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The authors, a language instructor and a museum educator, collaborated to enhance a textbook’s cultural content in a Spanish L2-third semester class. We integrated the university museum’s artifacts and one exhibition within regular classroom instruction and co-designed two activities. The activities were connected to the textbook’s cultural content. Each activity included a visit to the museum, a worksheet to work in the museum, and a written and oral task after the visit. Thirty-five students completed a questionnaire at the end of the semester to rate the integration of these museum visits with the rest of the Spanish curriculum. Most students were positive about the effects of the experience on their learning and did not see the activities as something extraneous to the language curriculum. This article offers food for thought to other language practitioners and museum educators regarding textbooks’ cultural content and university museums.

BACKGROUND: Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) have been adopted as a way to measure patient self-rated physical function and health status for patients with anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries. Although multiple PROMs exist and have been translated into various languages, the cross-cultural adaptation and validity of these PROMs for Spanish-speaking patients is unknown. PURPOSE: To evaluate the adaptation quality and psychometric properties of Spanish-language adaptations of PROMs for patients with ACL injuries. STUDY DESIGN: Scoping review; Level of evidence, 3. METHODS: Under PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines, we reviewed published studies related to adaptation quality and psychometric properties of Spanish PROMs in patients with ACL injuries. The methodological quality of the included studies was assessed using the Guidelines for the Process of Cross-Cultural Adaptation of Self-Reported Measures, the Quality Criteria for Psychometric Properties of Health Status Questionnaires, and the Consensus-based Standards for the selection of health Measurement INstruments (COSMIN) checklist. The level of evidence for each PROM was determined based on the number of studies, methodological quality, consistency of results, and sample size. RESULTS: The initial search strategy identified 5687 articles. After removal of duplicates, 1882 titles were screened, and 114 articles were assessed for eligibility. Six articles were selected for final review, comprising 4 PROMs: the Lysholm knee score, the Anterior Cruciate Ligament-Return to Sport After Injury (ACL-RSI), the Lower Extremity Functional Scale, and the Lower Limb Functional Index. Three studies followed all 6 processes for cross-cultural adaptation. None of the studies demonstrated all 14 domains required for cross-cultural validity (eg, description of translator expertise). The ACL-RSI achieved the highest level of evidence, with 3 of 9 domains demonstrating moderate evidence. CONCLUSION: This review identified 4 instruments that have been translated for Spanish-speaking patients with ACL injuries, none of which demonstrated appropriate adaptation or robust psychometric properties. The study highlights the need for improvement in PROMs for Spanish-speaking patients and the potential for mismeasurement and inappropriate application of PROM results in patients with ACL injuries.

We have previously shown that bilingual Spanish and English-learning infants can segment English iambs, two-syllable words with final stress (e.g., guiTAR), earlier than their monolingual peers. This is consistent with accelerated development in bilinguals and was attributed to bilingual infants' increased exposure to iambs through Spanish; about 10% of English content words start with an unstressed syllable, compared to 40% in Spanish. Here, we evaluated whether increased exposure to a stress pattern alone is sufficient to account for acceleration in bilingual infants. In English, 90% of content words start with a stressed syllable (e.g., KINGdom), compared to 60% in Spanish. However, we found no evidence for accelerated segmentation of Spanish trochees by Spanish-English bilingual infants compared to their monolingual Spanish-learning peers. Based on this finding, we argue that merely increased exposure to a linguistic feature in one language does not result in accelerated development in the other. Instead, only the acquisition of infrequent patterns in one language may be accelerated due to the additive effects of the other language.

While the literature on second language reading agrees that exposing students to graded readers (GRs) is beneficial, little is known about how students perceive them. This study explores students' anxiety and overall experiences in a reading program (RP) using GRs in a large first-year Spanish language program. Data are based on 312 students' pre and postquestionnaires during the first iteration of the RP (Study 1) and 299 students' questionnaires during the third iteration of the RP (Study 2). Study 1 compared students' experiences when reading individually versus in pairs, revealing an overall preference for the latter, as it increased peer-to-peer support. Study 2 compared classes where students read the same book with others where learners selected a book from a list. Many students who chose their book felt distressed as they wanted more support from their teachers. Study 2 also revealed that students' familiarity with the RP reduced their anxiety.

