Date of Graduation

5-2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Degree Level

Undergraduate

Department

International and Global Studies

Advisor/Mentor

Zamarro Rodriguez, Gema

Committee Member

Fukushima, Tatsuya

Second Committee Member

Comsa, Maria Teodra

Third Committee Member

Odabaei, Milad

Abstract

Does language matter in achieving higher scores in school? Do international standardized tests measure students speaking different languages equally? We study whether a language students speak affects their academic achievement. Understanding this research might also help construct a format for standardized testing. It might also help to build a curriculum for bilingual students and facilitate foreign language learning in schools. We analyze the role of institutional factors and the role of linguistics in student’s performance. To do so, we use PISA 2018 data and linear regression models for both the whole sample of students in each country and first and second-generation immigrants in each country. Focusing on migrants allows us to separate and estimate the effects of language while controlling for country-specific institutional factors. We analyze the effect of language with 7 top-level family language classifications. Our results show that the language of students has a large effect on students’ academic achievement. Sino-Tibetan children outperform all others by \textit{large} differences in all the subjects, followed by Japonic, Koreanic, and Uralic. Among first-generation immigrant students, Atlantic-Congo and Chocoan Wounaan performed significantly worse than Sino-Tibetan in math, with more than 2 standard deviations difference in performance, and Uralic did better in reading by 0.4 standard deviations. Among second-generation immigrant students, we find that the effect of language is less negative. Compared to Sino-Tibetan, Altantic-Congo, Chocoan Wounaan, Pidgin, and South Omatic did especially worse, while Dravidian surpassed Sino-Tibetan by 1.28 and 0.7 standard deviations in reading and science, respectively.

Keywords

Academic achievement; language effect; international education; Education policy; Language policy; Immigrants

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