Failure to use mother tongue as the medium of instruction during at least the fundamental years has lasting detrimental impacts on students¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · causal r2 · q2
Currency · newest study 2018 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? The review reports, citing Dutcher (2004), that failing to use mother tongue as medium of instruction at least in the fundamental years has a lasting and detrimental impact on students' cognitive competence and emotional stability. → Behrmann 2018

Evidence¶

Behrmann 2018¶

Behrmann, T. (2018). Evaluating the effects of mother tongue on math and science instruction. Monument, CO, USA: ISTES Organization. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED603513

q2 · i? · causal · r2

A narrative-review assertion attributed to Dutcher (2004), quoted in the theoretical framing of the literature review chapter. The review offers no effect size or study details for this claim in the available text.

"Research has demonstrated that the failure to use mother tongue as a medium for at least the fundamental years has a lasting and detrimental impact on students' cognitive competence and emotional stability (Dutcher, 2004)."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Children who begin their education in their mother tongue make a better start and continue to perform better than those who start school in a new language — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
• Mead argued that treating the mother tongue as inferior impedes movement between home and school language structures — related
• Semilingualism — less than native-like skill in both languages — is associated with detrimental cognitive and academic consequences — related
• Preservation of the mother tongue predicts second-language achievement among migrant children — related
• 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. — related
• African children are primarily schooled in English from Grade 4 onwards, and the language-in-education policy has failed to promote indigenous African languages — related
• Teachers in South African multilingual classrooms use code-switching, offering English content but switching to the mother tongue for elaboration and discussion — related