The Impact of the Spanish-to-English Proficiency Shift on the Grammaticality of English Learners

A sample of over 1,000 English learners (ELs) whose home language was Spanish participated in this study. The authors used a longitudinal retrospective approach to study the percentage of grammatical utterances (PGU) in both Spanish and English the children used in retelling a story. Some of the children were in English-only classes and others were in Spanish-English bilingual instruction. The study followed the same children from kindergarten through second grade. Results showed evidence of a temporary period of low grammaticality in both languages that appears to be connected to the shift children made from Spanish to English proficiency.