Achieved Reading Level, Self-Esteem, and Grades as Related to Length of Exposure to Bilingual Education

Abstract

A quasi-experimental design was used to compare two groups of Mexican American seventh-grade students enrolled in a tra ditional junior high school where all subjects of the curriculum were presented in English. The experimental group (N = 86) had previously been taught for 1 or more years in an elementary bilingual program. The control group (N = 90) consisted of students who had attended a traditional elementary program in which all subjects were presented in English. The dependent variables examined for comparison purposes included sixth- and seventh-grade English reading levels, grade point average achieved during grades one through six and for the seventh grade, and a self-esteem measure at the completion of the sev enth grade. Results showed that shorter versus longer periods of time spent in the elementary bilingual program had no effect on the experimental students' seventh-grade school perfor mance (i.e., English reading scores, grade point average, and self-esteem). The experimental students obtained a significantly higher grade point average for grades one through six, but no significant differences were found between the two groups in the seventh grade. The control students achieved higher scores on all three measures of reading (i.e., comprehension, language skills, and vocabulary) at the sixth-grade level, but scored sig nificantly higher only in English language skills at the comple tion of the seventh grade. No significant differences were found between the two groups on self-concept.

Effective Reading Programs for Spanish-Dominant English Language Learners (ELLs) in the Elementary Grades

“…Because the bilingual children were primarily taught in their native language in K–1 and the immersion children were taught in English, their pretests in second grade would surely have been affected by their different treatment before pretesting. Additional studies of this kind include those by Curiel, Stenning, and Cooper-Stenning (1980) and Thomas and Collier (2002). Meyer and Fienberg (1992, p. 24) noted the same problem with reference to the widely cited Ramirez, Pasta, Yuen, Billings, and Ramey (1991) study, which also obtained pretests after students had been in bilingual or English-only programs: “It is like watching a baseball game beginning in the fifth inning: If you are not told the score from the previous innings, nothing you see can tell you who is winning the game.” Studies that tested children in upper elementary or secondary grades who had experienced bilingual or English-immersion programs in earlier years were included if premeasures were available from before the programs began, but in most cases such premeasures were not reported, so there is no way to know if the groups were equivalent beforehand.…”

A Synthesis of Research on Language of Reading Instruction for English Language Learners

“…Similarly, several studies tested children in upper elementary or secondary grades who had experienced bilingual or immersion programs in earlier years. These studies were included if premeasures were available from before the programs began, but in most cases such premeasures were not reported, so there was no way to know if the groups were equivalent beforehand (e.g., Thomas & Collier, 2002;Curiel, Stenning, & Cooper-Stenning, 1980).…”

“…Furthermore, many studies included by Rossell and Baker lacked any information about the initial comparability of children who experienced bilingual or English-only instruction (e.g., Matthews, 1979). These include studies that retroactively compared secondary students who had participated in bilingual or English-only programs in elementary schools but failed to obtain measures of early academic ability or performance (e.g., Powers, 1978;Curiel et al, 1980). Other studies compared obviously noncomparable groups.…”

The Big Picture: A Meta-Analysis of Program Effectiveness Research on English Language Learners

“…This instructional model is very different from structured immersion as used in the United States. Moreover, Slavin and Cheung (2003) pointed out that Rossell and Baker assigned multiple "votes" to studies that were published in multiple forms (Curiel, 1979;Curiel, Stenning, & Cooper-Stenning, 1980; El Paso Independent School District Office for Research and Evaluation, 1987, 1992, even though only one experiment was collectively reported. It should be noted that the studies assigned multiple votes presented results that Rossell and Baker (1996) interpreted as favoring immersion.…”