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
Volume 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.
