Patterns of Second Language Retention of Graduates of a Spanish Immersion Program

This paper reports on a study of the second language retention of students who completed a seven-year elementary Spanish immersion program. In the study, the relationship between attitudinal factors, language use, self-assessment of Spanish proficiency, and second language retention was examined. Subjects were 38 immersion gradutes, and 20 currently enrolled Grade 6 immersion students. The Modern Language Association (MLA) Co-operative Test of Spanish and a 63-item questionnaire designed to obtain information about opportunities to use Spanish, interest in foreign languages, parental encouragement, and ethnocentrism were administered to all subjects. Results indicated that some language loss occurred soon after the formal learning situation was terminated. Significant differences between MLA scores of students with continued formal exposure to Spanish and those who had discontinued Spanish, however, did not develop until high school, At the hight school level, significant differences across all four skills (writing, speaking, reading, and listening) were found with the greatest losses occuring in the productive skills. Exploratory factor analysis of the questionnaire data yield four factors which were labeled: ‘Interest in foreign language’, ‘Encouragement and Pride in work’, ‘Integrative orientation’, and ‘Parenta/integrative orientation’. Crosstabulations revealed significant X2 values between three of the factors and the productive skills. All of the factors, except integrative orientation, were also significantly related to language-use opportunities. Findings suggest that the attitudinal predisposition underlying the four factors influences the extent to which students retan their Spanish skills in writing and speaking. These factors appear, however, to be unrelated to retention of receptive skills in Spanish.