Competent bilingualism of primary school children in Germany: associations with individual, family-related, and institutional learning conditions

Bilingual children are a heterogeneous population, as the amount of input and use of their languages may differ due to various factors, for example, the status of each language (majority, minority), which language is used in the school, and whether children are acquiring literacy in one or both languages. Their language ability depends to a large extent on the use of each language and on whether they each language at the same rate. The aim of the study was to investigate how primary school bilingual children in the UK perform on several domains of language and reading skills and how these relate to language dominance. Moreover, it addressed how this performance is affected by a range of contextual factors and whether there are cross-language relationships in the children’s language and reading abilities. Forty Greek-English bilingual children in Year 1 and Year 3 were tested on vocabulary, phonological awareness, morphological awareness, morpho-syntax, and decoding in Greek and English. The results showed that as a group, the children were Greek dominant before the age of 4 but English dominant now and confirm that language dominance could change even before children enter school and affects language and literacy skills equally. A strong relationship between language use and performance was only in evidence in the minority language, which suggests that parental effort should be directed towards the minority language because schooling appears to level out differences in the majority language. There was no negative relationship between the use of the heritage language and children’s language and reading performance in the majority language. In contrast, significant positive cross-language associations were revealed among vocabulary, phonological awareness, inflectional morphology and decoding skills. The practical implications of this study are that parents and teachers should be informed for the positive effects of heritage language use in and outside the home for the maintenance of the heritage language and for the development of the children’s language and literacy skills.

This study focuses on the contexts of language experience in relation to language dominance in eighty-seven Italian–German primary school children in Germany using the MAIN narrative task. We compare current language experience in the heritage language (Italian) and the majority language (German) in both formal and informal settings, and we examine the respective impact on micro- and macrostructure measures, including different language domains. Some previous findings emphasized the importance of language experience in formal contexts. By contrast, our results suggest that, in particular, language experience in informal contexts determines vocabulary and fluency in the heritage and majority language, while there are no effects of exposure on syntactic complexity. Furthermore, while the younger children are relatively balanced, the older children are more dominant in the societal language. Our findings imply that the use of the minority language in informal contexts should be encouraged to promote its development and maintenance.

This study explores the extent to which a bilingual advantage can be observed for executive function tasks in children of varying levels of language dominance, and examines the contributions of general cognitive knowledge, linguistic abilities, language use and socio-economic level to performance. Welsh–English bilingual and English monolingual primary school age and teenage children were tested on two executive function tasks, a tapping task and a Stroop task. Bilingual children came from homes in which only Welsh, Welsh and English, or only English was spoken. Results differed by task. On the tapping task, bilingual children from only Welsh homes showed overall superior performance, monolinguals inferior, with the other two bilingual groups between them. Performance correlated with general cognitive abilities with number and pattern discrimination, as well as, at the older age, with balanced use of the two languages. On the Stroop task, language tested mattered; there were no differences across groups in Welsh, but complex patterns in English. The only strictly bilingual advantage on the Stroop was at the younger age for children from Welsh and English homes when tested in English, and performance was also influenced by SES level, cognitive abilities, vocabulary levels and use of the two languages.

Theories of language acquisition suggest that primary school constitutes a pivotal source of majority-language exposure, which is particularly important for bilingual children. During the periods of school closures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, this source of language input was reduced or even entirely unavailable for several months, raising the question of how the language competences of mono- and bilingual children developed during this time. This study examines the German receptive vocabulary development of mono- and bilingual primary school children in Germany at the time of the COVID-19 school closures, using data from the Newborn Cohort of the German National Educational Panel Study from 2015 to 2021. Contrary to the theoretical expectation of exacerbated educational disparities, our findings reveal no significant widening of the existing vocabulary gap between mono- and bilingual children during the pandemic. Despite the potential for reduced German language exposure, particularly among bilingual children, vocabulary trajectories remained surprisingly stable in both groups, with bilingual children even showing signs of a slight but significant catch-up effect. Additional analyses to examine potential growing vocabulary gaps by migration background or parental education yielded no evidence of a widening achievement gap in vocabulary. These findings may be attributed to the well-documented stability of receptive vocabulary, as well as to various other factors outlined in the discussion. Our study contributes to the body of differentiated research on educational impacts of the pandemic and highlights the importance of careful examination regarding the relationship between school and competence development in the context of social inequalities.

