Teenagers who know how to do this perform much better on exams

By Joe Morgan via SWNS

Teenagers who speak a second language do better in exams - even if they are not fluent, according to new research.

Young people who feel confident speaking another tongue not only do better in language subjects, but also in maths, geography and science.

Not all pupils who are officially described as having 'English as a Second Language' thought of themselves as multilingual and did not necessarily perform better or worse at GCSEs compared to their classmates.

Researchers believe that multilingualism is larger than the current government definition of being able to speak at least two languages fluently.

Experts believe that young people who can pick up and imitate different accents, can speak another language to get by on vacation, or even understand other types of language like computer code are expanding their minds.

In the study of over 800 pupils in England, University of Cambridge researchers found a positive link between GCSE scores and young people who feel confident with languages.

Pupils were asked to plot where they saw themselves on a 0-100 scale where 0 represented 'monolingual' and 100 was 'multilingual', and this data was then compared with their GCSE results.

Schools who reported students who were multilingual had no impact on GCSE results, although pupils who self-identified as such did well in modern languages.

But while this was expected, a one-point increase in confidence with language skills was found to correspond with increased grades in science and geography.

Dr. Dee Rutgers, also at the University of Cambridge, said: “The evidence suggests that the more multilingual you consider yourself to be, the higher your GCSE scores.

"While we need to understand more about why that relationship exists, it may be that children who see themselves as multilingual have a sort of ‘growth mindset’ which impacts on wider attainment.”

Dr. Linda Fisher, at the University of Cambridge, said: “There could be a strong case for helping children who think that they can’t ‘do’ languages to recognize that we all use a range of communication tools, and that learning a language is simply adding to that range.

"This may influence attitude and self-belief, which is directly relevant to learning at school.

"In other words, what you think you are may be more important than what others say you are.”

She added: “Too often we think about other languages as something that we don’t need to know, or as difficult to learn.

“If pupils were encouraged to see themselves as active and capable language learners, it could have a really positive impact on their wider progress at school.”

The findings are published in the Journal of Language, Identity and Education.