When Should Children Be Assessed in Their Home Language? Insights from two recent ELOM Studies

As children move from preschool into Grade R, the fairest language for assessment may shift – but not in a simple or uniform way.

A central question in early learning assessment is simple but consequential: in which language should children be tested to give the fairest picture of what they know and can do? Two recent studies using Early Learning Outcome Measures (ELOM 4&5 and ELOM-R) explore a critical question in South Africa’s multilingual education system: should children be assessed in their home language or in the language they are taught in? 

A study using ELOM 4&5 with younger children in English-language early learning programmes, found a clear result: children performed better when assessed in their home language (isiXhosa). This suggests that, in the preschool years, home-language assessment provides a more accurate picture of children’s abilities (Dawes et al., 2026).

A study using ELOM-R with Grade R children, tells a more nuanced story. By this stage, children had substantial exposure to English as the language of learning and teaching (LOLT) both prior to and in Grade R. Results showed strong alignment between performance in isiXhosa and English, but with slightly higher scores in English. While statistically significant, these differences were small.

This is the core difference between the two studies. In the preschool study, the evidence strongly favoured home-language assessment. In the Grade R study, the advantage shifted modestly toward English. The most plausible explanation offered is exposure: by the end of Grade R, all children in the sample had completed nine months in English LOLT Grade R, and more than 90% had also attended English LOLT preschool. In other words, sustained exposure to English appears to change the balance of which language may best capture performance, especially once children are dealing with school-based language, literacy, and numeracy concepts taught in English.

Both studies resist a one-size-fits-all rule. The preschool study recommends home-language testing, while also noting the need for more research in multilingual households and communities where a single dominant home language may be harder to identify. The Grade R study similarly argues that policy alone should not determine assessment language. Instead, decisions should consider the child’s language history, their exposure to English LOLT, and the language in which they feel most comfortable demonstrating what they know. Both studies explicitly give weight to child preference.

Taken together, the studies point to a developmental shift rather than a contradiction. For younger children, assessing in the home language remains the fairest approach. By the end of Grade R, after sustained English exposure, English may in some cases be equally valid or even slightly advantageous, particularly for school-linked domains like language and mathematics.  

Importantly, both studies highlight that language of assessment is not a neutral choice. It can influence scores and, in turn, how children’s abilities are understood. Rather than applying a fixed rule, the evidence suggests that assessment decisions should be responsive to children’s actual language experience, including their exposure to the language of instruction and their comfort in using it.

The implication is clear: fair assessment in multilingual contexts requires flexibility, not assumption.

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⌦ Assessing Fairly: Home Language vs. Familiar Language in ELOM 4&5 Assessments