BackgroundAccurate measurement of food-related parenting practices is necessary to inform related interventions and program evaluation. Valid tools reflect cultural attributes that affect household food environments and feeding practices. Simple, unidirectional language adaptation approaches are insufficient to capture these attributes in assessment tools. My Child at Mealtime (MCMT) is a 27-item, validated, visually enhanced self-assessment tool to measure food-related parenting practices of low-income English-speaking parents of preschoolers.ObjectivesThe aim of this study was to describe the cross-cultural adaptation of MCMT into its Spanish version Mi Niño a la Hora the Comer (Mi Niño) and to establish its face validity, factor structure, and internal consistency.MethodsMCMT was adapted into its Spanish version after an iterative process that triangulated cognitive interviews with verification of conceptual equivalence by content experts to establish face validity and semantic equivalence. The resulting tool underwent confirmatory factor analysis to determine whether internal consistency was equivalent across the 2 versions.ResultsFour rounds of cognitive interviews (n = 5, n = 6, n = 2, and n = 4, respectively) with Spanish-speaking women caregivers of children aged 3-5 y recruited from Head Start were conducted. Ten items were modified throughout the adaptation process. Modifications included improved clarity (6 items), comprehension (7 items), appropriateness (4 items), suitability (4 items), and usefulness (2 items) of text and/or accompanying visuals. Confirmatory factor analysis with a sample of Spanish-speaking caregivers (n = 243) resulted in 2 reliable factors representing "child-centered" (α = 0.82) and "parent-centered" (α = 0.87) food-related parenting practices.ConclusionsFace validity, semantic equivalence, and internal consistency of Mi Niño were established. This tool can be used in community settings to inform program content and measure changes in food-related parenting practices of Spanish-speaking parents and assist in setting food-related parenting goals. The next steps include exploring the correspondence of Mi Nino with mealtime behaviors observed through video recording.

AbstractIn the context of Spanish language programs, service-learning provides authentic experiences to use the target language while working with the Latino community. However, in many cases the language competencies needed to work in the community do not always involve an exclusive use of the target language. This is the case of service-learning programs in which students teach English as a Second Language (ESL) to adults or children. This study presents a ‘translanguaging pedagogy’ in which tutoring sessions are planned around the use of both languages to teach and learn. Using a Critical Language Awareness pedagogy academic content covered in the course examines the language experiences of adult ESL immigrants through. This study advocates framing target language use in service-learning as a “communicative performance” with the aim of shifting notions of monolingual language practices and integrate new conceptions about real-life communicative practices in service-learning.

There is a need for psychometrically sound outcome measures for treatment studies that have a low burden for families and that are available in multiple languages. We have developed a language assessment in English and Spanish that parents can administer to their children at home via telehealth-delivered procedures. The current case study presents descriptive data on a single family of two parent-child dyads. Both the mother and father from a single family were trained in their primary language (Spanish) on how to administer the Expressive Language Sampling - Narration (ELS-N) in their secondary language (English) to their two English-speaking monolingual sons with ASD through telehealth-delivered procedures. Both parents learned to administer the procedures to a predetermined level of fidelity. Extension to a larger sample of bilingual families is needed for this home-based, parent-administered test; however, the present results suggest feasibility even when the language of training and administration differ.

This study documents students' experiences during the Emergency Online Transition of Spring 2020 in a Spanish language program at a large public university in the United States. Data from students' mid-term and end-of-term questionnaires, as well as teachers' journals, were collected in the Spring, and follow-up teacher interviews were carried out in Fall 2020. Results indicate that students' overall stress levels diminished from beginning to end of the academic term but that individual experiences were extremely varied. While some students enjoyed the increased autonomy and self-paced learning opportunities of the online format, others felt distressed in this less directed modality and emphasized the negative effect of reduced social interactions on their levels of engagement. Only few students mentioned technological difficulties as a central challenge in their learning process, but many believed that they had learned less than in traditional face-to-face courses. Instructors’ views differed in this respect, as they considered that the reduced group-size of synchronous Zoom sessions allowed them to hear more of each student, which they saw as evidence of increased student talk as compared to the usual whole-class face-to-face sessions. This more intimate virtual set-up also increased a sense of proximity between teachers and students.

