THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE ACQUISITION OF CONSERVATION AND LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY OF MEXICAN-AMERICAN CHILDRE

This study investigated the relationship between tasks of conservation as measured by the Concept Assessment Kit - Conservation (CAK) and language proficiency in English and Spanish as measured by the Language Assessment Scales (LAS). The CAK measures the developmental emergence of conservation and the LAS measures the linguistic competencies of Spanish-speaking children.;The sample consisted of forty Mexican-American children from the geographic area of Uvalde, Carrizo Springs, and Eagle Pass, Texas. All subjects were seven years old and had current LAS scores. Twenty children were randomly selected and classified as LEP (Spanish dominant) and were matched by sex and birthdates with twenty children classified as NON-LEP (English dominant). CAK, Form A (English) was administered to LEP subjects first and Form B (Spanish) was administered second. The reverse procedure was utilized for NON-LEP subjects.;Correlation coefficients showed a significant relationship existed between the CAK (English) and LAS (English) scores for NON-LEP children. Two possible explanations were that language may not be a major factor in the acquisition of conservation as measured by the CAK or that the CAK and LAS are measuring relatively independent forms of functioning.;Chi Square values for CAK and dominant language indicated that LEP and NON-LEP groups acquired conservation at the expected level and revealed no interrelatedness between the acquired level of conservation and language proficiency. Examination of the data by sex indicated that only half as many girls as was expected from both groups attained conservation. This result may be attributed to possible role differences between boys and girls in Mexican-American homes.;The t-test analysis between groups on measures of conservation in Spanish and English, and in dominant language, revealed that NON-LEP children performed better on the CAK in their dominant language (English) than do the LEP children in their deficient language (English). However, the reverse was not true. LEP and NON-LEP subjects performed equally well in Spanish. Comparisons made in the dominant language indicated that LEP children performed as well in Spanish as the NON-LEP children in English.