Language of instruction | Unesco IIEP Learning Portal

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• mother tongue in the initial years of schooling helps reach socially and educationally marginalised populations

• If a child’s parents lack familiarity with the language of instruction used in school this can further reinforce the gap between minority and majority language groups

• learning achievement is enhanced when children are taught in their mother tongue for at least the first six years of primary school before the second language, the main language of instruction, is introduced

• If the transition from mother tongue to second language is too rapid, the risk is that students will not attain full mastery of either language

• Mother tongue-based bilingual education – the use of the child’s mother tongue alongside a second language – is now the recommended strategy

• bilingual models, students continue to use both mother tongue and second language as languages of instruction for a range of academic subjects throughout primary and secondary schooling