Studies on teachers’ beliefs about vocabulary learning and teaching have focused, so far, on English as a second language (L2), or foreign language (FL), in different contexts but little attention has been given to other L2s and FLs. In this study, 15 Spanish L2 instructors at large universities were interviewed in order to better understand where they stand when it comes to (1) the importance they give to vocabulary, as compared to grammar, in their classes, (2) how they decide which words to teach, and (3) how they assess students’ word knowledge. These interviews were subsequently analysed following Grounded Theory. Most instructors declared favoring grammar over vocabulary in their courses because the former is seen as more challenging and useful than the latter and because institutional practices and materials also present such a preference. When it comes to vocabulary selection, most of them declared feeling insecure in their decisions due to lack of access to useful resources and to vocabulary goals not being stated clearly anywhere in the syllabi. This lack of clarity when it comes to vocabulary learning goals also results in doubts about the usefulness of even evaluating word learning at all and an overreliance on informal assessments.

The current institutional attempts by the Cervantes Institute of Manila and the Spanish Royal Academy of Tel Aviv to revitalize Chavacano and Ladino (Judeo-Spanish), respectively, by assimilating them into Spanish pose a fundamental paradox: how can the official institutions of the Spanish language document, map, and characterize the subalternized speaking communities of the “Global Hispanophone” (Calderwood) while resisting the temptation to impose a neocolonial agenda on their cultural sovereignty?  (DeGraff; Deumert et al.) Drawing upon an understanding of languages as cultural and political artifacts, in this essay I will first discuss the “modern” colonial invention of Spanish as a North Atlantic universal (Trouillot 2002) and the subsequent development of the pan-Hispanic and Hispanophone linguistic ideologies in postcolonial times (Del Valle). My historiographical critique of “Global Spanish” from the peripheral perspectives of Ladino and Chavacano will expose both the discursive enthronization of Castilian into “(Global) Spanish” and the century-long pejoration of Ladino and Chavacano as processes motivated by ideological factors, rather than structural (morpho-syntactic) aspects. I will conclude that a genuinely decolonizing dynamic cannot accept any form of linguistic re-Hispanicization premised on the supposed unsuitability of Ladino and Chavacano for contemporary purposes. Rather, it can only materialize through the implementation of linguistic self-determination and self-organization, both of which are predicated on the self-respect and dignity of their community of speakers.

The most recent Open Doors report by the Institute of International Education (IIE, 2020) indicates that the number of non-white U.S. study abroad students has been steadily growing over the past 10 years, and now it accounts for 31% of all students pursuing part of their education abroad. This study focuses on four Spanish heritage language learners (SHLLs) of Dominican, Mexican, Peruvian, and Colombian/Venezuelan descent with differing Spanish proficiency who enrolled in a short-term study abroad (SA) program for Spanish in Quito, Ecuador during May-June of 2017, 2018, or 2019. This SA program was sponsored by a four-year college in the southeastern U.S. This study included a closed-ended questionnaire, semi-structured interviews, (classroom) observations, e-portfolios, journals, and e-mails. A poststructuralist lens and Norton’s theory of investment were employed to explore the identities of these four undergraduates, their social networks, language, and culture learning opportunities, and how these experiences shaped their individual development. Considerations will be offered in terms of how a social justice-oriented curriculum can be a powerful approach to support the emergence of heritage language identities abroad in socially situated contexts. Civically oriented SA programs have the potential to help SHLLs construct global identities, increase communication skills, and gain global understanding, compassion, and tolerance for social change.

Scholars have advocated for critical approaches to language education (e.g., Del Valle, 2014; Leeman & Serafini, 2016), including those that promote the development of Critical Language Awareness, CLA (e.g., Alim, 2010; Leeman, 2018). The goal is to develop students’ critical knowledge of the cultural, political, and social dimensions of language. To this end, Del Valle (2014) suggests the inclusion of language-related content units taught in the first or shared language from the early stages of language learning. This proposal entails revising strong beliefs such as the use of the non-target language in the new language classroom. The purpose of our research is to investigate whether including language-related content in English (the shared language) in an elementary Spanish language course helped students develop CLA without hindering class performance. Additionally, we explored if providing this content increased learners’ investment in the language. Results revealed that incorporating the CLA units did not influence overall class performance. Qualitative analyses indicated that students connected the content with their own social experience, which led to greater investment in the language. Finally, the content contributed to developing students’ critical awareness of linguistic ideologies and their impact on the construction of inequality as well as in enabling social change.

