Language of instruction and its effect on the performance of accounting students

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate language of instruction and the effect it has on the performance of undergraduate Accounting students at a South African university. Students who have Afrikaans as their home language (Afrikaans students) are faced with the choice of receiving instruction in their home language or in English - the language of the business world. The research design was empirical in nature. Questionnaires were distributed to obtain students' school and university results, and to gather student and lecturer opinions on matters affecting language of instruction. The benefit that English might have in the workplace was ranked among lecturers as the most popular reason contributing towards Afrikaans students' choice for receiving instruction in English. It was found that, among Afrikaans students, home- language instruction leads to marginally better mid- year results at tertiary level. It was also interesting to discover that more than a third of student participants who are receiving instruction in Afrikaans indicated that they would consider a switch to English. This study proves that the choice of language of instruction in the undergraduate Accounting course would not necessarily be detrimental to student performance given that a student obtained an A or B symbol for their home-language subject in grade 12.