Academic Achievement of Bilinguals and Monolinguals in Sekota
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Date
2007-07
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The major o~iective of the study was to compare the academic achievement of bilingual and
monolingual groups. In the study many works have been collected regarding the effects of
bilingualism on students ' academic achievement and cognitive development that had been taken
place in western immigrant students. This sludy was held in Ethiopia in one ethnic group students
of Agaws found in Sekota. Accordingly, samples of 58 bilinguals (41 female and 17 male) and
113 monolinguals (62 female and 51 male) were taken Fom lieutenant General Hailu Kebede
junior elementary school that was selected purposejiilly. A screening test was administered for
the inclusion of students in the biliilgual and monolingual groups. Altitudes of pupils and
teachers were assessed using questionnaires. In addition, the language students ' use with either
Fiends or families was assessed. The result obtained in this study is consistent with previous
research works and bilinguals were found to be better than their monolingual counter parts afier
a t-test comparison was made. The ANOVA result also r'!vealed that a bilingual group with high
competency in the two languages scored significantly a higher mean as compared with the rest
bilingual groups. J,;loreover, in the sample subjects bilinguals achieve better than monolingual
groups on the dependent variable academic achievement. The allitude of students was found to
be positive but teachers had a negative attitude towards Himlagna language used as medium of
instruction. Depending on the result, responsible bodies should encourage Himtagna mother
tongue children to follow education in their first language. In addition, attaining a second
language without any cost ofthejirst language has higher significance for the students' cognitive
and academic growth
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Sekota Academic Achievement