Robinson, J. (2010). The effects of test translation on young English learners’ mathematics performance . Educational Researcher , 39 (8), 582–590. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X10389811

Journal Article

Robinson, J. (2010). The effects of test translation on young English learners’ mathematics performance. Educational Researcher, 39(8), 582–590. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X10389811

Tags

Other Accommodation Type; Spanish Speakers

Summary

Accommodation

Native-language test translations

Participants

ELLs in kindergarten across the U.S.

Findings

Native-language test translations were shown to help very young English Language learners (ELLs) show their skills in mathematics. When kindergarten and first grade students were asked to demonstrate their knowledge on mathematics tests in their home language of Spanish, they performed significantly better than students who tested in English, even having similar English language ability and mathematics skills reported by their teacher. The effect sizes of these improvements were large to very large.