9
are termed Cuban-Americans. They represent the group of Cuban im
migrants who arrived in the .S. prior to the 1980 "Freedom Flotilla"
or "Marie! Boat!ift."
Justification
The second language research by Rodriguez-Brown (1979), who
looked at primary Mexican students in Chicago, along with the work
of Cummins (1981), Cummins, Swain, Nakajima, Handscombe, and Green
(1981), and Cummins, Swain, Nakajima, Handscombe, Green, and Tran
(in press), who looked at the relationship of first and second languages
across ages, indicates that first language proficiency is related to
second language acquisition. Cummins et al. (in press) point out that
the theoretical assumption of "common underlying proficiency" is a
construct which "... appears counterintuitive to many policy makers
and educators" (p. 2). Cummins et al. (in press) state that research
in behavioral and language use patterns across languages is an innova
tion in second language study that requires a great deal of further
investigation.
The controversy regarding the use of primary language instruction
to enhance second language learning has continued for the past decade,
yet most second language research has been focused on elementary school
students and adults learning a second language (Hatch, 1978). Hatch
documents that between 1913 and 1976, 75 second language acquisition
studies of children 12 years or younger were conducted. During the
same time period, 30 studies of adults and 11 studies of teenagers also
occurred. Both Genesee (1978) and Snow and Hoefnagel-Hohle (1978) agree
that adolescents learn the rule-governed parts of language--those aspects