THE EFFECTS OF A DUAL LANGUAGE READING PROGRAM ON THE READING ABILITY OF PUERTO RICAN STUDENTS

This study examines if a group of recently arrived Puerto Rican students (NAPR) will develop reading skills in English and Spanish at the same rate that‐Puerto Rican students (BIPR) had who participated in bilingual programs. The sample consisted of 70 ninth grade students divided into a treatment group (NAPR) and a comparison group (BIPR). The treatment in this study was time spent in reading. The results indicated that the recently arrived Puerto Rican students performed significantly better than did the comparison group (BIPR) in vocabulary and reading comprehension in both English and Spanish.