Task-based language teaching (TBLT) has been at the center of the debates on which approaches are most effective for structuring, planning, and implementing language courses. Several articles have focused on its effectiveness (Bryfonsky & McKay, 2017; Long, 2016; González-Lloret & Nielson, 2015), but few have shared specific implementation experiences in the classroom (Long, 2015; Torres & Seratini, 2016). The limited array of articles that address TBLT course creation focus on language courses for specific purposes, but little is known about the challenges and solutions found when designing and implementing a TBLT course that is part of a large general education language program. This article shares the authors’ experience in developing and teaching such a course. Based on these experiences, realistic and actionable examples are offered of how to surmount the challenges encountered when developing, integrating, and teaching a TBLT course in an otherwise traditional grammar-centric First-Year university language program at a large US university.

The English and Spanish versions of the Multidimensional Health Locus of Control scales have not been psychometrically evaluated for use with Hispanic Americans. Hispanic American adults (N = 436) completed the English (n = 210) or Spanish (n = 226) Multidimensional Health Locus of Control scales. A multiple-group confirmatory factor analysis did not support equivalent four-factor structures for Spanish- and English-speaking Hispanic Americans. Follow-up exploratory factor analyses of the 24 items supported an 18-item, four-factor structure for English-speaking Hispanic Americans and a 22-item, three-factor structure for Spanish-speaking Hispanic Americans. These results suggest caution when using the Multidimensional Health Locus of Control scales with Hispanic Americans.

There is a need for psychometrically sound outcome measures for treatment studies that have a low burden for families and that are available in multiple languages. We have developed a language assessment in English and Spanish that parents can administer to their children at home via telehealth-delivered procedures. The current case study presents descriptive data on a single family of two parent-child dyads. Both the mother and father from a single family were trained in their primary language (Spanish) on how to administer the Expressive Language Sampling - Narration (ELS-N) in their secondary language (English) to their two English-speaking monolingual sons with ASD through telehealth-delivered procedures. Both parents learned to administer the procedures to a predetermined level of fidelity. Extension to a larger sample of bilingual families is needed for this home-based, parent-administered test; however, the present results suggest feasibility even when the language of training and administration differ.

Genetic diversity and population structure were analyzed using the historical and current pedigree information of the Arabian (PRá), Spanish Purebred (PRE), and Hispano-Arabian (Há) horse breeds. Genetic diversity parameters were computed and a canonical discriminant analysis was used to determine the contributions of ancestor breeds to the genetic diversity of the Há horse. Pedigree records were available for 207,100 animals born between 1884 and 2019. Nei's distances and the equivalent subpopulations number indicated the existence of a highly structured, integrated population for the Há breed, which is more closely genetically related to PRá than PRE horses. An increase in the length of the generation interval might be an effective solution to reduce the increase in inbreeding found in the studied breeds (8.44%, 8.50%, and 2.89%, for PRá, PRE, and Há, respectively). Wright's fixation statistics indicated slight interherd inbreeding. Pedigree completeness suggested genetic parameters were highly reliable. High GCI levels found for number of founders and non-founders and their relationship to the evolution of inbreeding permit controlling potential deleterious negative effects from excessively frequent mating between interrelated individuals. For instance, the use of individuals presenting high GCI may balance founders' gene contributions and consequently preserve genetic diversity levels (current genetic diversity loss in PRá, PRE, and Há is 6%, 7%, and 4%, respectively).

Genetic diversity and population structure were analyzed using the historical and current pedigree information of the Arabian (PRá), Spanish Purebred (PRE), and Hispano-Arabian (Há) horse breeds. Genetic diversity parameters were computed and a canonical discriminant analysis was used to determine the contributions of ancestor breeds to the genetic diversity of the Há horse. Pedigree records were available for 207,100 animals born between 1884 and 2019. Nei's distances and the equivalent subpopulations number indicated the existence of a highly structured, integrated population for the Há breed, which is more closely genetically related to PRá than PRE horses. An increase in the length of the generation interval might be an effective solution to reduce the increase in inbreeding found in the studied breeds (8.44%, 8.50%, and 2.89%, for PRá, PRE, and Há, respectively). Wright's fixation statistics indicated slight interherd inbreeding. Pedigree completeness suggested genetic parameters were highly reliable. High GCI levels found for number of founders and non-founders and their relationship to the evolution of inbreeding permit controlling potential deleterious negative effects from excessively frequent mating between interrelated individuals. For instance, the use of individuals presenting high GCI may balance founders' gene contributions and consequently preserve genetic diversity levels (current genetic diversity loss in PRá, PRE, and Há is 6%, 7%, and 4%, respectively).

