Academic achievement and sense of belonging among non-native-speaking immigrant students: The role of linguistic distance

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2020.101911Get rights and content

Highlights

  • We examine the outcomes of 21,618 non-native-speaking immigrant 15-year-old students.

  • Linguistic distance is negatively associated with academic achievement.

  • The association is stronger among those who migrated at or after age 12.

  • The association is stronger in systems with early tracking.

  • Linguistic distance is not associated with sense of belonging.

Abstract

This paper examines the association between how distant the language spoken by non-native-speaking immigrant students is with respect to the language of instruction and their outcomes using data on 15-year-old students participating in the Programme for International Student Assessment (N = 21,618). Linguistic distance is associated with achievement in reading, mathematics and science but not with sense of belonging to the school community. The negative association between linguistic distance and academic achievement is stronger among students who arrived in their country of destination at or after the age of 12, those with a more advantaged socio-economic background and those who attend school in education systems that select students into different tracks at an early age.

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.

References (63)

  • T. Agasisti et al.

    Equality of educational opportunities, schools’ characteristics and resilient students: An empirical study of EU-15 countries using OECD-PISA 2009 data

    Social Indicators Research

    (2017)
  • P.M. Arredondo

    Identity themes for immigrant young adults

    Adolescence

    (1984)
  • D. Bakker et al.

    Adding typology to lexicostatistics: A combined approach to language classification

    Linguistic Typology

    (2009)
  • J.W. Berry

    Acculturative stress

  • E. Bloom et al.

    Effects of input properties, vocabulary size, and L1 on the development of third person singular –s in child L2 English

    Language Learning

    (2012)
  • T.M. Bohman et al.

    What you hear and what you say: Language performance in Spanish English bilinguals

    International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism

    (2010)
  • C.H. Brown et al.

    Automated classification of the world’s languages: A description of the method and preliminary results

    STUF-Language Typology and Universals

    (2008)
  • G. Brunello et al.

    Does school tracking affect equality of opportunity? New international evidence

    Economic Policy

    (2007)
  • C. Buchmann et al.

    Educational achievement of immigrant-origin and native students: A comparative analysis informed by institutional theory

    International Perspectives on Education and Society

    (2006)
  • A.Y.W. Chan

    Cantonese English as a second language learners’ perceived relations between “similar” L1 and L2 speech sounds: A test of the speech learning model

    The Modern Language Journal

    (2012)
  • B.R. Chiswick et al.

    A model of destination-language acquisition: Application to male immigrants in Canada

    Demography

    (2001)
  • A. Clarke et al.

    Language barriers and immigrant health

    Health Economics

    (2016)
  • J. Cohen

    Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences

    (1988)
  • B.A. Dawson et al.

    The impact of language status as an acculturative stressor on internalizing and externalizing behaviors among Latino/a children: A longitudinal analysis from school entry through third grade

    Journal of Youth and Adolescence

    (2008)
  • F. Fleischmann et al.

    Gender inequalities in the education of the second generation in Western countries

    Sociology of Education

    (2014)
  • J.A. Fredricks et al.

    School engagement: Potential of the concept, state of the evidence

    Review of Educational Research

    (2004)
  • D.C. Funder et al.

    Evaluating effect size in psychological research: Sense and nonsense

    Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science

    (2019)
  • E. Gabonton et al.

    Learners’ ethnic group affiliation and L2 pronunciation accuracy: A sociolinguistic investigation

    TESOL Quarterly

    (2005)
  • C. Geay et al.

    Non-native speakers of English in the classroom: What are the effects of pupil performance

    Economic Journal

    (2013)
  • C. Goodenow et al.

    The relationship of school belonging and friends’ values to academic motivation among urban adolescent students

    The Journal of Experimental Education

    (1993)
  • L. Harklau

    Tracking and linguistic minority students: Consequences of ability grouping for second language learners

    Linguistics and Education

    (1994)
  • Cited by (17)

    • Educational assessment and the rise of immigrant students

      2022, International Encyclopedia of Education: Fourth Edition
    View all citing articles on Scopus
    View full text