Running Head: INITIAL LITERACY IN SPANISH AND ENGLISH 1

Spanish and English Initial Literacy

What research says?

In the United States, Spanish literacy instruction often mirrors English literacy instruction and

commercially produced materials in Spanish are often translated after English literacy programs,

as Escamilla et al, 2014 affirm on p.39. Escamilla (2000) suggests the use of “authentic Spanish

literacy instruction in the internal structure of the language”, implementing culturally and

personally relevant texts that were written in Spanish, as well as bilingual books. Lindholm-

Leary and Borsato reported that the most successful outcomes in English achievement, as

measured by norm-referenced standardized tests, occurred among students who receive primary

language instructional support over a long period of time; “that is, the longer the ELL had

participated in bilingual education instruction, the more positive were the results in English when

compared to matched groups who were English mainstream programs (Collier, 1992; Curiel et

al, 1986; Ramirez, 1992; Thomas & Collier, 2002).

Research supports the importance of incorporating language objectives into the

curriculum planning (Lyster, 1990,1994,1998) and language and literature should be developed

across the curriculum (Doherty et al, 2003) to ensure that students learn content as well as

academic language associates with the content.

A study that calls my attention regarding language instruction is the one done by Ramirez

(1992), who compared late-exit programs to determine whether outcomes were better for

programs that used more Spanish or more English in the later grades. Results showed that

students with the most use of Spanish and those in the school with the most use of English ended

6th grade with comparable levels of skills in English language and Reading; but in Math, students

who received more Spanish had higher levels of growth than students who had higher levels of
What Research says about Spanish and English initial Literacy 2

English instruction. Collier (1992) extended this study that assessed academic achievement of

ELs and concluded that “students who received higher amounts of primary language

instructional support, achieved superior levels on achievement tests in English compared to

matched groups who were in English mainstream programs”. Furthermore, although studies

have not specifically addressed the minimum level of English necessary, it appears that a

minimum of 10% initial English instruction may be important to promote English Language

development for the nonnative speakers of English. By the late elementary grades, the amount of

content instruction in English should increase to about 50%. Research demonstrates that to

promote the prestige of non-English language and counteract the dominant status of the

mainstream society’s language, the non-English language should receive more focus in the early

stages of an immersion program (Pease-Alvarez, 1993; Portes & Hao, 1998; Veltman, 1988;

Cloud et al, 2000).

Successful language development programs not only prevent the negative consequences

of subtractive bilingualism, but also effectively promote the beneficial aspects of additive

bilingualism.

In conclusion, initial literacy in Spanish or English varies depending of the program it

will be applied, but what it is important is to expose students to both internal structure of

languages if we want to have impact of both languages on them. “Development of

metalinguistic awareness is a key element of biliteracy” (Beeman and Urow 2013).

What Research says about Spanish and English initial Literacy 3

References

Beeman, K., & Urow, C. (2013. P.65). Teaching for Biliteracy: Strengthening Bridges between

Languages. Philadelphia: Caslon.

Escamilla, K., Hopewell, S., Butvilofsky, Sandra., Sparrow, W., Soltero-Gonzalez, L., Ruiz-

Figueroa, O., Escamilla, Manuel. (2014). Biliteracy from the Start: Literacy Squared in

Action. Philadelphia, PA: Caslon Publishing.

Genesee, F., Lindholm-Leary, K., Saunders, W., Christian, D. (2006). Educating English

Language Learners: A Synthesis of Research Evidence. New York, NY: Cambridge

Press.

Lindholm-Leary, Kathryn J, Ph.D. (2005). Review of Research and Best Practices on Effective

Features of Dual Language Education Programs. San Jose State University.

What Research says about Spanish and English initial Literacy 4