Study: Moving Between Languages Improves Learning
A new Northwestern University study shows that students who write in multiple languages can challenge English-centered norms in higher education and highlight often overlooked ways of learning.
Drawing on India’s National Education Policy, which promotes local languages and indigenous knowledge, School of Education and Social Policy researchers Gautam Bisht and Eva Lam examine an online writing project designed to encourage students to use several languages to write about issues they care about.
The study, published in the journal Language Awareness, centers on Manoj, a first-generation college student who wrote about Indigenous food practices using Santhali, Hindi, and English. Through guided conversations with his mentor, Manoj explored how different languages carry distinct histories and meanings.
Bisht and Lam identified creative teaching strategies that helped Manoj move fluidly between languages. These included: examining the historical roots of language hierarchies, shifting from seeing “broken language” as a deficit to “breaking language” as resistance, and redefining English as one of many resources rather than the standard of correctness.
By tracing Manoj’s ability to write in more than one language, the study reveals how classroom practices can turn language into a site of reflection, empowerment, and historical action.
The authors argue that improving education requires more than language policies—it needs teaching methods that allow students to use all the languages they know.
Their findings offer practical insights for educators looking to create multilingual learning environments that support students in using all their languages.
“Attention to language is inseparable from attention to your personality and politics,’ says Bisht, who, as a multilanguage speaker, often felt like his ideas were lost in translation when he was young. “We show that simply inviting and encouraging students to use their languages is not enough. It is also necessary to develop, and at times think through, with students why, how, and to what effect languages are to be mixed.”
Bisht, a doctoral student in learning sciences at Northwestern University’s School of Education and Social Policy, is also the co-founder of the Sinchan Education and Rural Entrepreneurship Foundation, a nonprofit organization that supports initiatives in rural livelihoods, health and literacy.
His research focuses on designing learning environments that prioritize underrepresented knowledge of systems and languages. He is involved in projects across India and the US, exploring indigenous education, migration storytelling, and the local knowledge systems of the Himalayan region.
Lam is an associate professor at the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University. She works with young people to explore how they use digital tools and multiple languages in different cultural and political settings around the world.
She studies ways of teaching that take a broad view of students’ migration experiences to support learning and growth. She collaborates with educators and youth in schools, communities, and universities to create teaching methods for writing and multimedia storytelling that help shape new cultural, civic, and political opportunities.