Language Development Versus the Teaching of the Standard Language. Lektos: Interdisciplinary Working Papers in Language Sciences, Special Issue.

This paper examines the problem of language development and language growth in the English-dominant Spanish-speaking student who intends to increase his total command of Spanish for the purpose of functioning in that language at a level equivalent to that of most educated Latin Americans. Observations are based on the experiences of English-dominant Spanish-speaking students wishing to pursue doctoral studies in bilingual education at a southwestern university. Two existing approaches in teaching ethnic students their mother tongue are discussed and compared: (l) the approach emphasizing the teaching of traditional grammar, and (2) the approach which teaches ethnic students the "standard" dialect of their mother tongue. These two methods are compared with a third, namely a total language development program, wherein attention is devoted to increasing oral command of the language, writing, composition, creative use of the language, reading skills, and exposure to topics and domains normally handled by the student in the dominant language. The linguistic characteristics of such English-dominant Spanish-speaking students are described. (Author/CLK)