Does multilingualism protect against socioeconomic disadvantage in children's educational attainment?

有资格和没有资格享用免费校餐的儿童与青年之间的成就差距很大，这一点已得到确认。尽管政府进行了干预并提供了额外的资金，这种所谓的“劣势差距”仍然顽固地存在。然而，我们对可能的保护因素知之甚少，这些因素可能会防止接受FSM的儿童成绩不佳。特别是，政府数据显示，把英语作为额外语言（EAL）的孩子比只说英语的孩子表现出的劣势差距要小得多，而且这种差距似乎因母语和种族而异。有很多原因可以解释为什么说一种以上的语言可能会导致更好的教育成就。首先，有一些（有争议的）证据表明，讲多种语言的人从语言转换中获得认知上的好处，这些好处会导致更好的学习，从而取得更好的学业成绩。其次，可能存在影响结果的家庭变量（父母教育、父母对学校的参与、家庭对教育和职业的期望），这些可能在某些类型的家庭（新移民、某些种族或语言社区）中更为常见。行政数据集、纵向教育结果（LEO）和在英国成长数据集将用于提出以下问题：EAL身份在多大程度上作为教育成就的社会经济劣势的保护因素？哪种（如果有的话）语言背景特别有用，语言背景是否与种族和其他因素（家庭信息）相互作用？早期教育成就的哪些指标最能预测GCSE、A-Level、继续教育和高等教育以及职业成功？回答这些问题将增加对那些出生在社会经济劣势家庭的人学业和就业成功的保护因素和风险因素的理解。

It is well-established that there is a substantial attainment gap between children and young people who are, and are not, eligible for free school meals (FSM). This so-called "disadvantage gap" has stubbornly remained despite government interventions and additional funding. However, we know less about the possible protective factors that may guard against low attainment in children who receive FSM. In particular, government data suggests that children who speak English as an additional language (EAL) show a much smaller disadvantage gap than children who speak only English, and it appears that this varies with home language and with ethnicity. There are a number of reasons why speaking more than one language may result in better educational attainment. First, there is some (controversial) evidence that multilingual speakers gain cognitive benefits from switching between languages and these lead to better learning and hence better school outcomes. Second, there may be household variables (parental education, parental engagement with school, expectations in the home about education and careers) that influence outcomes, and these may be more common in certain types of families (recent immigrants, certain ethnic or linguistic communities).The administrative datasets, Longitudinal Education Outcomes (LEO) and Growing Up in England Dataset will be used to ask the following questions:To what extent does EAL status act as a protective factor from socioeconomic disadvantage in educational attainment? Which (if any) language backgrounds are particularly helpful and does language background interact with ethnicity and other factors (household information)? Which measures of early school attainment are most predictive of success at GCSE, A-Level, further and higher education, and career success?Answering these questions will increase understanding of the protective and risk factors for academic and employment success for those born into socioeconomic disadvantage.