A qualitative study of bilingual literature on monolingual Mexican-American high school students

This study examines the effects of literature written bilingually (Spanish-English) on the affective domain of monolingual-English Mexican American high school students. many Mexican American students experience a diminished sense of personal and ethnic identity due to the cultural erosion induced by the English-dominant language arts curriculum. In addition, the study investigates the possible role that literature written bilingually might play in broadening the status quo canon to remedy the deficiency, thereby offering greater empowerment to Mexican American youth.;The participating school sites were two high schools in Mesa County Valley School District ;This researcher found that when culturally relevant themes and Spanish-speaking characters were presented through literature written bilingually, the characters appeared significantly more authentic than if presented through literature written in English only. As a consequence, students appear to prefer literature bilingually over literature written in English only and, given an opportunity, they would not hesitate to incorporate Spanish into their English compositions. In addition, literature written bilingually appears to improve students' attitude toward native language to the degree that they would more willingly enroll in Spanish language classes.