| Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools. |
English and Spanish Acquisition by Hispanic Second Graders in Developmental Bilingual ProgramsA 3-Year Longitudinal Randomized StudyTexas A&M University
Sam Houston State University
Texas A&M University
Southern Methodist University The authors studied a longitudinal English intervention in a 70/30 (Spanish/ English) developmental bilingual education (DBE) program (n = 302) and compared this model with a typical-practice, 80/20, late-exit transitional bilingual education program (n = 187) in terms of students' language and literacy acquisition from kindergarten to second grade in an urban school district in southeastern Texas. The findings revealed significant differences (p values < .05) in favor of DBE students on (a) English measures of oral language, preliteracy skills, and reading fluency and comprehension (effect sizes of .12 to .71) and (b) Spanish measures of letter name and sound, preliteracy skills, and reading comprehension (effect sizes of .19 to .38). It was concluded that quality English instruction that incorporates direct and focused instruction, context-embedded vocabulary learning, and ongoing professional training in DBE programs is much needed to promote bilingualism and biliteracy.
Key Words: developmental bilingual program ESL intervention bilingualism biliteracy quality of instruction
This version was published on November
1, 2008 Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences, Vol. 30, No. 4,
500-529 (2008) |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||