MLE schools were tested each year— a total of approximately 1,800 students. Many people were surprised that even on this measure of oral English, MLE students did much better than students in the non-MLE( English-only) schools.
The greatest difference shown in Figure 1 is in“ Kom G3 Eng” reading comprehension. UNESCO and others have repeatedly found that African children in non-MLE schools consistently take 4-5 years to gain basic reading skills. About two-thirds of the students in the Kom MLE schools were reading English— their second school language— by the end of grade 2. This means that the Kom MLE students scored more than twice as high on the assessment of English reading comprehension as the Kom students in non-MLE( English-only) schools.
These and other research data show consistently that using the MT in school does NOT reduce students’ ability to learn and use the official school language. Instead, teaching them to read and write first in their MT, through instruction in the MT, helps them learn to speak, read and write the official school language more quickly and with better comprehension. 12
MTB MLE RESOURCE KIT Including the Excluded: Promoting Multilingual Education
Q2
Does MTB MLE help students achieve grade-level competencies in other academic subjects?
Some people think that non-dominant languages cannot be used in school because they lack the academic terms that students need in order to learn subjects like science, history, mathematics, literature and social studies. Part 1 of this booklet describes the importance of teaching academic terms in middle and later primary. A separate booklet on Implementation describes the process for introducing academic concepts in the MT and then introducing the matching academic terms in the official school language. This prepares students to continue learning the concepts as they move into middle and upper primary grades and to use both the MT and official language for learning.
Is the lack of academic terms in the students’ MT a problem for MLE students in early primary grades? To help answer this question, Figure 2 displays research that compares MLE students and non-MLE students’ assessment results in math, social studies and science.
12 Part 1 of this booklet helps to explain why and how MTB MLE helps students gain proficiency in speaking, reading and writing the official school language.
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