latinos with diabetes, but their Spanish language ability and awareness of Latino culture are unknown. We surveyed 512 Midwestern health center providers and staff who managed Latino patients with diabetes. Few respondents had high Spanish language (13%) or cultural awareness scores (22%). Of respondents who self-reported 76-100% of their patients were Latino, 48% had moderate/low Spanish language and 49% had moderate/low cultural competency scores. Among these respondents, 3% lacked access to interpreters and 27% had neither received cultural competency training nor had access to training. Among all respondents, Spanish skills and Latino cultural awareness were low. Respondents who saw a significant number of Latinos had good access to interpretation services but not cultural competency training. Improved Spanish-language skills and increased access to cultural competency training and Latino cultural knowledge are needed to provide linguistically and culturally tailored care to Latino patients.

Optimizing the Involvement of Language Interpreters During the Clinical Encounter

To the Editors:—Johnson et al. write in their Comment1 about creating a continuum of language interpreter participation in physician–patient interactions. We fully support this notion. Our novel, self-guided, medical Spanish curriculum,2 which empowers residents to flexibly improve their medical Spanish skills, utilizes medical interpreters as teachers both in the classroom and in the exam room, fostering a relationship that enables the team to function along this continuum. Since its establishment in 2010, over 100 residents from at least 12 graduate medical education training programs at our hospital have participated, and the course has grown to offer advanced, intermediate and beginner level instruction.3 One aspect of this multi-faceted course involves the participation of Spanish language medical interpreters from the hospital’s Office of Interpreter Services, who facilitate monthly group sessions. Our interpreters serve not only as instructors, reviewing material learned during the independent portions of the course, but they also serve as standardized patients, allowing residents to practice clinical encounters in Spanish based on the particular system of the body reviewed that month. During these interactions, learners have the opportunity to gain confidence in both their medical Spanish skills and also their familiarity interacting with interpreters. It is not uncommon for the residents to work with these interpreters around the hospital during a typical day, participating together in actual patient encounters. These varied interactions in different settings help to build a better working relationship, one that is founded in teaching, flexibility and familiarity. So too, it allows the resident to more effectively function along the continuum of medical Spanish skills, at times feeling more comfortable in the interpreter’s presence to take charge in speaking Spanish directly with the patient, and at other times seeking additional interpretation help. One of the goals of our medical Spanish course is to allow residents to become proficient enough with their Spanish skills to be certified by the Office of Interpreter Services as independent speakers of Spanish during patient encounters. This is the same exam that the interpreters themselves would be given, and can help our residents gain yet another layer of understanding about the role and qualifications of medical interpreters. Keeping the authors’ suggestions in mind, we may be able to more formally use our already established framework to evaluate the logistics and feasibility of utilizing medical interpreters along a continuum, thus fully optimizing our ability to effectively communicate with patients.

Beginning English Literacy Development and Achievement Among Spanish-Speaking Children in Arizona’s English-Only Classrooms: A Four-Year Two-Cohort Longitudinal Study

This study examined beginning English literacy-skill development and achievement among Spanish-speaking children enrolled in state-mandated English-only classrooms. The children possessed Spanish skill at or above age-appropriate level, yet minimal English skill, and came from a Spanish-speaking community adjacent to the U.S.-Mexico border. Under its English-only law, the state-mandated classroom instruction is only in English through a structured English immersion model (SEI) using state-regulated and supervised four-hour English language development blocks for these children. Using secondary analysis of existing data, children’s English vocabulary, phonemic awareness, word-reading fluency scores, as well as their English reading and language achievement scores were examined for four years with two separate cohorts of children, beginning with their entry into kindergarten and ending at third grade (K–3rd). Analyses indicated that English-only SEI instruction for children did not result in age- or grade-level-appropriate development or achievement for all children. In fact, less than one-half met age- or grade-level performance.

Affordances and constraints on research publication: A comparative study of the language choices of Spanish historians and psychologists

Research publication in the international arena, is crucial for multilingual scholars in most disciplinary areas. For many, among them Spanish scholars, it still represents a considerable hurdle. The findings we report here are part of a wider research project involving a large online survey of scholars at five universities and research institutions in Spain. We aimed to identify the needs of Spanish researchers in terms of research publishing skills in both English and Spanish, learn about their attitudes, motivations and experiences of research publication and of writing training. The present paper compares the results for scholars in History and Psychology. Through analysis of quantitative and comment data, we show how the motivations of these scholars with regard to research publication in the two languages work together with the strategies and resources available to them to determine language selection. We also review their experience of training in research writing and their willingness to pursue further training. Although the two groups of scholars differ in terms of attitudes to publication in English, they share a willingness to negotiate the challenges presented by institutional constraints, making strategic decisions about the choice of language in which to publish and their own language development.

