Language Preferences and Practices in Multilingual EdTech: Flexible Primary Language Use with Secondary Language Support
It addresses the problem of language marginalization in education for learners in multilingual contexts, offering incremental insights for designing inclusive EdTech solutions.
This study examined how learners in Uganda navigated bilingual options (English and Leb-Lango) in a remote EdTech course, finding that those who consistently used both languages persisted longer in the course.
The benefits of learning in one's mother tongue are well documented, yet colonial languages dominate education, marginalizing local languages and limiting access for learners who rely on their mother tongue for understanding. With the rapid growth of educational technology, there is potential to integrate multilingual instruction supporting both colonial and local languages. This study is part of a larger quasi-experiment conducted in Uganda, where learners could choose to learn in English, Leb-Lango (a local language), or in Hybrid mode (a combination of both) in a remote EdTech course. We examined how learners who chose the Hybrid option navigated English and Leb-Lango. While many Hybrid learners did not consistently use both languages, those who did persisted longer in the course. Learners also shared how they managed language complexities. We provide the first empirical evidence of learner agency in bilingual remote EdTech instruction and offer insights for designing inclusive multilingual learning solutions.