Immigrant peers and foreign language acquisition

There has been much focus on whether immigrant children generate negative spillovers on native students’ educational attainment. However, exposure to immigrant peers has the potential for a wider range of effects. 

Colin will examine effects on foreign language acquisition focusing on Norway, where all students are taught, and are assessed, in English from an early age. He will demonstrate that exposure to native English-speaking peers increase Norwegian students’ English language skills.

These effects are solely present for English language skills and provide evidence of positive spillovers from immigrant diversity in schools that is missing from the existing literature. These results have implications for the social effects of immigration and implications for how foreign languages are taught in schools.

This event will be particularly useful for those interested in education and economics of education.

Related links

• QSS seminar series
• Quantitative Social Science
• Social Research Institute