Does Studying Latin in Secondary Education Predict Study Achievement in Academic Higher Education?
Studying Latin in secondary education is still widespread in Europe and believed to result in cognitive benefits, even beyond the linguistic domain. The present study set out to explore the relation between studying Latin in secondary education and later academic achievement in higher education (N = 1,898). First, we demonstrated that Latin students exhibit increased levels of study achievement in higher education, and particularly in non-STEM study programs. Second, we explored where the instruction of Latin was a significant predictor in models of academic achievement, explaining incremental variance over 21 other cognitive, attitudinal, and demographic factors. Latin instruction was included as a factor in the prediction models in 42% of the (mainly non-STEM) programs, but the incremental predictive validity was only substantial in the linguistic programs. This study highlights how the variable ‘instruction of Latin’ can be a valuable predictor of academic achievement, in other (un)related study fields.
Hauspie, C., Schelfhout, S., Dirix, N., Fonteyne, L., Janse, M., Szmalec, A., Vereeck, A., Duyck, W. (In press). Does Studying Latin in Secondary Education Predict Study Achievement in Academic Higher Education? Language Learning. Impact factor 4.4 (top 10%). PDF available here.
