Home⇛International Journal of Multidisciplinary: Applied Business and Education Research⇛vol. 7 no. 5 (2026)

Interplay of Language Instruction and Academic Performance of Junior High School Students in Multilingual Classrooms

Rogie A. Saldivar | Jessica M. Alcantara

Discipline: Education

 

Abstract:

Multilingual classrooms are educational settings where unique chal- lenges and opportunities for language instruction can be found which requires pedagogical practices and approaches that are tai- lored to the linguistic diversity of students. This study investigated and examined the relationship between the interplay of the lan- guage of instruction and the academic performance of junior high school students in linguistically diverse settings like Masbate, with the goal of determining the impact of incorporating students' native languages alongside the target language. This study utilized a mixed-method research design specifically the explanatory-sequen- tial research design. It also used the Kruskal-Wallis test as its statis- tical tool to analyse the relationship between language instruction methods and the academic performance of students in four content areas. Data on student academic performance and language use by teachers was collected through interview and survey. The partici- pants of this study were 80 secondary teachers from 8 schools in the North and South Districts of Mandaonss. The results revealed a sta- tistically significant relationship between language instruction and students' academic performance with H = 13.753 and a p-value of 0.001032. These findings revealed that the language of instruction, used by teachers, significantly impacts student academic perfor- mance in multilingual classrooms. Thus, these support the idea that the use of multilingual approaches that incorporate students' native languages could be a key factor in the achievement of learning for students. Thus, this study suggests that further research should be conducted along with specific effective multilingual strategies to ex- plore their long-term impact on student learning.



References:

  1. Adamo, J. (2015). Challenges of teaching in mul-tilingual classrooms.Journal of Multilin-gual Education, 12(3), 45–58.
  2. Agwu, S. N., & Chukwu, J. (2019).Teaching and learning of English language in a multilin-gual society: The case of Nigeria.
  3. Akabogu, J. U. (2002).Effect of contextual clue exposure to English register on secondary school students’ achievement in reading comprehension[Unpublished doctoral thesis]. University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
  4. Alidou, H., & Ganz, B. (2015). Multilingual edu-cation in Africa: Lessons from the Jomtien Conference.UNESCO.
  5. Baker, C. (2011).Foundations of bilingual edu-cation and bilingualism(5th ed.). Multilin-gual Matters.
  6. Ball, J. (2010). Enhancing learning of children from diverse language backgrounds: Mother tongue-based bilingual or multi-lingual education in the early years.UNESCO.
  7. Bay Atlantic University. (2024).ESL students’ challenges: Overcoming language obsta-cles.
  8. Canagarajah, S. (2011). Translanguaging in the classroom: Emerging issues for research and pedagogy.Applied Linguistics Review, 2(1), 1–28.
  9. Cenoz, J., & Genesee, F. (1998).Beyond bilin-gualism: Multilingualism and multilingual education. Multilingual Matters.
  10. Cenoz, J., & Gorter, D. (2023).Multilingualism and education: A dynamic perspective. Cambridge University Press.
  11. Chenowith, N., Ushida, E., & Murday, K. (2014). Student learning in hybrid French and Spanish courses: An overview of language online.CALICO Journal, 24(1), 115–146.
  12. Cummins, J. (2000).Language, power, and ped-agogy: Bilingual children in the crossfire. Multilingual Matters.
  13. Cummins, J. (2024). Rethinking monolingual instructional strategies in multilingual classrooms.TESOL Quarterly, 58(2), 345–367.
  14. Daniel, M., & Xerri, D. (2018). Teacher develop-ment in multilingual contexts: Challenges and opportunities.ELT Journal, 72(4), 431–440.
  15. Deignan, T., & Morton, T. (2022). The chal-lenges of English medium instruction for subject lecturers: A shared viewpoint.ELT Journal, 76(2), 208–217.
  16. Derakshan, A. (2015). The role of motivation in second language acquisition.Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 6(5), 1123–1131.
  17. Diaconu, L. (2022). Multilingualism in educa-tion: Benefits and challenges.Interna-tional Journal of Multilingualism, 19(2), 201–215.
  18. Edgar, L. (2023).Common challenges for Eng-lish language learners. Decoda Literacy Solutions.
  19. Erli Yelvia. (2024). The challenges of English language teaching in multilingual class-room.Proceedings of International Confer-ence on Language Pedagogy (ICOLP).
  20. European Commission. (2015).Language teaching and learning in multilingual classrooms.
  21. Evans, M. (2018). Multilingualism and aca-demic performance: A global perspective.Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 39(4), 345–360.
  22. Gambhir, S., Bahadur, S., & Chand, V. (2020). Language dominance in multilingual classrooms: Challenges and solutions.In-ternational Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 23(5), 567–582.
  23. García, O. (2009).Bilingual education in the 21st century: A global perspective. Wiley-Blackwell.García, O., & Lin, A. (2016). Translanguaging in bilingual education. In O.
  24. García & A. Lin (Eds.),Bilingual and multilingual educa-tion(pp. 117–130). Springer.
  25. García, O., & Wei, L. (2014).Translanguaging: Language, bilingualism, and education. Palgrave Macmillan.
  26. Genesee, F., Lindholm-Leary, K., Saunders, W., & Christian, D. (2006).Educating English language learners: A synthesis of research evidence. Cambridge University Press.
  27. Graham, S., & Clare, A. (2024). Code-switching and translation in multilingual class-rooms: Strategies for success.Language Teaching Research, 28(1), 89–105.
  28. Hall, G., & Cook, G. (2012). Own-language use in language teaching and learning.Language Teaching, 45(3), 271–308.
  29. Haukas, A. (2016). Teachers’ beliefs about mul-tilingualism and a multilingual pedagogi-cal approach.International Journal of Mul-tilingualism, 13(1), 1–18.
  30. Hordiienko, V., & Lomakina, I. (2015). Teaching English in multilingual classrooms: Chal-lenges and strategies.Journal of Language and Education, 1(2), 45–56.
  31. Illman, M., & Pietilä, P. (2018). Multilingualism as a resource in the foreign language classroom.ELT Journal, 72(3), 237–246.
  32. Irimie, S. (2016). Challenges of teaching English in multilingual classrooms: A case study of Romania.Journal of Linguistic and Inter-cultural Education, 9(1), 67–82.

Tools


Copyright © 2026  KITE Digital Educational Solutions |  Exclusively distributed by CE-Logic