How quickly can English be acquired?  What is the best program design?  What is the best way to serve out English language learners?  These are questions which surface when examining program design for Limited English speakers (Martinez, 1998; Antrim, 1999; Hrushka, 2000)  The following four articles examine aspects of second language learning from the point of the teacher and administrators (Martinez, Hrushka), and from the students (Antrim), and from the researcher (Walsh).

       The question "How quickly can English be acquired?" is frequently balanced with "How can the first language be maintained?"  In the first article, Rita R. Martinez looks at one bilingual program at an elementary school in Mariposa, N. M. which has a 94% minority student population.  Martinez briefly describes the operational details of the three models of bilingual programs at the school and discusses their effectiveness as a group.  Her information comes from questionnaires completed by 33 teachers at this school.  Her premise is that teacher attitudes towards bilingual education influence the effectiveness of that teacher's program.

        She also shows that a basic problem with bilingual education in her state is that the program is not defined except by very broad state guidelines.  The teachers in each school have to come up with the best way to serve their second language speakers.  According to Martinez the teachers have the mandate but they don't have the funding or the resources.

         Martinez queries the teachers in this school by means of a series of questionnaires designed to detect individuals' attitudes towards bilingual education in general (What is your philosophy of bilingual education?) and bilingual education specifically at Mariposa. (How effective do you think the bilingual program is at Mariposa?)   With that information from the 33 teachers at the school, she chose 12 teachers, two from each grade level, and interviewed them about their training for teaching in a school with a large minority population and their attitudes towards bilingual education generally and in their situation in particular.

           Martinez concludes that the lack of resources, as well as the lack of clear cut guidelines for program design, result in an ineffective bilingual program at her school.  The program is further undercut by personality conflicts and negative attitudes because many teachers are teaching in the bilingual program involuntarily.  The negative attitudes have a direct impact on the teacher effectiveness in the classroom.

            These research findings were then used to implement change in their classes.  In action research the teacher/researcher reflects on an event or a situation in the classroom and then investigates it through data collection and analysis.  This process fosters a greater awareness of classroom processes and the reasons behind them  (Walsh, p. 5).  This awareness leads to professional growth and development.  The individual teachers formed their own research questions and used only their own classes as their research population.

            In this study which includes six teacher/researchers and uses a research population of very small samples (in one case one teacher based her research results on only one student), the conclusions drawn recommend action research as a viable research tool in academic situations.  Walsh recommends that this research process be used more frequently in the TESOL profession.

            In the next article, Nancy Mae Antrim examines the attitudes of the students growing up along the Texas-Mexican border towards Spanish.  She looks at Spanish/English language preferences at home, at school, with friends and in their preference for music and TV.  She wants to see whether, in a border town where Spanish and English are used interchangeable, Spanish fluency carried a stigma of foreignness or whether it was used with pride.  She also wanted to see if having been in a bilingual class had a negative or positive effect on their attitudes.  In her study, she interviews 132 fourth and sixth grade students from the same elementary school in El Paso, Texas.  She asks them to rank their level of proficiency in both English and Spanish.  She also asks them whether they have been in bilingual classes.  Her sample ranged from completely bilingual to monolingual in either spanish or English.  Based on their level of Spanish proficiency and their academic background, Antrim compiled statistics for each group of students.

            Antrim concludes that the children's attitudes towards speaking Spanish were determined by their perceived competency in understanding Spanish.  Those who believed that they understood Spanish well felt that it was important to speak it.  Most students who spoke Spanish described the language as "beautiful and colorful" (Antrim, p. 11).  She concluded that as students perceived their ability in Spanish improve, their attitude became more positive.
 

            In the last article, Barbara Hruska examines programs which were established for a small group of non-English speakers in a predominantly monolingual K-6 school.  In a school of 380 students, 30-40 received ESL instruction.  Twenty of these students were Hispanic and participated in Spanish Transitional Bilingual Education (TBE).  Both of these programs were 'pull-out' models.  In her study, she tries to determine whether the pull-out program is the best model for the students.  She considers their social adjustment as well as their language learning.

            This study takes place over two years.  Sources for information include but are not limited to field notes, videotaped observations, audio taped teacher interviews, student interviews, notes from parent conferences, faculty meetings, and personal correspondence.   In the end, 880 pages of handwritten notes, 40 hours of videotape and 30 documents were used to compile the results of the research (Hruska)
 

            Her research showed that a mainstream, inclusion model would best serve the students.  Since this was a change from the dominant practice, there was opposition from faculty and administration about making a change.  Hruska concludes that when analyzing current practices the important questions are:  "What are the dominant ideologies in any setting?  What are the related practices? Whom do they serve?" (Hruska, p. 29).  Especially the last question will give advance warning bout how easy it will be to make a change for the good of the students.

            These articles start to show the variety of bilingual programs and the myriad of ways of looking at research issues in bilingual education.  The questions still remain, "What is the best program for English language learners?  and "How do they maintain their first language?"  Add to that, "If we find the answers, will the administration either at the school site (Hruska) or at the state level (Martinez) give us the leeway to implement them?"
 
 

David's comments on my first paper.  He was gentle!