Children of Hispanic origin bear a high risk of obesity. Child weight gain trajectories are influenced by the family environment, including parent feeding practices. Excessive body fat can result in unhealthful metabolic and lipid profiles and increased risk of metabolic diseases. The objective was to estimate criterion validity of an obesity risk assessment tool targeting Spanish-speaking families of Mexican origin using anthropometric measures and blood values of their young children. A cross-sectional study design with five data collection sessions was conducted over an eight-week period and involved 206 parent/child dyads recruited at Head Start and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children in Northern California. Main outcome measures were criterion validity of Niños Sanos, a pediatric obesity risk assessment tool, using anthropometric measures and blood biomarkers. Niños Sanos scores were inversely related to child BMI-for-age percentiles (p = 0.02), waist-for-height ratios (p = 0.05) and inversely related to blood biomarkers for the metabolic index (p = 0.03) and lipid index (p = 0.05) and positively related to anti-inflammatory index (p = 0.047). Overall, children with higher Niños Sanos scores had more healthful lipid, metabolic and inflammatory profiles, as well as lower BMI-for-age percentiles and waist-to height ratios, providing evidence for the criterion validity of the tool. Niños Sanos can be used by child obesity researchers, by counselors and medical professionals during clinic visits as a screening tool and by educators as a tool to set goals for behavior change.

We evaluated the impact of exposure to a second language on infants' emerging speech production skills. We compared speech produced by three groups of 12-month-old infants while they interacted with interlocutors who spoke to them in Spanish and English: monolingual English-learning infants who had previously received 5 hours of exposure to a second language (Spanish), English- and Spanish-learning simultaneous bilinguals, and monolingual English-learning infants without any exposure to Spanish. Our results showed that the monolingual English-learning infants with short-term exposure to Spanish and the bilingual infants, but not the monolingual English-learning infants without exposure to Spanish, flexibly matched the prosody of their babbling to that of a Spanish- or English-speaking interlocutor. Our findings demonstrate the nature and extent of benefits for language learning from early exposure to two languages. We discuss the implications of these findings for language organization in infants learning two languages.

This interpretive multiple-case study examines the practices and perspectives of four mid-level and secondary world language teachers in diverse teaching contexts as they design and implement critical content-based instruction units in their classes. Knowing that content can be defined as either cultural or academic content (Spenader, Wesely, & Glynn, 2018), the middle and high school level teachers in this study aimed to use a critical approach in their curricula and to integrate topics of social justice into the cultural content, promoting inquiry and critical thinking among students. Using data collected from recorded videos of teaching and individual semi-structured interviews, this study aims to answer the following research question: How is Critical Content-Based Instruction (CCBI) (Sato, Hasegawa, Kumagai, & Kamiyoshi, 2017) being employed by U.S. Spanish teachers to examine complex topics through a lens of social justice? Findings indicate that teachers feel compelled to integrate topics of social justice into their curriculum to promote criticality (critical thinking) and to encourage students to effect change in their own communities and beyond. The discussion supports consideration of teachers’ roles in the development of student agency through their curriculum and instruction. Implications are addressed for educational research, teacher education, and professional development.

Recent scholarship has highlighted the importance of increasing the intellectual viability of lower-level foreign language (FL) study while facilitating connections between academic practice, learners’ lives, and global communities. This article reports on a content-based role-immersion simulation (RIS) designed to incite a critical orientation toward language learning, as 16 postsecondary intermediate Spanish learners adopted alternate identities and took part in a culturally grounded scenario centering on resolving problems related to drug trafficking and violence at the U.S.-Mexico border. Self-reported data from this qualitative study reveal that a majority of participants considered the simulation to approximate an intellectually stimulating real-world immersive encounter; however, some learners approached it as a language-learning exercise. The article elaborates on criteria that contributed to these divergent perceptions and concludes with implications for foreign language curriculum design.

