In the ToTAL trial, instruction in the mother tongue of Haitian Creole was associated with gains in French on skills that were not explicitly taught.¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · causal r2 · q3
Currency · newest study 2015 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q3 i? Patterns in the ToTAL data suggest that mother-tongue instruction in Haitian Creole led to gains in French skills that the curriculum did not explicitly teach. → Piper 2015

Evidence¶

Piper 2015¶

Piper, B., Bulat, J., & Johnston, A. (2015). Reading Skill Transfer Across Languages: Outcomes from Longitudinal Bilingual Randomized Control Trials in Kenya and Haiti. SREE Spring 2015 Conference Abstract. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED562423

q3 · i? · causal · r2

Analysis of ToTAL trial outcomes in Haitian Creole and French. The article describes "patterns that suggest" cross-language gains, presenting this as a suggestive pattern rather than a tested transfer estimate, and the French curriculum focused on oral language development.

"What is interesting are patterns that suggest that instruction in the mother tongue of Haitian Creole led to gains in French on skills that were not explicitly taught."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• The ToTAL intervention in Haiti had a positive impact on the foundational skills of initial sound identification and letter sound identification, though not on all combinations of language and grade. — related
• Preserving a bilingual student's heritage language supports rather than hinders English acquisition — a broader claim this one bears on
• Only a small minority of Haitians are truly French/Creole bilingual, making French effectively a foreign language for most students — related
• Failure to use mother tongue as the medium of instruction during at least the fundamental years has lasting detrimental impacts on students — related