IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/camsys/v19y2023i4ne1351.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Language of instruction in schools in low‐ and middle‐income countries: A systematic review

Author

Listed:
  • Pooja Nakamura
  • Adria Molotsky
  • Rosa Castro Zarzur
  • Varsha Ranjit
  • Yasmina Haddad
  • Thomas De Hoop

Abstract

Based on the theory of change, we gather, organize, and synthesize the evidence on the impact of three language of instruction (LOI) choices (teaching in mother tongue [MT] with later transition, teaching in a non‐MT language, or teaching in two or more languages at one time) on literacy and biliteracy outcomes. We focus on quantitative and qualitative studies of LOI interventions in low‐ and middle‐income countries (LMICs) and consider languages that are commonly spoken in the developing world. As such, we include studies that examine transfers from local languages to English, but not those evaluating transfers from local languages to languages that are less spoken in LMICs (e.g., Swedish).

Suggested Citation

  • Pooja Nakamura & Adria Molotsky & Rosa Castro Zarzur & Varsha Ranjit & Yasmina Haddad & Thomas De Hoop, 2023. "Language of instruction in schools in low‐ and middle‐income countries: A systematic review," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 19(4), December.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:camsys:v:19:y:2023:i:4:n:e1351
    DOI: 10.1002/cl2.1351
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/cl2.1351
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/cl2.1351?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Williams, Eddie, 1993. "Report on Reading in English in Primary Schools in Zambia," Education Research Papers 12852, Department for International Development (DFID) (UK).
    2. Helen Abadzi, 2003. "Improving Adult Literacy Outcomes : Lessons from Cognitive Research for Developing Countries," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 15136, December.
    3. Chicoine, Luke, 2019. "Schooling with learning: The effect of free primary education and mother tongue instruction reforms in Ethiopia," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 94-107.
    4. Abhijit Banerjee & Rukmini Banerji & James Berry & Esther Duflo & Harini Kannan & Shobhini Mukherji & Marc Shotland & Michael Walton, 2016. "Mainstreaming an Effective Intervention: Evidence from Randomized Evaluations of “Teaching at the Right Level” in India," NBER Working Papers 22746, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Jason T. Kerwin & Rebecca L. Thornton, 2021. "Making the Grade: The Sensitivity of Education Program Effectiveness to Input Choices and Outcome Measures," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 103(2), pages 251-264, May.
    6. Pritchett, Lant & Beatty, Amanda, 2015. "Slow down, you’re going too fast: Matching curricula to student skill levels," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 276-288.
    7. Duflo, Esther & Banerjee, Abhijit & Banerji, Rukmini & Berry, James & Mukerji, Shobhini & Shotland, Marc & Walton, Michael & Kannan, Harini, 2016. "Mainstreaming an Effective Intervention: Evidence from Randomized Evaluations of “Teaching at the Right Level†in India," CEPR Discussion Papers 11530, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    8. Adrienne M. Lucas & Patrick J. McEwan & Moses Ngware & Moses Oketch, 2014. "Improving Early‐Grade Literacy In East Africa: Experimental Evidence From Kenya And Uganda," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(4), pages 950-976, September.
    9. Ramachandran, Rajesh, 2017. "Language use in education and human capital formation: Evidence from the Ethiopian educational reform," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 195-213.
    10. Taylor, Stephen & von Fintel, Marisa, 2016. "Estimating the impact of language of instruction in South African primary schools: A fixed effects approach," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 75-89.
    11. Piper, Benjamin & Zuilkowski, Stephanie Simmons & Kwayumba, Dunston & Oyanga, Arbogast, 2018. "Examining the secondary effects of mother-tongue literacy instruction in Kenya: Impacts on student learning in English, Kiswahili, and mathematics," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 110-127.
    12. Williams, Eddie, 1993. "Report on Reading in English in Primary Schools in Malawi," Education Research Papers 12846, Department for International Development (DFID) (UK).
    13. Jain, Tarun, 2017. "Common Tongue: The Impact of Language on Educational Outcomes," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 77(2), pages 473-510, June.
