Self-Perceptions of Native Language Abilities in Bilingual Hispanic Young Adults*

Abstract

This study compared bilingual Hispanic university students who had participated in bilingual programmes/English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) (Spanish L1 + English L2) instruction in their elementary schooling with similar students who had not participated in such programmes (English L2 only) to gauge their perceptions of their skills in Spanish. The Language and Education Survey provided data pertaining to the subjects’ perceptions of their bilinguality with respect to speaking, reading, writing and comprehension. A Spanish writing sample confirmed language ability. Although the majority of the subjects within the two groups considered themselves to be bilingual, the statistically significant differences in language ability and written communicative competence between them indicated that Hispanic university students who were enrolled in bilingual programmes/ESOL in their earlier schooling had better perceptions of their abilities in Spanish. *A version of this paper was presented at the A merican Educational Research A ssociation Conference, San Diego, CA, USA, A pril 2004.