Piske / Steinlen Cognition and Second Language Acquisition

Studies on pre-school, primary school and secondary school children
1. Auflage 2022
ISBN: 978-3-8233-0161-5
Verlag: Narr Francke Attempto Verlag
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, Band 4, 373 Seiten

Reihe: Multilingualism and Language Teaching

This volume examines interactions between second/foreign language acquisition and the development of cognitive abilities in learners who acquire an additional language in preschools, primary or secondary schools. The chapters explore possible links between cognitive and linguistic skills displayed by multilingual learners. This book should appeal to different kinds of readers such as linguists, psychologists and language teachers.

Prof. Dr. Thorsten Piske ist Inhaber des Lehrstuhls für Fremdsprachendidaktik an der Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg. Dr. Anja Steinlen ist Akademische Rätin am Lehrstuhl für Fremdsprachendidaktik an der Friedrich-Alexander- Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Piske, Thorsten

Steinlen, Anja

Leseproben

Part 1: Linguistic and cognitive abilities in pre-school children
Ethnic differences in early cognitive and language skills: Children from age three to ten years
Nicole Biedinger Abstract
Profound ethnic differences in cognitive and language skills have been reported in many studies. However, only a few studies have dealt with the early stages of such developments. This article introduces the project “Preschool Education and Educational Careers among Migrant Children” (ESKOM-V), which involved 1250 families in Germany with a Turkish migration background and without any migration background. It is the first study on early ethnic educational inequality in Germany and also the first longitudinal study which takes into consideration the period from pre-school to the end of primary school, including the choice for the secondary school track. The main goal of this project is to account for ethnic differences regarding pre-schoolers’ language and cognitive skills in Germany and to determine how these skills affect school achievements and educational decisions later in life. The present study focuses on children with a Turkish background in Germany, whose cognitive and language development was followed from age three to ten. The results indicate that ethnic differences in cognitive skills decrease with age, whereas differences in language skills persist. These findings are discussed in the light of the children’s social background, early pre-school education, and a stimulating home environment. This chapter will conclude with some practical implications and further challenges for future research. 1 Introduction
In most Western countries ethnic educational inequality is a well-established phenomenon (Heath & Brinbaum, 2007). As a major cause for this discrepancy, it is often pointed out that immigrant children’s language skills in the school language (in this case: German in Germany) are not age-appropriately developed (Kristen, Edele, Kalter, Kogan, Schulz, Stanat & Will, 2011). This disadvantage in host country language abilities already exists in early childhood even before these immigrant children attend primary school (Niklas, Schmiedeler, Pröstler & Schneider, 2011). Due to processes of cumulation of skills over time (Heckman, 2006), these early differences can lead to disadvantageous positions for children in their later lives, for example regarding their educational or occupational careers. Germany is one of the countries in which rather high performance discrepancies between children with and without an immigration background have been observed (Stanat & Christensen, 2006). At the beginning of the 21st century, about one-quarter of all fourth graders in Germany grew up in families with an immigration background (Kristen et al., 2011), but as of 2014, this number rose to 31 % (Statistisches Bundesamt, 2017). Given this growing number, it is a pressing political and societal task to reduce any educational discrepancies due to ethnic background. Adequate educational and occupational prospects among all groups of society are not only essential to guarantee individuals the same quality and quantity of educational opportunities but are also important on a societal level, e.g. with regard to the future economic potential of Germany (Hinte, Rinne & Zimmermann, 2012). Thus, to enhance a smooth integration of children from families with an immigration background, it is crucial to examine conditions and activities that are likely to improve their receiving country language proficiency and consequently to promote their future life prospects. For example, within the family context, engaged parent-child interactions during early childhood, which create a stimulating home environment (e.g. reading aloud to children, telling stories, or playing), positively influence children’s cognitive and language development (e.g. Crosnoe, Leventhal, Wirth, Pierce, Pianta & NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, 2010; Forget-Dubois, Dionne, Lemelin, Pérusse, Tremblay & Boivin, 2009; Melhuish, Phan, Sylva, Sammons, Siraj-Blatchford & Taggart, 2008; Raviv, Kessenich & Morrison, 2004). Recent research on ethnic differences in cognitive and linguistic abilities of young children is quite rare in Germany, though. Especially studies on achievement within the pre-school sector, particularly comparisons of achievements by different ethnic groups, are lacking (Dubowy, Ebert, von Maurice & Weinert, 2008). However, in the last years, some large-scale studies have been set out to fill this gap. This chapter will introduce such a project conducted in Germany, and it will describe the development of cognitive and language skills by children between the age of three and ten years. Following the presentation of the project (section 2) and its results (section 3), the findings will be discussed in relation to other large-scale national and international datasets (section 4), pointing to possible explanations for the ethnic differences. This paper concludes with some suggestions for future research in section 5. 2 Method
The project “Preschool Education and Educational Careers among Migrant Children” (Erwerb von sprachlichen und kulturellen Kompetenzen von Migrantenkindern, ESKOM-V) deals with German and immigrant (in this case: Turkish) children’s development of cognitive and language abilities. It was carried out at the Mannheim Centre for European Social Research at the University of Mannheim (Germany) and funded by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG). German families and families of Turkish origin with a three- to four-year-old child were randomly selected from registration offices in thirty cities and communities of a local region in South-West Germany. Within the context of the study, all families with at least one of the child’s parents or grandparents being born in Turkey were considered as having a Turkish immigration background. This rather broad definition of ‘immigrant background’ was used because studies have shown that in Germany, even third-generation immigrant children at pre-school age have lower language skills than native German children (e.g. Becker, 2011). A computer-assisted personal interview was conducted with the child’s primary caregiver, 95 % of them were mothers. The interviews comprised questions concerning the child’s family activities, pre-school attendance, the social and cultural capital of the parents, the demography of the family members, as well as specific questions concerning the immigrant families’ migration history and background. After the interview, the German version of the standardised developmental test “Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children” (K-ABC) was conducted with the child (Melchers & Preuß, 2001) to assess children’s cognitive skills as well as their German language skills. Because the interviewers were fluent in both languages, it was possible to administer both the interview and the K-ABC instructions in either German or Turkish, depending on the preferred language of the families. The project was designed as a longitudinal study, following children and their families from age three to ten. Overall, 1283 children with their families participated at the first time of testing (wave 1) in 2007. The response rates were 69 % in families of Turkish origin and 63 % in non-immigrant (aka German) families, respectively. Because of local limitation, the sample is not representative of the population in Germany of Turkish origin or non-immigrant families with a three-year-old child. The project continued until all children were about ten years old and left for secondary school (wave 6). The children were tested five times, and about 1000 children participated each time (for details see Becker, Biedinger, Klein & Koch, 2017). In this study, however, only the data of the first five waves (children between three and eight years) are reported.   German...