ObjectiveWe sought to develop and provide preliminary validation for a questionnaire evaluating functioning related to ADHD (i.e., the FX-II) with a particularly underserved group (i.e., Mexican youth).Method191 Mexican raters completed the FX-II alongside measures of ADHD symptoms, impairment, cultural values, and demographics: 127 raters were caregivers of treatment-naïve youth (i.e., community sample); 32 raters were caregivers and 32 raters were teachers of youth participating in a school-based program for attention/behavior concerns (i.e., clinical sample).ResultsWe created the 52-item FX-II Scale by adapting a culturally appropriate and psychometrically sound measure of impairment (i.e., the ADHD-FX) to assess functioning most relevant to Spanish-speaking families of children with ADHD (i.e., academic, social/emotional, and familial functioning). The FX-II demonstrated strong reliability, convergent and divergent construct validity, and predictive validity.ConclusionThe FX-II appears to be a beneficial tool for evaluating functioning related to ADHD in Mexican children and future validation efforts in broader populations are warranted.

Since the slave population in New Netherland (1614–1664) was small compared to that of other Dutch Atlantic colonies such as Curaçao, Dutch Brazil, and Suriname, it has traditionally received little attention by scholars, including creolists. It is, therefore, not well known that traces of Iberian languages can be found among the black population of seventeenth-century Manhattan. While the paucity of sources does not allow us to make any decisive claims with regard to the importance of Spanish and Portuguese for the colony’s black community, this article attempts to reconstruct the language use of this population group on the basis of an analysis of historical sources from New Netherland in a broader Atlantic context.

Why learners return from study abroad (SA) with varying degrees of second language (L2) gains or differing attitudes towards the target language and culture remains an open question. This study employs theories of identity (Kinginger, 2013) and investment (Darvin & Norton, 2015; Norton Peirce, 1995) to examine the case of three learners of Spanish as they studied abroad in Spain. Interviews, journals, and language-use surveys were analyzed to understand how and why these learners’ investment in Spanish and in language learning opportunities shifted throughout their program. Pre- and post-SA speaking abilities tests in Spanish were used to measure how participants’ investments related to their L2 speaking development. The three case studies suggest that participants negotiate competing and fluctuating desires, identities, and investments that often lead to contradictory behaviors regarding their language learning and use while abroad. These opposing investments and identities stem from participants’ expectations of an idealized SA experience and their belief in the capital (Bourdieu, 1986) that Spanish may offer them back home and abroad. This study further finds that participants’ ongoing investment in learning and using Spanish relates to their L2 speaking gains post-SA.

Infants' ability to segment words in fluent speech is affected by their language experience. In this study we investigated the conditions under which infants can segment words in a non-native language. Using the Head-turn Preference Procedure, we found that monolingual English-learning 8-month-olds can segment bisyllabic words in Spanish (trochees and iambs) but not French (iambs). Our results are incompatible with accounts that rely on distributional learning, language rhythm similarity, or target word prosodic shape alone. Instead, we show that monolingual English-learning infants are able to segment words in a non-native language as long as words have stress, as is the case in English. More specifically, we show that even in a rhythmically different non-native language, English-learning infants can find words by detecting stressed syllables and treating them as word onsets or offsets.

Abstract: Published literature on Lingua Franca contains divergent views regarding its place in the taxonomy of contact language types. While this language is traditionally regarded as a pidgin, some scholars consider it more accurate to view it as a koine. This paper shows that Lingua Franca exhibits features that are consistent with both pidginization and koineization, and proposes to view it as located on the pidgin/koine continuum.

