The language used by teachers to teach students is the medium of instruction, which can be the official language or the students’ mother tongue. It’s important to choose the right medium for effective learning, especially for immigrants who may struggle with a new language. Multilingual education may use a combination of languages, and using the native language to explain concepts can help students adapt to the new medium. Performance in certain subjects may be affected by an unfamiliar medium.
A medium of instruction is the language a teacher uses to teach students. Simply put, it is a means of conveying information to students. That medium could be the official language of the country or it could be the students’ native mother tongue.
In an English-speaking country like the United States, the language medium used by teachers to teach students is English. Any immigrant coming to the United States from another country would need to learn the language in order to join other students in class. In some types of education, such as multilingual or bilingual education, teachers may use more than one medium of instruction to teach students.
Deciding which language to use for instruction is important because it can affect how students learn. Someone who grew up speaking French or Russian may not easily adapt to the concept of learning in English. In such situations, a combination of the mother tongue and the chosen medium of instruction will work best, until the person is no longer comfortable with the new language. For example, if it is a bilingual education and the students are a mixture of Spanish and English, the medium of instruction will not be just English, but rather a mixture of Spanish and English. In multilingual education, the language of instruction will not only be one language but also include two or more other languages.
The native language could be used to explain the methodology and issues behind the problems before moving into the medium. It is important to allow students to get used to the concept of learning in their chosen medium. This is because the more a student is exposed to the new language, the more he will learn. If the student keeps referring to the mother tongue, she probably won’t have the motivation to learn the new language. An immigrant to a new country may not understand the message conveyed through an educational medium because she cannot understand the language; but over time, with practice, he will begin to grasp the fundamentals of the new language.
With globalization and the ease with which people interact with others across international borders, the problem of which medium of education to use regularly arises. This is especially true for new immigrants who do not understand the language of the country. Performance in some subjects such as science may be affected by using a medium unfamiliar to students because such subjects require a higher degree of abstract thinking, linguistic proficiency, and mastery of scientific terminology.
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