LANGUAGE-ACQUISITION AND GENDER FOR LIMITED-LANGUAGE-PROFICIENT MEXICAN-AMERICANS IN A MAINTENANCE BILINGUAL PROGRAM

The major purpose of this dual-focused study was to determine the long -term effect of a maintenance bilingual education (MBE) program (K-2) on the acquisition of English (L2) and/or Spanish (L1) for four groups of native Spanish-speaking boys and girls with varying degrees of Spa nish oral proficiency who were all limited English proficient (LEP). T he first part of the study examined the acquisition of English oral la nguage proficiency for fluent Spanish-speaking boys (n = 65) and girls (n = 46), as well as for limited-Spanish-proficient boys (n = 102) an d girls (n = 85). The second part further examined the limited-Spanish -proficient subjects by gender for their acquisition of English and Sp anish. These two groups were the most-limited language proficient (boy s n = 45, girls n = 32) and the very-limited language proficient (boys n = 60, girls n = 53) students. The most significant overall findings emerging from this study related to the additive effects that the MBE program fostered for boys' and girls' oral English and/or Spanish.