Academic achievement and sense of belonging among non-native-speaking immigrant students : the role of linguistic distance

Abstract

This paper examines the association between how distant the language spoken by non-native-speaking immigrant students is with respect to the language of instruction and their outcomes using data on 15-year-old students participating in the Programme for International Student Assessment (N = 21,618). Linguistic distance is associated with achievement in reading, mathematics and science but not with sense of belonging to the school community. The negative association between linguistic distance and academic achievement is stronger among students who arrived in their country of destination at or after the age of 12, those with a more advantaged socio-economic background and those who attend school in education systems that select students into different tracks at an early age.