120
al., 1981). The mean of the teachers' ratings, displayed on Table 4-2,
are much higher than those of the language sample raters3.9 compared
to 2.6.
There is a high correlation between all the language factors as
well as the overall communicative skill scores of the two bilingual
teachers who rated the students in Spanish. However, the correlation
of overall communicative skill (.81) does not correlate with the
students' total scores in Spanish (-.09).
The mean rating for overall communicative skill in English given
by the ESL teacher is almost 3.0, as compared to the oral language
sample rating of 1.6. This overall rating indicates the ESL teacher
considers the students to have achieved some degree of communicative
competence in English. The overall communicative skill ratings which
the ESL teacher gave are significantly correlated with students' total
language scores in English (.38).
The ratings of the two bilingual teachers indicate they find the
students to be fluent, but somewhat limited, in Spanish. The ESL
teacher finds the students are functioning at a somewhat competent,
but limited, stage in English.
Discussion of teachers' ratings
It was expected that both the ESL and bilingual teachers' ratings
of the students' language proficiency would be significantly correlated
with total language scores (Mace-Matluck, 1980). There are several
possible explanations for the differences in correlations between the
bilingual and the ESL teachers. The bilingual teachers provide in
struction in the content areas. Their instructional style is lecture