Expressive vocabulary development in children from bilingual and monolingual homes: A longitudinal study from two to four years

The early course of language development among children from bilingual homes varies in ways that are not well described and as a result of influences that are not well understood. Here, we describe trajectories of relative change in expressive vocabulary from 22 to 48 months and vocabulary achievement at 48 months in two groups of children from bilingual homes (children with one and children with two native Spanish-speaking parents [ns=15 and 11]) and in an SES-equivalent group of children from monolingual English homes (n=31). The two groups from bilingual homes differed in their mean levels of English and Spanish skills, in their developmental trajectories during this period, and in the relation between language use at home and their vocabulary development. Children with two native Spanish-speaking parents showed steepest gains in total vocabulary and were more nearly balanced bilinguals at 48 months. Children with one native Spanish- and one native English-speaking parent showed trajectories of relative decline in Spanish vocabulary. At 48 months, mean levels of English skill among the bilingual children were comparable to monolingual norms, but children with two native Spanish-speaking parents had lower English scores than the SES-equivalent monolingual group. Use of English at home was a significant positive predictor of English vocabulary scores only among children with a native English-speaking parent. These findings argue that efforts to optimize school readiness among children from immigrant families should facilitate their access to native speakers of the community language, and efforts to support heritage language maintenance should include encouraging heritage language use by native speakers in the home.

Latin American students and language learning in Catalonia: what does the linguistic interdependence hypothesis show us?

The massive arrival in Spain of students of immigrant origin has visibly altered the traditional configuration of schools, where ethnic, cultural and linguistic diversity is becoming increasingly manifest. This situation is worth being mentioned insofar as it affects all the different autonomous communities in the country, even more clearly Catalonia, where the educational system is organized under the parameters of bilingual education. One of the theoretical constructs supporting this educational model is the Linguistic Interdependence Hypothesis, developed by Jim Cummins at the beginning of the 1980s. According to the author, whenever the instruction in a given language (Lx) takes place under certain conditions, competence acquired in this language can be transferred onto another (Ly). Bearing this theoretical construct in mind, our study focuses on a sample of 237 Spanish-speaking subjects (123 native and 114 immigrant students) who completed a series of parallel tests evaluating their skills in Catalan and Spanish. Drawing on the data analyzed we can conclude that the Hypothesis accounts for the results in both native and immigrant students with the same L1.

Spanish-Language Home Visitation to Disadvantaged Latino Preschoolers: A Means of Promoting Language Development and English School Readiness

This study reports five years of a school readiness intervention called “HABLA” (Home Based Activities Building Language Acquisition), designed to increase and enrich speech and literacy activities in the homes of economically and educationally disadvantaged Latino families with children between the age of 2 and 4. A team of trained home visitors provided two years of a 23-week program of visitation in which they met with parent(s) and child twice weekly. Both years presented a Spanish language adaptation of the parent-child home program model; home visitors provide intensive modeling and coaching of non-directive Spanish language use, conversation, and literacy activities. Administration of the PLS-3 in Spanish at the onset and culmination of each year of the program indicates significant increases in receptive and expressive language for each year of visitation (7.8 standard points for the first year, 4.4 for the second) with effect-size r ranging from .24 to 42. Participants had significantly improved their levels of oral Spanish skill and scored much higher than a comparison group of non-treated. A subset of graduates of the two-year program was tested as kindergarteners; they showed a continued advantage over a comparison group of 18 peers who had not received the intervention. For the graduates, both their Spanish PLS-3 scores and English PLS-4 scores were significantly higher, and their parents reported a continued effort to provide literacy experiences at home. The HABLA participants also showed a clear advantage for an English language test of phonological awareness, one of the strongest predictors of school success.

