Orhan A??rda?|Gudrun Vanlaar
Does more exposure to the language of instruction lead to higher academic achievement? A cross-national examination
KU Leuven|University of Amsterdam|KU Leuven
aims objectives programme international student assessment pisa studies claimed native speaking ns students outperform language minority lmi students farreaching inferences drawn policymakers however previous pisa assessments appropriate included dichotomous home language variable main objective study gain better understanding students language background use related academic achievement design pisa data 2012 provides unique opportunity fill research lacuna includes elaborated questionnaire language background use data analysis multivariate threelevel analyses conducted pisa 2012 data 18 countries covering 5000 schools 120000 students findings results show achievement gap lmi ns students reading math controlling students school characteristics lmins achievement gap narrows remains significant holds true countries however language use per se cause underachievement lmi students often speak minority language parents achieve less countries speaking minority language often parents actually positively related math reading achievement nevertheless speaking instruction language school context positively associated math reading achievement originality significance study revealed relation language use academic achievement complex conceptualized previous pisa studies scholars need go beyond dichotomous approach achieve better understanding language use results show linguistic diversity could function asset academic performance least good balance focus minority languages home instruction language school found