Socioeconomic Status and Children's English Proficiency in Bangladesh: The Role of Parental Capital Mechanisms

Introduction

English language proficiency and achievement are considered one of the most fundamental aspects of career-building, status attainment, social mobility, and intercultural communication across the nations (Miser & Hupp, 2012; Quinn et al., 2015; van Stumm et al., 2020; Whiteside et al., 2017). Despite this, past research in the United States has shown that lower socioeconomic (SES) children compared to their higher SES peers, grow up with poor vocabulary and language skills. Consequently, they attain poor scores in English throughout their elementary schooling (Bradley & Corwyn, 2002; Bornstein & Bradley, 2003; Conger et al., 2010; Merz et al., 2020; Pace et al., 2017). In low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), research has also illuminated that approximately 50-70% of low-SES children compared to their high-SES peers fail to secure minimum proficiency in English throughout the primary schooling (Coddington et al., 2014; Kormos & Kiddle, 2013; Mendive et al., 2020; Poon, 2020; Wolf & McCoy, 2019). In Bangladesh, growing research demonstrates that > 80% of low-SES children, compared to their high-SES peers, begin their learning of English as a foreign language at primary school. They bring up with limited vocabulary and lack basic grammar knowledge as well as sentence structures in English, which eventually affects their achievement in English and employment in the labor market. Past research highlights that children’s underachievement in English throughout primary schooling is significantly associated with the parents’ lower-SES (r = .20 - .40) and low-resourced household status (Chakroberty & Uddin, 20202; Hussain, 2016; Uddin, 2017c, 2022). Although the adverse effects of low-SES than high-SES on children’s underachievement in English throughout primary schools are well-documented abroad, as well as in Bangladesh, little is known about how low-SES than high-SES transmits negative effects on children’s English proficiency and achievement throughout primary schooling (Uddin, 2017c, 2022).

The parental capital investment model (PCIM) may be an overriding theoretical framework that helps understand potential mechanisms (e.g., human, economic, social, and cultural) through which SES indicators (e.g., education, occupation, and income) positively influence children’s English proficiency and achievement throughout primary schooling (Conger & Donnellan, 2007; Haveman & Wolfe, 1994; Kalil & Deleire, 2004). While several studies have analyzed family processes (e.g., parenting, communication, interaction, family environment) linking SES to achievement in English, a few studies in Bangladesh and internationally have directly focused on the parental capital investment mechanisms by which low-SES than high-SES transmits adverse effects on children’s English proficiency and achievement over the time (Coddington et al., 2014; Hoff, 2003; Parcel et al., 2010; Sohr-Preston et al., 2013; Uddin, 2017c, 2022). In this chapter, drawing insight from the PCIM and literature, we first develop a theoretical framework which delineates early mechanisms by which low-SES than high-SES negatively influences children’s English proficiency and achievement during primary schooling. Secondly, based on a systematic review, this chapter also illustrates new potential mechanisms (e.g., parental capital investment mechanisms) by which low-SES than high-SES imparts detrimental effects on children’s English proficiency and achievement. Finally, this chapter draws and discusses hypotheses for future longitudinal research and language policy implications to improve low-SES children’s English language proficiency and achievement in Bangladesh.