Given that neurocognitive impairment is a frequent complication of HIV-1 infection in Spanish-speaking adults, the limited number of studies assessing HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND) in this population raises serious clinical concern. In addition to being appropriately translated, instruments need to be modified, normed, and validated accordingly. The purpose of the current study was to examine the diagnostic utility of the HIV Dementia Scale (HDS) and International HIV Dementia Scale (IHDS) to screen for HAND in Spanish-speaking adults living with HIV infection. Participants were classified as either HAND (N = 47) or No-HAND (N = 53) after completing a comprehensive neuropsychological evaluation. Receiver operating characteristic analyses found the HDS (AUC = .706) was more sensitive to detecting HAND than the IHDS (AUC = .600). Optimal cutoff scores were 9.5 for the HDS (PPV = 65.2%, NPV = 71.4%) and 9.0 for the IHDS (PPV = 59.4%, NPV = 59.1%). Canonical Correlation Analysis found the HDS converged with attention and executive functioning. Findings suggest that while the IHDS may not be an appropriate screening instrument with this population, the HDS retains sufficient statistical validity and clinical utility to screen for HAND in Spanish-speaking adults as a time-efficient and cost-effective measure in clinical settings with limited resources.

Stress in vowel-final non-verbs in Spanish regularly falls on the penultimate syllable, while stress in consonant-final words regularly falls on the final syllable. There are two main classes of exceptions to this regularity: stress on the syllable preceding the regular one, and stress on the syllable following the regular one. Harris (1983) provides arguments that the second class of exceptions is morphologically systematic, but falls short of the stronger claim that this pattern is simply a subcase of the regular stress pattern. I argue here that there is much to be gained from this stronger claim, including a simple and elegant analysis of the first class of exceptions.

The UCSD Performance-based Skills Assessment (UPSA) is a widely used measure of functional capacity with strong reliability and validity. However there is a lack of psychometric data on Hispanics. The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of acculturation and education on UPSA performance among 62 Hispanic participants with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder and 46 healthy comparison subjects. Functional capacity was measured using the UPSA. Acculturation was measured using the Acculturation Rating Scale for Mexican Americans (ARSMA). Independent t-tests indicated that participants with schizophrenia had significantly lower UPSA total scores and scored lower on all UPSA sub-scales relative to the comparison group. Multiple regression also indicated that education and acculturation were significant predictors of UPSA total scores. These data provide a better understanding of UPSA scores in Hispanics with and without schizophrenia, and suggest that education and acculturation adjustments may be required to improve interpretation of test results.

Symbolic competence (Kramsch, 2009, 2011) has been proposed as a crucial addition to world language learning, as it enables a language learner to negotiate the complex symbolism of words, expressions, and discursive events from the target culture in order to reference them effectively and in the appropriate contexts. However, fostering symbolic competence is still a challenge within the day to day reality of the world language classroom. Moreover, there is still little research on what symbolic competence looks like in interaction. In this article I examine a peer tutoring context as one possibility for examining symbolic competence in interaction. Using a close discourse analysis of one peer tutoring session, I explore the intersections between interactional resources and the performance of symbolic competence. I show how the peer tutor’s enthusiastic and lengthy descriptions of a Mexican television program from the 70s constituted what I term a symbolic performance of her knowledge of this cultural artifact. At the same time, the peer learner’s reactions to these explanations, particularly her increasing lack of alignment, revealed resistance and interactional asynchrony between the two individuals. I examine reasons for this asynchrony, focusing on the difficulties of fostering symbolic competence in traditionally communicative-based language learning environments despite the potential richness that a peer tutoring environment could provide for transformative language learning. I suggest ways in which symbolic competence could be cultivated in peer tutoring and other additional language learning contexts.

This case study examines the orientation to social interaction by one study abroad student who spent a semester in Spain. Using an activity theoretical approach, the findings indicate that the student did not only view social interaction with his Spanish host family and a expert-Spanish-speaking age peer as an opportunity for second language (L2) learning, but also had other goals for the interactions such as relationship building and enjoyment. The analysis further highlights changes over time in the focal student’s orientation to L2 learning in social interaction and how his relationships mediated those shifts. Results from the study highlight the dynamic nature of social interaction, the importance of age peers, and the usefulness of activity theory for making links between micro-level interactions and macro-level social structures.

Cultural and literary texts are used in the foreign language classroom to support learners’ language development, cultural awareness, and reading comprehension. While classroom activities frequently facilitate a literal understanding of facts and events, these texts offer another potential level of analysis: symbolic dimensions, which focus on how meaning is constructed in the texts in relation to their historical and political contexts, to the readers’ own positionality and subjective experiences, and to the cultural values and beliefs that are attached to these meanings. This paper explores how to teach these symbolic dimensions through an exploration of the notion of symbolic competence. Using personal experiences teaching the legend of La Llorona in a university-level Spanish classroom, I explore two interrelated questions: 1) Can the legend of La Llorona offer insights into theorizations of symbolic competence?; 2) Can theorizations of symbolic competence be applied to the teaching of La Llorona in order to facilitate learners’ critical reflections on its symbolic dimensions? Three project-based classroom activities will be discussed to illustrate teaching for the development of symbolic competence.

