A Meta-Analysis on the Effectiveness of Bilingual Programs in Europe

The effectiveness of bilingual programs for promoting academic achievement of language minority children in the United States has been examined in six meta-analyses. The present meta-analytic study investigates this topic for the first time in the European context. Thorough literature searches uncovered 101 European studies, with only 7 meeting the inclusion criteria. Two studies were excluded from further analyses. Results from the random-effects model of the five remaining studies indicate a small positive effect (g = 0.23; 95% confidence interval [0.10, 0.36]) for bilingual over submersion programs on reading of language minority children. Thus, this meta-analysis supports bilingual education—that is, including the home language of language minority children—in school instruction. However, the generalizability of the results is limited by the small number of studies on this topic. More published studies on bilingual education in Europe are needed as well as closer attention to the size of the effects.