Academic achievement and sense of belonging among non-native-speaking immigrant students: The role of linguistic distance
Introduction
International migration flows are changing classroom composition in many countries and linguistic diversity is one of the new demands to which education systems must respond (Suárez-Orozco et al., 2008). Immigrant-origin children's fluency in the language of instruction is key if they are to fully benefit from learning opportunities offered by schools (Geay et al., 2013), participate actively in the social life of their school, and develop a sense of belonging within their school community and beyond (Dawson & Williams, 2008).
A key driver of language fluency is the extent to which immigrant-origin children speak the language of instruction at home, although the effect depends on parental fluency in such language (Bohman et al., 2010). Previous studies show that native- and non-native-speaking immigrant-origin students differ in their participation in education and attainment (Buchmann & Parrado, 2006; Suárez-Orozco et al., 2008). However, little is known about the association between the degree of dissimilarity between students' native language (L1) and the language they use in instructional settings (L2) (referred to here as linguistic distance), and immigrant-origin children's academic achievement and sense of belonging to their school community. Linguistic distance is determined by comparing vocabulary, phonetic inventories and grammar of L1 and L2.
Previous studies indicate that the math and reading achievement of immigrant-origin children is lower when the language they speak at home considerably differs from the language spoken in instructional settings (Isphording et al., 2015). However, such research failed to investigate how linguistic dissimilarity is related with other educational outcomes, such as students' sense of belonging to the school community, and to identify in which conditions linguistic dissimilarity plays an especially important role.
Sense of belonging to the school community represents the extent to which students feel accepted, respected, included and supported by their school community (i.e., peers, teachers and other adults) (Goodenow & Grady, 1993). It is strongly associated with academic performance and overall well-being, and is especially important for minority and disadvantaged groups (Fredricks et al., 2004; Goodenow & Grady, 1993).
To remedy these gaps, this research paper presents solid evidence on the association between linguistic dissimilarity and academic achievement in reading, mathematics and science, as well as sense of belonging to the school community. It also examines whether these associations vary among different groups of immigrant-origin students. Differences are tested across key individual, school and system level characteristics: gender, socio-economic status, age at arrival, school level socio-economic composition, the concentration of language-minority students in a school and early selection policies at the education system level.
Unique data from multiple editions of a large-scale international assessment, the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), were analyzed. PISA contains information on large, representative and internationally comparable samples of 15-year-old students. In our study, immigrant-origin students are those who were born in a country that was different from the country in which they took part in PISA or had at least one parent who was born in a different country.
Section snippets
Language dissimilarity and second language acquisition
Models of language acquisition generally consider L1 as individuals' native language (the language they first acquired as children) and L2 as any language they consciously acquire, i.e. that is not a native language. In this study L1 refers to the language spoken at home by 15-year-old immigrant-origin students and L2 refers to the (different) language that is used in instructional settings. The language students report speaking most often at home could differ from the students' native
The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA)
PISA is a triennial large-scale assessment with over 70 countries participating at least once since the first study in 2000. The key instruments include a two-hour low-stakes assessment to test proficiency in reading, mathematics and science, and a 30-minute questionnaire. The PISA surveys are conducted on two-stage stratified representative samples of students, between the ages of 15 years and 3 months and 16 years and 2 months, enrolled in lower-secondary or upper secondary institutions (for
Homogeneous effects of linguistic distance
This study reports the association between linguistic dissimilarity and reading in Table 4, mathematics in Table 5, and science achievement in Table 6. Seven models are presented in each table. Models 1 to 4 provide information on the main associations between linguistic distance and outcomes of interest, while models 5 to 7 identify differences in these associations across individuals. In model 1, linguistic distance, gender, ESCS, migration background and school level ESCS are all controlled
Discussion and conclusions
This study investigated the role of linguistic dissimilarity in shaping the academic achievement and sense of belonging of non-native-speaking immigrant-origin students. The sample covers many origin and destination countries and it is statistically representative of the wider 15-year-old student population in countries of destinations. The materials are real-world education assessment tasks developed, translated and validated by internationally recognized experts, which are field trialed to
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank four anonymous referees and the Editor for useful input to previous versions which considerably improved the manuscript. They would also like to thank Emma Linsenmayer for editorial support. Francesca Borgonovi acknowledges support from the British Academy through its British Academy Global Professorship scheme. The views expressed by the authors do not necessarily represent those of the British Academy or of the OECD.
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