Language Barriers in Education and the Workplace: Effects on Performance, Communication and Inclusion

Language barriers can make it harder for people to learn, join activities, get jobs, and be recognized in education and work. Hence, this structured narrative review looks at peer-reviewed studies from 2013 - 2025 to understand how these language problems affect people in different settings. The studies were grouped into six areas. These include academic achievement and access to knowledge, participation and belonging, digital and clinical education, workplace communication, employment and safety, and then language discrimination. In education, problems can come from the language used in teaching, classroom communication, academic language, digital systems and lack of support. At work, language differences can affect trust, job opportunities, information sharing, skill use, safety reporting, and access to services. The review also found that language ability is not the only reason for these problems. Rules, communication systems and institutional practices also have an important role. Some approaches, such as language training, interpreting, multimodal teaching and digital support, can help. However, these approaches may have limited effect if only the learner or worker is expected to change. The review suggests that better language inclusion needs support for individuals together with changes in education, workplaces and institutional systems.