English Acquisition by Fluent-and Limited-Spanish-Proficient Mexican Americans in a 3-Year Maintenance Bilingual Program

Abstract

The primary purpose of this study was to determine the longitudinal impact of a maintenance bilingual education (MBE) program on the development of English (L2) for four groups of native Spanish-speaking students with varying degrees of Spanish oral proficiency who were all limited English proficient (LEP). Program participants were Mexican-American children in grades K-2. These subjects were divided into two major study groups, those considered fluent Spanish proficient (FSP; n = 111) and those who were limited Spanish proficient (LSP; n = 187). Two subgroups selected from the major groups (FSP program participants who were most fluent in Spanish, n = 45, and LSP participants who were most limited, n = 120) were also analyzed. Changes in L2 proficiency for the two major groups and the two subgroups were examined over the same 3-year span (1984-1987). Overall results from this MBE study demonstrated acquisition of statistically significant levels of English for all subjects. The most significant development was found for those subjects who were most limited in Spanish proficiency at the kindergarten level.