Recent Research on how Multilingual Education affects reading skills in children
TESOL Quarterly (Wiley online library) recently published a research article titled the “Effects of Mother Tongue Education and Multilingualism on Reading Skills in the Regional Language and English in India.” The research examined how mother tongue education and multilingualism influences the reading skills and reading comprehension of 1272 Indian primary school children from low income homes. The study took place across three sites in India, namely Delhi, Hyderabad, and Patna.
The main aim of the study was to assess if there was a relation between mother tongue education/multilingualism, and literacy skills acquired, in the regional language and in English. The research looked for answers to three main questions. They asked whether:
(1) decoding ability in reading is related to reading comprehension in the regional language and in English,
(2) being schooled in a language different from the primary home language (thus not receiving mother tongue education) disadvantages children in literacy skills in the regional language and in English,
(3) growing up in a multilingual household impacts children’s literacy skills in the regional language and in English.(Page 8).
The results of this research showed that minority language speakers from monolingual homes who do not get mother tongue education show poor performance in comparison to their majority language speakers when reading in the majority language. When reading in English, growing up in a multilingual household helps and shows improved results in a child's performance. Finally, in areas where most children are being taught in their mother tongue, they showed good skills in literacy in the regional language and yet worse in English(as none of them are exposed to English at home). The authors claimed that such outcomes reveal how mother tongue education and multilingualism did have a positive impact on reading abilities and language decoding skills. Their primary recommendation was that more support is needed for minority language speakers so that they can develop better literacy skills in other languages such as the majority language(or language used to teach in the classroom) and English.
In summary this research showed that minority language speaking children from low income households did not perform as well as their majority language-speaking classmates overall. The research showed a positive correlation between mother tongue education and overall literacy skills development for children. The recommendations of this study should indeed be taken into consideration as it calls for more inclusive mother tongue education and rallies more support in this regard for minority children who are already from a disadvantaged economic background.
Regards,
Karsten, in collaboration with Upasana
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