Relationship between students’ home language background and academic performance in Nepal

• In Event: Diverse Methodological Perspectives on Language in Sociopolitical Context

Proposal

Despite the constitutional mandate, implementation of multilingual education is primarily absent in Nepal. Although initiatives like Kathmandu Metropolitan City’s have mandated multilingual education in public schools, they too are problematic as local languages have been treated as subjects rather than the medium of instruction. Consequently, the problem of school access and academic success among multilingual children has remained intact. In the absence of the medium of instruction in the home language, students from non-dominant language backgrounds are deprived of the opportunity to use schema and funds of knowledge in the learning process—a detriment to their emotional, cognitive, and academic development (Cummins, 2009; Kroll & Dussias, 2017). Such depravity prevents non-dominant language children from enjoying linguistic human rights (Skutnabb-Kangas, 1996) and preserving the mother tongue in the absence of space for development, indicating the need for Nepal to honestly implement the constitutional mandate. However, because the dominant Nepali language groups largely control Nepal’s politics, bureaucracy, and school governance, immediate implementation of multilingual educational policy is unlikely unless these stakeholders become fully aware of the consequences of the detrimental effects of linguistic domination in school space and ready for the medium of instruction related reform. So, there is a need for more robust and contextualized research to convince the stakeholders about the effects of overlooking the multilingual education on the country’s non-dominant language population and their language development.

The current study aimed at examining the effects of the medium of instruction on students’ academic achievement by exploring the relationship between eighth-grade Nepali students’ home language background and their achievement in standardized examinations in the language arts, science, mathematics, and social science subjects. The study answered a research question closely aligned with the purpose of the study: What is the effect of the medium of instruction on students’ academic performance as explained by the relationship of eighth-grade Nepali students’ home language background on their end-of-school-year test scores converted to grade-point averages in the Nepali language, English language, science and environment studies, mathematics, and social and population studies subjects defined in Nepal’s national curriculum?

To answer the above question, this study tested an alternate hypothesis: The medium of instruction in the mother tongue predicts eighth-grade Nepali students’ academic performance in the Nepali language, English language, science and environment studies, mathematics, and social and population studies subjects.

While many confounding factors could explain the achievement disparity existing among non-dominant language students, examining the effects of the medium of instruction in the mother tongue helps understand whether language is a primary factor in marginalizing non-dominant language children in the current education system in Nepal, where non-dominant languages are facing endangerment in the absence of language maintenance. This study aimed to validate the assertions of earlier scholarship that recognized the positive effects of bilingual or multilingual education not only on the academic performance of non-dominant language children but also of children from privileged language backgrounds (Bialystok, 2018; Cummins, 2009; Kroll & Dussias, 2017).

As the current study’s regression analysis revealed as shown in the table below, students with the Nepali language as their mother tongue achieved significantly higher grade-point averages than students with a different mother tongue, suggesting a clear advantage of the medium of instruction in the home language. Findings of the current study suggest that students who receive education in their mother tongue excel in language arts, core and social sciences, and a third language, namely English as a foreign language. While this study conforms to international research that provides evidence for the academic advantage of multilingual education, the moderate effects of the relationship suggest more research is warranted to confidently generalize the findings.

Table

Results of Multiple Regression on Students GPA (N = 562)

R R2 R_adj^2 SEE F(df1, df2) p
Nepali .34 .11 .10 .53 8.80***
(8, 553) .001
English .25 .06 .05 .42 4.40***
(8, 553) .001
Science and Environment .35 .13 .11 .63 9.90***
(8, 553) .001
Mathematics .27 .07 .06 .82 5.20***
(8, 553) .001
Social Studies and Population .33 .11 .10 .55 8.44***
(8, 553) .001
*p ≤ .05; **p ≤ .01; ***p ≤ .001

The current study adds to the limited knowledge base on the importance of mother tongue-based instruction for non-dominant language children, as the current statistical analysis revealed. This study is germane as studies examining the effects of the medium of instruction explained by the association of students’ language background on their academic performance are sparse in multilingual contexts like linguistically diverse Nepal, where mother tongue-based education is largely absent. Also, as many non-dominant languages are on the verge of endangerment because of the lack of language maintenance and language shift from non-dominant to dominant languages, this study helps draw the attention of language policymakers, scholars, educators, and researchers to the need for the promotion of non-dominant languages through appropriate medium of instruction policy, planning, research, and pedagogical practice. Multilingual stakeholders, who are concerned with reducing language-based inequalities, maintaining language ecology, and ensuring linguistic human rights to all children may find this study meaningful to advance discourse in favor of mother tongue-based education in contexts where school access and success of non-dominant language children have been affected by the absence of the medium of instruction in home language and minoritized languages have faced endangerment.

References
Bialystok, E. (2018). Bilingual education for young children: Review of the effects and consequences. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 21(6), 666–679. https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2016.1203859
Cummins, J. (2009). Fundamental psycholinguistic and sociological principles underlying educational success for linguistic minority students. In T. Skutnabb-Kangas, R. Philipson, A. Mohanty, & M. Panda (Eds.), Social justice through multilingual education (1st ed., pp. 19–35). Multilingual Matters.
Kroll, J. F., & Dussias, P. E. (2017). The benefits of multilingualism to the personal and professional development of residents of the US. Foreign Language Annals, 50(2), 248–259. https://doi.org/10.1111/flan.12271
Skutnabb-Kangas, T. (1996). Language and self-determination. In D. Clark & R. Williamson (Eds.). Self-determination: International perspectives (1st ed., pp. 124–140). Macmillan.

Author

• Puskar Joshi, Texas A&M University