# Do Large Language Models Speak All Languages Equally? A Comparative Study in Low-Resource Settings

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2408.02237 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.02237/

## Key facts

- Cited by 6 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 28 of its 47 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 5 Aug 2024.

## Builds on (most cited first, 28 of 28)

- [Llama 2: Open Foundation and Fine-Tuned Chat Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.09288/) (2023)
- [A large annotated corpus for learning natural language inference](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1508.05326/) (2015)
- [Challenging BIG-Bench Tasks and Whether Chain-of-Thought Can Solve Them](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.09261/) (2022)
- [MathVista: Evaluating Mathematical Reasoning of Foundation Models in Visual Contexts](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.02255/) (2023)
- [XNLI: Evaluating Cross-lingual Sentence Representations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1809.05053/) (2018)
- [XTREME: A Massively Multilingual Multi-task Benchmark for Evaluating Cross-lingual Generalization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2003.11080/) (2020)
- [Automated Hate Speech Detection and the Problem of Offensive Language](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1703.04009/) (2017)
- [MEGA: Multilingual Evaluation of Generative AI](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.12528/) (2023)
- [SemEval-2017 Task 4: Sentiment Analysis in Twitter](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.00741/) (2019)
- [Okapi: Instruction-tuned Large Language Models in Multiple Languages with Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.16039/) (2023)
- [XTREME-R: Towards More Challenging and Nuanced Multilingual Evaluation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.07412/) (2021)
- [Not All Languages Are Created Equal in LLMs: Improving Multilingual Capability by Cross-Lingual-Thought Prompting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.07004/) (2023)
- [SelfCheck: Using LLMs to Zero-Shot Check Their Own Step-by-Step Reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.00436/) (2023)
- [Cross-lingual Prompting: Improving Zero-shot Chain-of-Thought Reasoning across Languages](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.14799/) (2023)
- [Can ChatGPT Replace Traditional KBQA Models? An In-depth Analysis of the Question Answering Performance of the GPT LLM Family](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.07992/) (2023)
- [BUFFET: Benchmarking Large Language Models for Few-shot Cross-lingual Transfer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.14857/) (2023)
- [MEGAVERSE: Benchmarking Large Language Models Across Languages, Modalities, Models and Tasks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.07463/) (2023)
- [Designing Heterogeneous LLM Agents for Financial Sentiment Analysis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.05799/) (2024)
- [An In-depth Look at Gemini's Language Abilities](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.11444/) (2023)
- [IndicXNLI: Evaluating Multilingual Inference for Indian Languages](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.08776/) (2022)
- [Recent Advances in Hate Speech Moderation: Multimodality and the Role of Large Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.16727/) (2024)
- [BenLLMEval: A Comprehensive Evaluation into the Potentials and Pitfalls of Large Language Models on Bengali NLP](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.13173/) (2023)
- [Zero- and Few-Shot Prompting with LLMs: A Comparative Study with Fine-tuned Models for Bangla Sentiment Analysis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.10783/) (2023)
- [A Review of Bangla Natural Language Processing Tasks and the Utility of Transformer Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.03844/) (2021)
- [Sentiment Classification in Bangla Textual Content: A Comparative Study](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.10106/) (2020)
- [Hate Speech Detection in Roman Urdu](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2108.02830/) (2021)
- [BLP-2023 Task 2: Sentiment Analysis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.16183/) (2023)
- [Zero-shot Sentiment Analysis in Low-Resource Languages Using a Multilingual Sentiment Lexicon](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.02113/) (2024)

## Built on by (most cited first, 6 of 6)

- [Opportunities and Challenges of Large Language Models for Low-Resource Languages in Humanities Research](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.04497/) (2024)
- [Leveraging Open-Source Large Language Models for Clinical Information Extraction in Resource-Constrained Settings](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.20859/) (2025)
- [Bhaasha, Bhasa, Zaban: A Survey for Low-Resourced Languages in South Asia -- Current Stage and Challenges](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.11570/) (2025)
- [Mind the Gap! Choice Independence in Using Multilingual LLMs for Persuasive Co-Writing Tasks in Different Languages](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.09532/) (2025)
- [From Facts to Folklore: Evaluating Large Language Models on Bengali Cultural Knowledge](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.20043/) (2025)
- [Towards Inclusive NLP: Assessing Compressed Multilingual Transformers across Diverse Language Benchmarks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.19699/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Large language models (LLMs) have garnered significant interest in natural language processing (NLP), particularly their remarkable performance in various downstream tasks in resource-rich languages. Recent studies have highlighted the limitations of LLMs in low-resource languages, primarily focusing on binary classification tasks and giving minimal attention to South Asian languages. These limitations are primarily attributed to constraints such as dataset scarcity, computational costs, and research gaps specific to low-resource languages. To address this gap, we present datasets for sentiment and hate speech tasks by translating from English to Bangla, Hindi, and Urdu, facilitating research in low-resource language processing. Further, we comprehensively examine zero-shot learning using multiple LLMs in English and widely spoken South Asian languages. Our findings indicate that GPT-4 consistently outperforms Llama 2 and Gemini, with English consistently demonstrating superior performance across diverse tasks compared to low-resource languages. Furthermore, our analysis reveals that natural language inference (NLI) exhibits the highest performance among the evaluated tasks, with GPT-4 demonstrating superior capabilities.