Bilingual and biliteracy skills in young Spanish-speaking low-SES children: impact of instructional language and primary language proficiency

The purpose of this research was to better understand the bilingual and biliteracy skills of Spanish-speaking low-socio-economic status (low-SES) children who attended an English or a bilingual programme during preschool and kindergarten/first grade, and to determine whether their outcomes varied according to instructional language and primary language proficiency. Subjects included 254 kindergarten through second grade (ages 4–7 years) Hispanic students who were low-SES, spoke Spanish as their primary language, and who had parents with low levels of formal education. Results showed that these children entered preschool with very low levels of language and literacy skills in Spanish and English, but made excellent gains regardless of the language instructional programme they attended. Children in English vs. bilingual instruction had significantly higher scores in Spanish and English language and literacy skills at preschool entry than children entering bilingual programmes, but these differences disappeared by first or second grade entry, and children instructed in English showed deteriorating Spanish language scores. Finally, among children instructed bilingually in the early years, those who were Mostly Proficient in Spanish at entry scored significantly higher on the English language proficiency test than those who were Mostly Limited in Spanish. Results provide evidence for the advantage of bilingual instruction at preschool through first grade levels for low-SES language minority children.

Clinical Spanish Use and Language Proficiency Testing Among Pediatric Residents

To describe patterns of clinical Spanish use by pediatric residents, and to compare self-assessment of language proficiency against an objective language test. In 2010, the authors e-mailed a survey to all 247 pediatric residents at three institutions, inviting those with any level of Spanish language ability to participate. Participants completed a survey reporting Spanish proficiency, interpreter use, and comfort using Spanish in a range of clinical scenarios. Clinical scenarios were grouped and analyzed by degree of complexity. Self-reported Spanish proficiency was compared with tested proficiency, as measured by a 20-minute telephone assessment of general language ability. Scores were categorized as "not proficient," "proficient," and "highly proficient." Of the 247 residents, 78 (32%) participated, self-reporting a range of Spanish skills; 23% of those reported spoken proficiency ("proficient" or "fluent"). Participants at all levels of proficiency reported using Spanish without interpretation, including 63% of those who were not proficient. The majority (56%) of nonproficient residents reported comfort using Spanish in straightforward clinical scenarios, and 10% reported comfort in clinical scenarios with legal implications. Self-reported proficiency had a positive predictive value of 67% for testing at a proficient level and 22% for testing at a highly proficient level. Regardless of level of Spanish proficiency, pediatric residents provide clinical care to patients in Spanish. Self-reported Spanish proficiency does not reliably predict tested ability, especially when using stringent criteria to define proficiency. Provider language "credentialing" is an important step in implementing a policy to improve care for limited English proficiency patients.

Math skills and market and non-market outcomes: Evidence from an Amazonian society of forager-farmers

Research in industrial nations suggests that formal math skills are associated with improvements in market and non-market outcomes. But do these associations also hold in a highly autarkic setting with a limited formal labor market? We examined this question using observational annual panel data (2008 and 2009) from 1121 adults in a native Amazonian society of forager-farmers in Bolivia (Tsimane’). Formal math skills were associated with an increase in wealth in durable market goods and in total wealth between data collection rounds, and with improved indicators of own reported perceived stress and child health. These associations did not vary significantly by people's Spanish skills or proximity to town. We conclude that the positive association between math skills and market and non-market outcomes extends beyond industrial nations to even highly autarkic settings.

Research applications for An Object and Action Naming Battery to assess naming skills in adult Spanish–English bilingual speakers

Virtually no valid materials are available to evaluate confrontation naming in Spanish-English bilingual adults in the U.S. In a recent study, a large group of young Spanish-English bilingual adults were evaluated on An Object and Action Naming Battery (Edmonds & Donovan in Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 55:359-381, 2012). Rasch analyses of the responses resulted in evidence for the content and construct validity of the retained items. However, the scope of that study did not allow for extensive examination of individual item characteristics, group analyses of participants, or the provision of testing and scoring materials or raw data, thereby limiting the ability of researchers to administer the test to Spanish-English bilinguals and to score the items with confidence. In this study, we present the in-depth information described above on the basis of further analyses, including (1) online searchable spreadsheets with extensive empirical (e.g., accuracy and name agreeability) and psycholinguistic item statistics; (2) answer sheets and instructions for scoring and interpreting the responses to the Rasch items; (3) tables of alternative correct responses for English and Spanish; (4) ability strata determined for all naming conditions (English and Spanish nouns and verbs); and (5) comparisons of accuracy across proficiency groups (i.e., Spanish dominant, English dominant, and balanced). These data indicate that the Rasch items from An Object and Action Naming Battery are valid and sensitive for the evaluation of naming in young Spanish-English bilingual adults. Additional information based on participant responses for all of the items on the battery can provide researchers with valuable information to aid in stimulus development and response interpretation for experimental studies in this population.

