Research ArticleOpen access
Reading gains from first-language instruction in multilingual primary classrooms: a two-year study in 46 Karnataka schools
Dr. Ishita Barua, Prof. Suresh Nair, Rukmini Shetty
Lighthouse Journal of Education & PedagogyVolume 9, issue 12026pp. 45–6822 citations
Karnataka's primary classrooms routinely contain children whose home languages differ from the medium of instruction. We report a two-year study in 46 government schools comparing a structured first-language bridging programme against business-as-usual instruction. Children in bridging classrooms gained 0.41 SD in Kannada reading fluency and, contrary to the common objection, 0.23 SD in English decoding — the transfer effect the bridging literature predicts and the policy debate consistently discounts. Gains were largest for children whose home language was neither Kannada nor English.
