Project English Language and Literacy Acquisition

Under Project ELLA, researchers followed 1,152 predominately Spanish-speaking kindergarten students from 24 elementary schools in a large urban school district over a four-year period. They compared structured English immersion and transitional bilingual models when delivered with the highest level of instructional quality and in a fashion reflecting more typical current practices.

Qualitatively, an ethnographic approach was employed using interviews, questionnaires, surveys and field notes from observations.

The main goal was to clarify which instructional delivery model is most effective in helping native Spanish-speaking children in acquiring English language and literacy.

Funding provided by the U.S. Department of Education
Date of award: October 15, 2003
Dates of project: October 1, 2003-September 30, 2008