ABSTRACT
María is 6 years old. She is Mexican-American, and she and her parents speak Spanish. María knows some English from watching television and listening to English-speaking adults and children in the larger community at the store, gas station, and park. Her parents want her to learn English, but they also want her to continue to develop her Spanish. Spanish represents the family’s culture and is a key part of her family’s identity and heritage. María has many relatives who speak Spanish, and the family periodically travels to Mexico for special events and holidays. Her parents have enrolled her in a bilingual first-grade classroom, where she will receive literacy and content area instruction in Spanish, along with beginning English-as-a-second4anguage (ESL) instruction.