Who Soy Yo? : The Creative Use of “Spanglish” to Express a Hybrid Identity in Chicana/o Heritage Language Learners of Spanish

Who Soy Yo?:The Creative Use of “Spanglish” to Express a Hybrid Identity in Chicana/o Heritage Language Learners of Spanish Ana Sánchez-Muñoz This study explores various linguistic strategies that characterize what is commonly referred to as “Spanglish”; namely, code-switching, code-mixing, borrowings and other language contact phenomena commonly employed by Chicana/o bilinguals. The analysis of linguistic features is based on creative pieces of writing produced by Chicana/o (and other Latina/o) college students in a class of Spanish for Heritage Learners. The functions and uses of Spanglish are examined within the students’ written discourse. It is argued here that Spanglish is a way for the students to deal with complex linguistic and ethnic identity issues in a creative manner. In a way, the use of Spanglish creates another of level of meaning where the hybridity of the Chicana/o experiences are negotiated. In this sense, Spanglish is a way to construct and reconstruct a third space of Chicana/o identity, a linguistic nepantla. Chicanas/os and Spanglish The term Chicana/o was originally a derogatory term applied to the descendants of Mexican people in the United States. This term was later adopted as a term of ethnic pride and political consciousness during the civil rights movements of the 1960s. To identify oneself as Chicana/o as opposed to Mexican-American or Latino or Hispanic means reasserting a unique ethnic and sociopolitical bond. It means claiming a unique culture not just a “mixture” of two colonial pasts but rather something unique with its own history, aesthetics, music, and also with its unique linguistic expression. The Chicana writer Gloria Anzaldúa writes about this in her opus magnum Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza: “We don’t identify with the Anglo-American cultural values and we don’t identify with the Mexican cultural values. We are a synergy of two cultures with various degrees of Mexicannes or Angloness” (1999: 85). The term Spanglish is used frequently but is not easy to define since different people employ it to mean diverse things. Spanglish is sometimes used to refer to the varieties of Spanish or English spoken by Chicanas/os and other Latinos is US communities. Often, Spanglish is used to mean code-switching, that is, the moving back and forth between two languages in a single communicative exchange. Some researchers stay away from the term claiming that it confuses different linguistic realities, while others embrace the term proudly. Because of the controversial nature of the word “Spanglish,” I usually employ the terms “Chicana/o Spanish” or “Chicana/o English” or code-switching between these two. Chicanas/os have a Spanish-linguistic heritage. To what degree Spanish is spoken and maintained varies greatly from community to community and from family to family. Most Chicanos in the communities I researched in Southern California are bilingual, although English is the dominant language. Speakers can function in Spanish, but their Spanish is a variety characterized by contact with English. Contact Features Among the linguistic phenomena that develop in language-contact situations, the transfer of features from one language into another is a common strategy used by bilinguals to cope [End Page 440] with the task of using two different linguistic systems. Chicana/o Spanish is characterized by transfer due to the intense contact with English in the United States. Among those contact features, lexical transfer is particularly salient. This study analyzes cases of lexical transfer classified as single-word switches to English (items that preserve English phonology) and single-word borrowings (items adapted to Spanish phonology). In this latter group, we differentiate between loans (the transfer of forms with their meanings for example troca “truck”), and calques (the transfer of meanings only; for example carpeta for “carpet” or “rug” with the meaning from English of “carpet”). Heritage Language Learners and “Spanglish”: Carving a Linguistic Nepantla The data presented in this study comes from the written creative pieces produced by Chicana/o heritage learners of Spanish. The students in this class are second generation Latinos (born in the United States) who identify themselves as Chicanas/os. These learners are bilingual but lack literacy skills in Spanish. They come to class with...

Developing Writing Skills in Spanish by Javier Muñoz-Basols, Yolanda Pérez Sinusía, and Marianne David (review)

Developing Writing Skills in Spanish by Javier Muñoz-Basols, Yolanda Pérez Sinusía, and Marianne David (review)

Preschool Bilingual Learners’ Receptive Vocabulary Development in School Readiness Programs

This article reports on a two-year study of the receptive language development of forty-five native Spanish speaking preschool children who were placed by parent request in three different program models—English with Spanish support, Transitional Bilingual (TBE) and Dual Language—with varying exposure to English and Spanish instruction. Outcomes on measures of receptive vocabulary skills in both English and Spanish were examined. Professional development for teachers and paraprofessionals is also described. Results indicate that all programs show significant learning effects, providing further support for the value of quality preschool instruction for bilingual learners and validate the practice of providing program choice to families. All programs showed significant gains in English and none suffered significant losses in Spanish. However, analysis at the individual student level reveals a bi-modal distribution of gains in each program. The results suggest the need for further inquiry into: 1) the optimal level of native language support children need based on a language profile taking first and second language competence into consideration; 2) on-going use of data for instructional design; and 3) the value of differentiated, high quality professional development based on scientifically-based reading research.

