The Spanish Proficiency of Dual-Immersion Students

• In Event: 26.045 - Dual Language Immersion Education: State of the Research and Promising Directions

Abstract

A significant body of research indicates that dual language immersion results in both strong English proficiency as well as higher overall academic achievement than other types of educational programs for language minority students (see for example Lindholm-Leary 2001; Thomas & Collier 2002). However, much less is known about how much Spanish is actually used by students in these contexts, and what their levels of Spanish proficiency are upon graduating from dual immersion elementary and secondary schools. In addition, although it is logical to assume that youth from Spanish-speaking households (Latino students, also known as “heritage Spanish speakers”) will develop stronger levels of Spanish than their peers in all English programs, to date there is no empirical evidence showing that this is the case.
This presentation will share data related to both sets of questions, drawing on the following sources:

• At a dual language school: Sixteen months of observations of a group of students in fifth grade and again in eighth grade, including in the classroom, cafeteria, playground, music/gym/computers, etc.; 53 hours of naturalistic classroom recordings; and oral and written measures analyzed for overall proficiency, specific grammar points, and sociolinguistic appropriateness (Author, 2007; Authors, 2008).
• At a mainstream English language school: some of the same oral and written measures, gathered from heritage Spanish speakers and analyzed for overall proficiency and specific grammar points.

Findings indicate that both heritage speakers and second language Spanish learners in dual immersion programs develop strong levels of Spanish proficiency . As might be expected, heritage speakers are overall more proficient in Spanish than second language learners. In addition, although the heritage speaking dual immersion students did not perform significantly more accurately than their peers in English programs on the production of “a” marking (as in La mamá abrazó a la niña), they did evidence stronger written Spanish.
It is argued that formally measuring Spanish development in dual immersion programs is important not only to the common mission of such schools to value both languages equally, but also to the larger goal of producing a truly bilingual citizenry.

Author

• Kim Potowski, University of Illinois at Chicago