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Students' and parents1 self-rating of language
Analyses of students' and parents' self-ratings of language
proficiency provided some interesting data. Almost all students (97%)
rated themselves as understanding Spanish; 12% rated themselves as
understanding very well in English. Forty-three percent rated them
selves as understanding English well. Eighty-five percent said they
speak Spanish well. No one made that choice in English. Fifty-one
percent said they spoke English O.K. Ninety-two percent rated them
selves as reading very well in Spanish compared with 5% in English.
Eighty-five percent claimed they wrote Spanish very well; 17% made
this claim in English. The rating for writing ability had the widest
distribution of responses in both English and Spanish.
Parents' self-ratings indicated less ability in English than did
students' self-ratings. Parents' ratings of their ability in Spanish
was much higher than in English. Parents' self-ratings in both
languages were more conservative than the students' self-ratings.
Parents' self-ratings had no correlations with students' rank on
English. However, parents' rating of Spanish did have a high correlation
with students' rating on oral Spanish scores. All parents' self-
ratings, except understanding, were statistically significantly cor
related with students' oral ratings.
Correlations of students' and parents' self-ratings
Table 4-16 shows the correlations of the students' self-ratings
of their language ability in English and Spanish with rank on oral
language proficiency and rank on total English and Spanish scores.