    14. Marjorie Chinen & Thomas de Hoop & Lorena Alcázar & María Balarin & Josh Sennett, 2017. "Vocational and business training to improve women's labour market outcomes in low‐ and middle‐income countries: a systematic review," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 13(1), pages 1-195.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Leighton, Margaret, 2022. "Mother tongue reading materials as a bridge to literacy," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    2. Buhl-Wiggers, Julie & Kerwin, Jason & Muñoz-Morales, Juan S. & Smith, Jeffrey A. & Thornton, Rebecca L., 2020. "Some Children Left Behind: Variation in the Effects of an Educational Intervention," IZA Discussion Papers 13598, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Johnston, Jamie & Ksoll, Christopher, 2022. "Effectiveness of interactive satellite-transmitted instruction: Experimental evidence from Ghanaian primary schools," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    4. Chicoine, Luke, 2019. "Schooling with learning: The effect of free primary education and mother tongue instruction reforms in Ethiopia," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 94-107.
    5. Annie Duflo & Jessica Kiessel & Adrienne Lucas, 2020. "Experimental Evidence on Alternative Policies to Increase Learning at Scale," NBER Working Papers 27298, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Margaret Leighton, 2021. "Mother Tongue Reading Materials as a Bridge to Literacy," Discussion Paper Series, School of Economics and Finance 202101, School of Economics and Finance, University of St Andrews.
    7. Karthik Muralidharan & Abhijeet Singh & Alejandro J. Ganimian, 2019. "Disrupting Education? Experimental Evidence on Technology-Aided Instruction in India," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(4), pages 1426-1460, April.
    8. Pooja Nakamura & Zelealem Leyew & Adria Molotsky & Varsha Ranjit & Kevin Kamto, 2023. "PROTOCOL: Language of instruction in schools in low‐ and middle‐income countries: A systematic review," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 19(2), June.
    9. Piper, Benjamin & Simmons Zuilkowski, Stephanie & Dubeck, Margaret & Jepkemei, Evelyn & King, Simon J., 2018. "Identifying the essential ingredients to literacy and numeracy improvement: Teacher professional development and coaching, student textbooks, and structured teachers’ guides," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 324-336.
    10. Schaffner, Julie & Glewwe, Paul & Sharma, Uttam, 2021. "Why Programs Fail: Lessons for Improving Public Service Quality from a Mixed-Methods Evaluation of an Unsuccessful Teacher Training Program in Nepal," Staff Papers 316663, University of Minnesota, Department of Applied Economics.
    11. Bau, Natalie & Das, Jishnu & Yi Chang, Andres, 2021. "New evidence on learning trajectories in a low-income setting," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    12. Angrist, Noam & de Barros, Andreas & Bhula, Radhika & Chakera, Shiraz & Cummiskey, Chris & DeStefano, Joseph & Floretta, John & Kaffenberger, Michelle & Piper, Benjamin & Stern, Jonathan, 2021. "Building back better to avert a learning catastrophe: Estimating learning loss from COVID-19 school shutdowns in Africa and facilitating short-term and long-term learning recovery," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    13. Rodriguez-Segura, Daniel, 2022. "A closer look at reading comprehension: Experimental evidence from Guatemala," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    14. Tim Klausmann, 2021. "Feedback in Homogeneous Ability Groups: A Field Experiment," Working Papers 2114, Gutenberg School of Management and Economics, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz.
    15. Emily Beam & Priya Mukherjee & Laia Navarro-Sola, 2022. "Lowering Barriers to Remote Education: Experimental Impacts on Parental Responses and Learning," Working Papers 2022-030, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    16. Bellés Obrero, Cristina & Lombardi, María, 2019. "Teacher Performance Pay and Student Learning: Evidence from a Nationwide Program in Peru," IZA Discussion Papers 12600, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    17. Hemanshu Kumar & Rohini Somanathan & Mahima Vasishth, 2022. "Language and learning in ethnically mixed communities," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(2), pages 835-846, May.
    18. Yue-Yi Hwa & Clare Leaver, 2021. "Management in education systems," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 37(2), pages 367-391.
    19. Abhijit Banerjee & Rukmini Banerji & James Berry & Esther Duflo & Harini Kannan & Shobhini Mukerji & Marc Shotland & Michael Walton, 2017. "From Proof of Concept to Scalable Policies: Challenges and Solutions, with an Application," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 31(4), pages 73-102, Fall.
    20. Syeda Kashfee Ahmed & David Jeffries & Anannya Chakraborty & Toby Carslake & Petra Lietz & Budiarti Rahayu & David Armstrong & Amit Kaushik & Kris Sundarsagar, 2022. "Teacher professional development for disability inclusion in low‐ and middle‐income Asia‐Pacific countries: An evidence and gap map," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 18(4), December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:camsys:v:19:y:2023:i:4:n:e1351. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://doi.org/10.1111/(ISSN)1891-1803 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.