PUERTO RICO AND U.S. MAINLAND SCHOOLS: EFFECTS OF MIGRATION AND LINGUISTIC SEGREGATION ON CHILDREN'S ENGLISH-LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

Using a longitudinal research design with multiple migration waves and grade cohorts, this study examined the effects of migration and of school segregation by native language on the English-language development of Spanish-speaking students. Participants were 231 normal children who arrived from Puerto Rico in 67 U.S. mainland (New Jersey) elementary schools. Each child's English-language proficiency was tested initially at arrival from Puerto Rico, using the Language Assessment Battery (listening, reading, writing, and speaking tests), and twice again in the course of two academic years, even during returns to Puerto Rico. The student body of each mainland school that the participants attended during their longitudinal span was measured for linguistic composition and, for statistical control, economic poverty level. As hypothesized, participants' English proficiency developed more slowly in schools in which student bodies had relatively high percentages of native speakers of Spanish, faster in schools in which student bodies had relatively high percentages of monolingual native speakers of English (p < .03). Although participants' English-proficiency raw scores generally increased substantially between successive longitudinal occasions, the grade-level percentile ranks (derived from U.S. norms for native speakers of English) for these scores increased very little—a probably frustrating contrast between absolute and relative achievement. Participants who returned to schools in Puerto Rico continued to develop their English-language proficiency, although considerably more slowly than during their stay in stateside schools.