The Effect of Mother-tongue Language Mediated Bilingual Education on Early Grade Reading and Oral Language Outcomes in Ghana

• In Event: Pedagogies of multilingualism in the early grades: Lessons learned from sub-Saharan Africa

Proposal

PURPOSE: Improving reading outcomes has been a central policy goal in Ghana (Ghana Education Service et al., 2016). Since July 2021, T2E+ has been supporting transitional bilingual instruction from kindergarten 2 to Basic 3 (B3) (equivalent to primary grade 3) in 5,425 public schools. The program aims to enhance the development of English reading skills by first teaching children transferable language and reading skills in mother tongues. Learners and teachers participating in this program receive instructional materials, training in literacy instruction, on-site coaching, and mentoring, among others (Ghana Education Service, 2021; USAID et al., 2021). This study evaluates the effect of T2E+ on the reading and expressive language outcomes among B1 and B2 learners.

METHODS: We use a randomized controlled trial design with one treatment and one control group in B1 and B2, separately. Treated schools were to receive T2E+ during 2021-22. Controlled schools were placed on a waiting list while the evaluation was ongoing, but would receive some T2E+ support at a later time.

Baseline data were collected from 100 treatment and 99 control schools in September – December 2022. The schools were selected at random from a pool of 3,127 T2E+ schools. Boys and girls are equally represented in the sample in each grade. Teachers were also surveyed to understand the learners’ instructional environment. The same learners and teachers will be reassessed in endline in October – December 2023.

Learners’ data were collected through an Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA) in English and in eleven Ghanaian languages (Asante Twi, Akuapem Twi, Fante, Ewe, Ga, Dangme, Dagaare, Dagbani, Gonja, Kasem, and Nzema). Data were also collected through the Expressive Language Model (ELM) for English.

RESULTS: At baseline, the treatment and control groups possessed similar characteristics in all key background variables including age, gender, family’s socio-economic status, and home literacy environments amongst others. The children’s EGRA and ELM scores were similar as well in both B1 and B2. In B1, children in both groups performed similarly on all EGRA and ELM subtests except that the former group scored slightly higher in English letter sound. In B2, children in the treatment and control groups performed similarly on all EGRA and ELM subtests except that the former group scored slightly higher in local language letter sound identification, local language non-word reading, and English letter sound identification.

To preserve the between-group similarity, we will use various media to remind directors of schools about endline school visits at endline. Additionally, we will interview a sample of policymakers, teachers, and parents and study how they engaged with T2E+ to understand the implementation processes of T2E+ and associated factors,

CONTRIBUTION: The full impact evaluation of T2E+ that will be presented at the 2023 CIES conference will inform policymakers, donors, and other partners who are concerned about quality learning opportunities for earlier grade learners of how a mother language-mediated learning program such as T2E+ may contribute to this goal as well as what factors can facilitate this process.

REFERENCES
Ghana Education Service. (2021). All you need to know about Ghana Accountability for Learning Outcomes Project (GALOP). https://ges.gov.gh/portfolio/all-you-need-to-know-about-ghana-accountability-for-learning-outcomes-projectgalop/
Ghana Education Service, RTI International, & Education Assessment and Research Centre. (2016). Early Grade Reading Assessment and Early Grade Mathematics Assessment: Report of Findings. USAID.
USAID, Ghana Ministry of Education, & FHI360. (2021). USAID partnership for education: Learning. https://www.globalreadingnetwork.net/sites/default/files/media/file/resource-ghana-learning-brochure.pdf

Authors

• Jeongmin Lee, University of Notre Dame

• Dennis Chirawurah, University for Development Studies

• Mohammed Amin Dawuda, University for Development Studies

• Patrick Asuming, University of Ghana Legon, Accra