Language Proficiency of Bilingual Learners

Abstract

The question of whether a learner in bilingual education can have the same performance in both languages is a vexed issue as it has long been investigated with controversial findings. This research was conducted in “Barrack Obama” bilingual private school of Dakar with a French-English program. The first and second semester marks of twenty-two learners in 8^th grade have been used to measure the latter’s performance in the two languages during the academic year 2018-2019. It follows our analysis that fifteen of these students have a similar annual grade in both languages while three others show more performance in French; and the remaining four are better at English. However, the study also shows that the said balanced bilinguals have lack of proficiency in both languages. Only few of them (4) have good and equivalent proficiency in both languages while the remainder show weaker performance. This imbalance is surely due to the age at which he learner enters the bilingual system, their IQ and their ability to learn languages as well.