Bilingual education programs for Mexican-American preschool and elementary grade pupils almost invariably include instruction in English as a second language (ESL). While usual ESL programs for young Spanish-speaking children emphasize pronunciation drill (minimal-pair drills: pit-bit, choose-shoes), an alternative approach deemphasizes phonological drill while concentrating on teaching of word order (syntactic structure). Results of several studies from bilingual projects in Lower Rio Grande Valley replicate findings that Experimental Groups perform no better than Control (no formal ESL instruction) Groups on Pronunciation, Vocabulary, and Communication but score significantly higher on structure. Formal syntactical drill to learn new word order may be more important than phonological analyses in ESL instruction. (Author)