Bilingual children outperformed monolingual peers in reading, even without speaking the school language at home.

Many children in Majority WorldMajority WorldCountries where most of the world's population lives, often with lower incomes and less access to resources, sometimes called developing countries. communities struggle to hit reading milestones. This often happens because schools teach reading in an unfamiliar language of instruction. Researchers wanted to see if a focused reading program taught in French, called PECPECA short name for a specific reading program delivered in French, the school language., helps all students equally. They also checked how the languages kids speak at home affect their French reading and language skills after two years of reading lessons. They found that bilingual and multilingual children had stronger French language and reading skills than monolingual children. This advantage appeared most strongly if they spoke French at home, but it remained true even when they did not speak French at home. In addition, the PEC program helped children equally regardless of their home language background, showing that targeted teaching can offer fair support in multilingual settings.

Why it matters

For millions of children in Majority World countries, learning to read in a language they don't speak at home is a major barrier. This study shows that targeted instruction in that school language works just as well for bilingual and multilingual kids, regardless of home language. It suggests schools can boost reading without first fixing the home language gap.

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