Welcome
ˇHola! We are Team Grammar Acquisition in Bilingual Students (GABS), a Gemstone team of the 2010 cohort. Many students in D.C. area public schools are exposed to Spanish at home; however, English is the primary language of education. We want to explore if disparities in language inputs, attitudes, and identity affect the English skills of these students. We are partnering with Langley Park-McCormick Elementary School in Prince George’s County and plan on giving back to the school by fundraising for needed items, assisting with tutoring, and however else we can. We are administering surveys to fifth-grade students, their parents, and their teachers, as well as conducting interviews and giving the students an English language test. In the past, we have explored our field further through trips to two conferences on languages and linguistics, and we intend to attend more to present our research.
Research Question
-
Inputs at home
- Exposure
- Accessibility
- Interactions
-
Inputs at school
- Teacher proficiency in Spanish/training
- Accessibility
- Interactions
- Language preference, and bilingual education
With an increasing Hispanic population in the United States and in Maryland in particular, it is more important than ever to ensure that Spanish-speaking children receive quality education. However, statistics show that Hispanic students consistently underperform on tests of English reading. We want to understand this phenomenon so that we can improve the education of bilingual students. Specifically, the factors we will focus on are language inputs at home, language inputs at school, and language affiliation. We plan to use surveys and interviews to learn about these factors and a language test to measure language skills.
Hypothesis
Our hypothesis is as follows:
- Greater media accessibility and interaction in English will be positively correlated with better English performance.
- Greater media accessibility and interaction in Spanish will be positively correlated with better English performance.
- People who identify as bilinguals and have positive attitudes toward both languages will have better English skills than those who identify as monolingual.
Goals
The ultimate goal of our project is to improve the education of all bilingual students. Realistically, we must complete our project within three years, so the project has a more limited scope. We hope to build knowledge in the field of bilingual education and, in the process, generate awareness of the needs of bilingual students. We may even be able to implement new programs at our target elementary school to advance the education of its bilingual students.