Bilingual call centers at the US-Mexico border: Location and linguistic markers of exploitability

AbstractBilingual call centers in El Paso, Texas, an extensively bilingual US-Mexico border setting, provide a valuable opportunity to examine empirically what occurs with respect to language shift reversal of Spanish in the context of new information economy. Interviews were conducted with thirty-nine call center operators and managers, and twelve translators and interpreters. Call centers provide an important occupational performance of and recognition to the Spanish language. Nevertheless, bilingual call centers mainly rely on uncompensated, socially provided language skills in Spanish, a freely available “heritage language” in the border setting. Spanish is not valued as a technical competency, worth specific attention to training, management of language features, and extra compensation. Bilingualism is used in the labor market as a sign of cheap and flexible labor, rather than as economically and socially valued “skill,” even though in the new information workplace it serves the latter role. (Call centers, new economy, language and workplace, bilingualism, Spanish, borders)*

The home literacy environment and Latino head start children's emergent literacy skills.

This study examined children's early literacy skills in both English and Spanish at entry to preschool to investigate the pattern of association among these skills and their families' home language and literacy practices. The participants were 392 primarily Latino immigrant (85%) families and their children. Mothers completed questionnaires about their families and their home literacy environment (HLE), and children's emergent literacy skills were measured in English and Spanish at the outset of the preschool year. Project assistants interviewed mothers in their homes and tallied the presence of literacy-related materials. Results of structural equation modeling showed that the 3 preliteracy skills were significantly associated within and across English and Spanish, suggesting the possible transfer of these early preliteracy skills across languages. For the English language HLE, parents' literacy-related behaviors, sibling-child reading, and families' literacy resources were all associated with children's English oral language skills, and their English print knowledge was associated with their home resources. For the Spanish language HLE, only parents' literacy-related behaviors were related to children's Spanish oral language and print knowledge skills. There were no significant cross-linguistic relations between any aspect of the English HLE and children's Spanish preliteracy skills, whereas parents' literacy-related behaviors in Spanish were negatively associated with children's English oral language and phonological awareness skills. Given the importance of oral language and vocabulary in promoting children's literacy, these results indicate that parents can support this skill in both languages, but their relative impact seems to be within rather across language.

Influencia de los modelos de enseñanza en el dominio del léxico fundamental de ELE: método intensivo frente a método extensivo

THE IMPACT OP THE EDUCATIONAL MODELS ON THE LEXICAL MASTERY IN SPANISH LANGUAGE STUDENTS: THE EXTENSIVE VERSUS THE INTENSIVE METHOD OF EDUCATION
 Within the Program of Spanish Bilingual Sections of the Ministry of Education of Spain, the first stage develops and provides the basic Spanish language skills needed to undertake the study of subjects in the Bilingual High School Curriculum, at least on level B1 of the CEFR.In Poland, there are two forms of this first stage, with the same curriculum: An intensive, in a year, Lyceum Year Zero, and another extensive in three years of secondary education. This study examines, quantitatively and qualitatively, the lexical mastery of two samples of 120 students each from seven bilingual secondary schools, representative of both modalities. The technique used has been the test of lexical availability, covering 16 topics.

Calidad de la enseñanza de E/LE y de la traducción: un camino hacia la profesionalización

THE QUALITY OF TEACHING SPANISH AND TRANSLATION SKILLS: TOWARDS PROFESSIONALIZATION
 The aim of this paper is to analyse affective and motivational factors during the didactic process within the bachelor studies of “Applied Spanish language”. According to the data collected, a motivational crisis can be observed when students reach the communicative level of Spanish. On the contrary, motivation does not drop in translation classes, while the main problem is low self-efficacy along with high anxiety then facing a translation task. My conclusions point at the renewal of quality conception by reformulating teaching curricula as vocational training. As for the recommended methodology, I propose simultaneous teaching of linguistic and translation skills, according to the principle of co-emergence of competencies, based on students’ autonomy, respect and taking advantage of students’ experience and personal goals.