What is it about?
Students’ success in learning a second language is significantly shaped by both their home language use and the classroom environment. Our study found that classrooms where students use their second language often at home showed better language achievement. Nevertheless, classrooms emphasizing skill mastery can compensate for students who have limited second language exposure in their homes.
Featured Image
Why is it important?
Our results unveil a significant and positive compositional effect of second language use at home on students’ second language achievement, underscoring the need to consider the influence of home language use at the class level when examining the factors that contribute to second language achievement. Our results also demonstrate that classroom mastery goal structure can weaken the positive student-level relation between home language use and second language achievement, thereby making up for the absence of conducive home language environments for some students.
Perspectives
Learning two languages is not an automatic process. Parents of bilingual children often ask me questions such as, "If I don't speak a language (usually the second or the heritage language, which differs from the dominant societal language), will my children be at a disadvantage?" The answer isn't necessarily yes. As our results demonstrate, while being surrounded by peers who frequently use the second language at home can enhance second language achievement, classroom climate that focuses on mastery can compensate for students who have limited exposure to the second language at home. This shows that educational environments are crucial in supporting bilingual development, even when home language use is limited.
Baoqi Sun
Nanyang Technological University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Does classroom matter in bilingual students’ Chinese language achievement? A multilevel analysis of the compositional effect and person–context interactions., Journal of Educational Psychology, August 2024, American Psychological Association (APA),
DOI: 10.1037/edu0000896.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
