7
Hypothesis Three
Students who utilize English communication opportunities will
make more progress in mastering English as measured by ethnographic
means than students who do not. Research question: Are there
measurable behavioral differences which can be observed in the school
environment that distinguish students who score higher on standardized
written and oral tests from students who score lower on the same
measures?
Del imitations
This research has been limited to the Cuban students who arrived
in the U.S. between the months of April and October 1980 and who were
enrolled in one junior high school in a county in south Florida.
Included in the formal student interviews and oral language sample
phase of the study were 41 seventh and eighth graders--!9 males and
22 females. These 41 students and 39 of their parents participated
in the survey phase. Four parents participated in the formal parent
interviews. A total of 63 Cuban students--the entire enrollment for
this junior high school--participated in the written language tests
and informal interview phase of the research.
Formal and informal interviews were conducted with 15 teachers,
6 administrators, 8 aides and other staff, 41 students and their
parents, and 15 other students at the school where the study was con
ducted. Merchants and others who work in the corranunity where the re
search was conducted were also interviewed, as were other Cubans
and Cuban-Americans from earlier immigrations who had settled in the