Primary or Secondary Speakers: Does It Matter?

Overview

Objectives/Goals In today's world, there is a conception that foreign students are more intelligent than American students. The purpose of this project is to evaluate whether or not secondary English speaking students test as well as primary English speaking students on simple English tests. Methods/Materials Participants were split into two groups, primary English speakers (Group1) and secondary English speakers (Group 2). 50 high school students of each group were tested. To be considered a secondary English speaker, the participant must speak English as a second language. ESL students take the CELDT yearly to determine English level efficiency. The 11 questions were taken from a California English Language Development Test or CELDT tested the students' knowledge of spelling, grammar, and comprehension. Both groups were given the same test, in the same classroom environment. Results 100 individuals from grades 9-12 were tested. The average primary English speaker scored a 90.5% while secondary English speakers scored an average of 80.3%. Both groups had a Standard deviation close to zero. (Approx. 0.13 for both) Conclusions/Discussion The data did support the hypothesis. Primary high school English speakers tested approximately 10% higher than secondary high school English speakers. This result could be due to the amount of time primary English students spend in studying English. Although there are human variables such as the amount of sleep, food consumption, and boredom, the scores show that California English Language Development Tests are reliable in testing ESL students. Taking an English test by primary English speaking students may have appeared easy, merely because the students speak English on a daily basis. While ESL students may study English as much as several times a day to as little as a few times a week or may speak English at school but their primary language while at home. This project concludes that primary high school English-speaking students test superiorly than secondary high school English-speaking students.

Competition history

• CSEF 2012 Behavioral & Social Sciences · Entry S0405

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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