251 Looking at the relationship of parents' first language and students' acquisition of the second language could provide valuable information on the influence of the home in second language learning. Little research exists on Cuban family-school interaction. Con sideration should be given to studying how the relationship of the language of the home and the language of the school affects school learning. Cummins (1981) concludes that, "... under certain con ditions, a switch to the use of the majority language in the home is associated with poor academic progress in the majority language" (p. 32). Many educators believe that parents should be encouraged to speak the language of the school with their children. According to this belief, use of a language other than English prevents the students from acquiring English fluency and retards education progress. The survey results indicate that in the homes of the research participants, Spanish is being spoken, almost exclusively, by the parents to the children, but that the children are beginning to switch to English in speaking to parents and other relatives. Should research reveal that first language reinforcement in the home is not detrimental to second language acquisition, parents should be encouraged to continue to speak to their children in the first language. Of greatest importance in the analysis of the data relevant to Hypothesis Two is the finding that Cuban males have more opportunities to interact in the English-speaking community than do Cuban females. These opportunities appear to be culturally related. Males serve as family agents and interpreters. They play on sports teams and help their fathers. Females have so far remained at home to help their