A retention study was conducted at Los Angeles Harbor College focused on the fall 1976 and spring 1977 students who indicated a natural language other than English (NLOE). A program participant group, formed of 169 volunteer NLOE students, were enrolled in a bilingual vocational program developed in five discipline areas, using the Spanish, Samoan and Tagalog languages. A comparable control group of 147 was drawn in stratified random form from all other NLOE students. Program participants completed a personal inventory, and interest and ability tests which were interpreted to them by a career counselor. Course work, grade point averages, and results of a student opinion survey were analyzed for both groups in a multivariate analysis. Findings indicated that completion rates could be improved by 44% and grade point average by 42% for NLOE students by using a combination of adapted career counseling, bilingual vocational instruction, and communication development instruction. Primary student objectives were to improve their abilities in English reading, speaking, and writing. College support, an information exchange between NLOE students, college, and community, and training programs for faculty and counselors are recommended. Appendices include the inventory, survey instrument, tabulated results, and criteria used by the program evaluator. (RT)