Teaching the Language of Wider Communication, Minority Students, and Overall Educational Performance: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment in Qinghai Province, China

• DOI: 10.1086/681233
• Publication Date: 2015-05-04T21:18:14Z
• Authors: Fang Lai; Linxiu Zhang; Qinghe Qu; Xiao Hu; Yaojiang Shi; Matthew Boswell; Scott Rozelle
• Keywords: Mandarin Chinese; Disadvantaged; Language proficiency

The education of poor and disadvantaged populations, particularly those from minority subgroups, has been a long-standing challenge to systems in both developed developing countries. One reason for the underperformance ethnic students might be low competency language wider communication (LWC). This article uses randomized field experiment 57 schools (26 treatment 31 control schools) examine impact an LWC learning program on overall academic performance (and other outcomes) who have limited LWC. is computer assisted that teaches rural northwestern China Mandarin skills. Results show this LWC-enhancing not only improves student test scores subject by 0.14–0.20 standard deviations but also math 0.22–0.23 deviations, possibly via improved competency. It some positive effects nonacademic outcomes such as self-efficacy studying Mandarin. Low-performing benefit more program.