Abstract
The Mexican American bilingual in Texas is an interesting subject for research. The present study attempts to answer some questions concerning learning and retention in connection with first and second language and association. Three studies were conducted presenting subjects two related words of pair of nouns, first in English and then Spanish and vice-versa. The subjects of the first experiment included 48 high school students that could speak and read in English but could only speak and understand English. The second experiment included 40 Spanish English bilingual college students whose dominant language was English but could also read Spanish. The third experiment was carried out with a group of students, al of them bilinguals but half of them had English as their dominant language and the other half had Spanish. The main conclusion drawn from the experiments was that the language of a bilingual are not two independent set of responses and that the association formed in one language are strongly influence by the associations in the other. The implications of this conclusion towards the elementary programs for bilingual children are obvious.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication, with the work [SPECIFY PERIOD OF TIME] after publication simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).