This case study developed a collaborative approach to the selection of a Spanish language textbook. The collaborative process consisted of six steps, detailed in this article: team building, generating evaluation criteria, formulating a meaningful rubric, selecting prospective textbooks, calculating rubric results, and reflectively reviewing results. Following the selection of the textbook and its introduction into the curriculum, both the collaborative approach and the textbook itself were evaluated using teacher (n = 10) and student (n = 120) satisfaction surveys. The survey results, which were positive for both groups, offered empirical data from which to theoretically consider the textbook.

This article investigates a project that used student-centered teaching and languages for specific purposes to increase university students’ motivation to study Spanish and willingness to communicate. After reflecting on their personal goals and interests, students were required to choose a purpose or context in which they might use Spanish in their future. Then students were encouraged to seek opportunities to foster their own language and culture learning related to the unique purposes that each student had selected. Data sources included an anonymous online survey with Likert scale responses and open-ended written responses, plus personal observations of the teacher. Results indicated that many students’ perceptions of Spanish speakers and their cultures changed in positive ways and that students were more willing to communicate with native speakers. However, students reported only a marginal increase in their motivation to continue studying Spanish. The author concluded that student-centered teaching and languages for specific purposes can be effective in lower-division Spanish but may require adjustments on the part of students and more guidance than anticipated from instructors.

In the United States, Spanish-speaking patients with diabetes often receive inadequate dietary counseling. Providing language and culture-concordant dietary counseling on an ongoing basis is critical to diabetes self-care. To determine if automated telephone nutrition support (ATNS) counseling could help patients improve glycemic control by duplicating a successful pilot in Mexico in a Spanish-speaking population in Oakland, California. A prospective randomized open-label trial with blinded endpoint assessment (PROBE) was performed. The participants were seventy-five adult patients with diabetes receiving care at a federally qualified health center in Oakland, California. ATNS, a computerized system that dialed patients on their phones, prompted them in Spanish to enter (via keypad) portions consumed in the prior 24 hours of various cultural-specific dietary items, and then provided dietary feedback based on proportion of high versus low glycemic index foods consumed. The control group received the same ATNS phone calls 14 weeks after enrollment. The primary outcome was hemoglobin A1c % (A1c) 12 weeks following enrollment. Participants had no significant improvement in A1c (-0.3% in the control arm, -0.1% in the intervention arm, P = .41 for any difference) or any secondary parameters. In our study, an ATNS system did not improve diabetes control in a Spanish-speaking population in Oakland.

How was Spanish in California silenced? Which were the sociolinguistic decisions that forced Spanish into a secondary place in the history of California? This paper discusses, using contemporary sources, how the linguistics situation in California changed from politically protected bilingualism to strict monolingualism in the nineteenth century, and which were the sociolinguistic consequences for Spanish speakers.

In light of the recent scandals that have surfaced in Los Angeles area schools, this article explores the importance that the Spanish language has in public schools, beyond instruction, particularly in communication with parents and the surrounding community. Although there is no doubt that most of the student body is bilingual, a considerable portion of parents are not, creating a situation in with they are left without a voice. Both anecdotal and statistical data will be presented to support the claim that having bilingual administrators will help ensure that the concerns and complaints of all parents are heard and addressed.

In Los Angeles, among other ethnic groups, live Anglos, Latinos, Koreans, Japanese, Chinese, Iranians, Arabs, Russians, French and Israelis, just to mention a few. They use their native or heritage languages mostly to communicate with each other within their ethnic group. In fact, these speakers and their languages are not erratically intermingled, but grouped by ethnicity in different geographical areas in the city. In this paper, I address the social and linguistic similarities and differences of the minority languages most widely spoken in Los Angeles, which is a geographical point of attraction and irradiation in Southern California. In fact, major ethnic and linguistic diversity in the Western United States is localized in Los Angeles.