Table Of ContentMODIFYING A READING PROGRAM TO MEET THE NEEDS
OF SPANISH-SPEAKING CHILDREN
A Project
Presented to
the Faculty of the School of Education
The U niversity of Southern C alifornia
In P artial Fulfillm ent
of the Requirements for the Degree
Master of Science in Education
by
Norma H illary Madkin
August 1950
UMI Number: EP46459
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. NATURE OF THE PROBLEM............................................ 1
D escription of the s itu a tio n ........................... 1
The scope and delim itation of
the problem . . . . . . . . . .................. 2
Authority for the development
of the scope and importance
of the problem . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
D efinition of technical terms . . . . . . 5
The importance of the p ro b le m ....................... 6
The organization of chapters
of the r e p o r t ................................................ . 6
II. PROCEDURES . ..................................................... 7
The emergence of the problem ........................... 7
The development of a bibliography . . . . 8
The determ ination of a selected
bibliographical li s t by random
sampling .............................................................. 8
How re lia b ility and v alidity are
c o n c e iv e d .......................... 9
III. REASONS FOR MODIFYING THE READING PROGRAM . 10
Mental measurements and reading scores . . 10
The San Jose School ........................... 13
Meagerness of experience ............................... 24
The home la n g u a g e ................................................. 26
i i
CHAPTER PAGE
Slow progress in achievem ent......................, . 27
Sum m ary.................................................... 29
IV. WHAT MODIFICATIONS ARE NECESSARY
IN THE READING PROGRAM . . . . . . . . . . 31
Teaching vocabulary .................................. 31
Remedial work in re a d in g ........................... 38
Teaching phonics ..................................................... 46
Literary experiences ............................................ 51
Summary . . . . . . . . . . ........................... 56
V. CONCULSIONS............................................. 58
VI. RECOMMENDATIONS............................... 61
Recommendations to be acted upon . . . . 61
Recommendations for further study . . . . 62
BIBLIOGRAPHY . ....................................................................... 63
LIST OF TABLES
TABLE PAGE
I. Frequency D istribution of Intelligence
Quotients 11
II. Number of Pupils Involved In the San
Jose Experiment ....................................... 14
III. Median Scores of English and Spanish-
Speaking Pupils in Total Comprehension
on the Iowa Elementary (Average of
Forms A and B ) ............................... 22
I V. Median Grade Equivalent of English
and Spanish-Speaking Pupils on
Various Parts of the Iowa Ele
mentary Reading Tests (Average of
Form A and B) ............................................ 23
V. Examples of False Homonyms .................. 42
LIST OF GRAPHS
GRAPH PAGE
1. Improvement in Reading A bility made
at San J o s e ...................... 13
2. The Comparative Achievements of San Jose
and the Two Control Schools in the
Gates Reading Test over a Period of
Five Years 16
CHAPTER I
NATURE OF THE PROBLEM
It was the purpose of th is investigation to examine the
lite ra tu re regarding the a b ilitie s and achievements of the
Spanish-speaking children to determine what m odification is
necessary in the reading program. This chapter w ill present
a description of the situation, a statement of the problem and
authority for the development of its scope. It w ill state the
scope, delim atation, and importance of the problem.
D escription of the situation. The problem evolved from
a situation experienced by the w riter as a fourth grade teach
er in a Los Angeles city school d is tric t. The d is tric t was
predominately populated by Spanish speaking people. Many of
the parents spoke no English and, for the most part, the cul
ture of the community was Mexican. The d is tric t was recorded
as a blighted area and the residents of low socio-economic
m
statu s, free conversations, the children chose to speak
Spanish rather than English. The range of I.Q .'s was from
the low 50*s to sligh tly above 100. There were only two or
three whose l.Q .*s were 100 or slightly above. The average
was in the 70*s. The reading levels ranged from fourth grade
downward to that of a few non-readers. Progress in reading
achievement was slow for the m ajority of the class.
The scope and delim itation of the problem. B ilingual
ism is world-wide existing wherever people speaking d ifferen t
languages come into contact with each other and involving a ll
the languages brought together in th is way. Arsenian (3)
quotes an estim ate that some 1500 different languages are
used by the people of the earth. Modern methods of communi
cation and growing interdependence greatly increase the need
of bilingualism . Within the United States, immigration has
created many bilingual situations, and in the Southwest, the
predominantly English-speaking people of this country come
into contact with the predominantly Spanish-speaking popula
tion of Mexico, resulting in a bilingual situation likely to
continue far beyond the foreseeable future.
As early as 1928, an International Conference on Bi
lingualism met at Luxemburg (12). The proceedings of that
conference give a vivid picture of conditions in some of the
European countries and of the problems of bilingual education
as seen at that time. Conditions in Wales, Scotland, Ireland,
Canada, Belgium, and South Africa are discussed by Aucamp (4),
and the bilingual situation ”in the postwar world” is summar
ized by Arsenian (3). A committee of the American Council of
Learned Societies (1) classified the white population in the
United States in 1790 into their national or lin g u istic stocks,
and reports of the census supply evidence on la te r immigration.
This investigation w ill be concerned with bilingualism only as
3
i t affects modifying the fourth grade reading program of Span
ish-speaking children. The scope of the problem gives rise to
a series of questions, namely:
1. Why are m odifications necessary?
S. what m odifications are necessary?
3. Can te st resu lts obtained from te sts constructed
to measure the a b ilitie s and achievements of English-speaking
children with American backgrounds, habits, and culture be ac
cepted as valid for Spanish-speaking children whose backgrounds,
habits, and culture are basically different?
4. Can desirable resu lts be obtained by using the same
methods and techniques for Spanish-speaking children as used
for English-speaking children?
5. How can the school board fa c ilita te in tercu ltu ral
education in predominantly Spanish-speaking communities?
6. How can standardized tests be developed that are
especially adapted to Spanish-speaking children?
7. What is the role of the teacher in meeting the
needs of Spanish-speaking children?
8. Does the human element hold a v ita l place in the
scien tific quest for solutions to the problems presented by
Spanish-speaking children?
The questions stated above are only a few of the
to ta l number evolved from the problem. This study under
took to seek answers to only the f ir s t two.