The present paper reports on a questionnaire survey conducted in the course of a broader research project on bilingualism (BALED). It compares two groups of Albanian immigrant parents in Greece with respect to their practices for supporting minority language development. The first group includes parents (N = 35) whose children receive systematic instruction in the heritage language; the other group (N = 167) comprises parents who do not send their children to heritage language classes but may support Albanian language maintenance in various ways. Αccording to their parents’ reports, all children were dominant in Greek. Our purpose was to compare the two groups with regard to (i) language use patterns among family members, (ii) parental practices in support of the minority and the majority language, and (iii) children’s language competence in the respective languages. Τhe ultimate aim is to explore the relations between parental practices and children’s competence in the minority language. Results indicated that parents who send their children to heritage language courses also engage more often in practices which promote literacy in the heritage language at home. These children were reported by their parents to possess literacy skills in Albanian to a higher degree than children who do not attend systematic instruction in this language. Our findings corroborate previous research (e.g. Bylund, E., and M. Díaz. 2012. “The Effects of Heritage Language Instruction on First Language Proficiency: A Psycholinguistic Perspective.” International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 15 (5): 593–609; Chumank-Horbatsch, R. 1999. “Language Change in the Ukranian Home: From Transmission to Maintenance to the Beginnings of Loss.” Canadian Ethnic Studies Journal 31 (2): 61–75; Schwartz, M. 2008. “Exploring the Relationship between family Language Policy and Heritage Language Knowledge among Second Generation Russian-Jewish Immigrants in Israel.” Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 29 (5): 400–418) suggesting that literacy development at home and especially attendance of heritage language instruction are extremely beneficial for its development without disrupting the development of the majority language.

This article proposes using the theoretical discussions of Deleuze and Guattari as a means of comprehending the various ways in which individuals speak about their ethnic identity. This is done through a case study of a state-run educational boarding school offered to subjects identified as 'ethnic' in Israel. The findings expose two ways of talking about ethnic identity: 'minor language' and 'major language'. What I term the 'major language of ethnicity' makes substantial use of state language and offers two hierarchical categories that serve as an archetype for classifying groups. The 'minor language of ethnicity', on the other hand, offers multiple local identifications and potential identity alternatives. The article suggests using dynamics at the foundation of these concepts to consider the position of the researcher and to expose existential 'lines of flight' and life inventions of subjects in everyday life.

The linguistic situation in most African countries has been described as trifocal as it often involves three linguistic levels, namely an ex-colonial language, a major indigenous language and a certain number of minority languages. Each of these languages is a custodian of long established societal norms, social practices and cultural expressions. However, the growing tendency of the expanded use of the major languages, as languages of wider communication, has given rise to the development of marked bilingualism among the minority language speakers with the progressive use of the major languages as primary languages. This article explores the conflicts in cultural norms and values that have been brought about by the use of one code in a cultural and social context of the other and the effects of this development on the cultural future of the minority language speakers or their mastery of the cultural norms of the major languages. One of the main arguments is that the erosion of cultural values in minority languages in favour of those of the major languages is one of the major indicators of the process of language shift. Case studies are used from situations in eastern and southern Africa, namely Tanzania and Botswana.

This paper aims to gather findings regarding the meaning making process children face while engaged in learning English. Three keywords were adopted: “meaning making process”, “bilingual children” and “English language learners (ELL)”. Ten references were included, nine from the United States (US). The learners were supposed to have previous experience with another language and Spanish was the most cited. The results point to translanguaging as a trend. Emergent bilinguals, minority and majority languages are cited as suitable terms, while ELL and others should become obsolete. To capture different learning environments, future study could exclude results from the US.

The present study examined whether parents’ and bilingual children’s own relative use of the heritage language vs. the majority language in the homes of bilingual children in Denmark before school start explains variance in 2nd grade majority language skills and reading skills. The study included two groups of children: the Mixed bilinguals group (defined by having a native Danish and a nonnative parent, N = 376) and the Heritage bilinguals group (defined by having parents who were both speakers of a Heritage language, N = 276). Four-stage hierarchical regression analyses showed that, after accounting for type of bilingualism, socioeconomic status (SES) and home literacy environment quality, relative use of the heritage vs. the majority language explained variance in 2nd grade Danish language comprehension scores, but did not explain variance in two reading scores, namely decoding and reading comprehension. In addition, a home literacy factor denoting book exposure (number of books, frequency of reading, library visits, and age of beginning shared book reading) was a significant predictor of both 2nd grade language and reading outcomes, whereas SES became a nonsignificant predictor when adding home literacy and language use predictors. We interpret the results to mean that parents’ and the child’s own relative use of the heritage language vs. the majority language before school start does not influence bilingual children’s early reading skills, whereas a supportive early home literacy environment is a positive predictor of reading skills independently of SES and parental majority language use and skill.

This study investigated the influence of cognitive ability on bilingual children's vocabulary development in both their languages. Sixty‐nine bilingual immigrant children participated, with data collected at three annual intervals. At Time 1, the participants were 5 or 6 years old. Receptive vocabulary was tested in the minority (Turkish, Tarifit) and majority (Dutch) languages. Cognitive measures targeted working memory, selective attention, and executive attention. Cross‐lagged correlations were computed to establish the directionality of relationships. Significant partial correlations were followed by stepwise multiple regression analyses in which further control was exerted. Results showed that cognitive ability predicted receptive vocabulary 1 year later. Sequential relationships were found for the majority language only, and attention was more important than working memory. The differential patterns for the two languages set the stage for future research comparing the impact of context, timing, and type of learning on the relationship between cognition and vocabulary development.

Bilingual phonological development across generations: Segmental accuracy and error patterns in second- and third-generation British Bengali children

Language mixing is a common phenomenon in the language input of bilingual children. However, the relation between the frequency of parental language mixing and children’s language development remains unclear. The present study investigates the relation between language mixing as observed in daylong audio recordings (LENA) and as reported by parents in the questionnaire for Quantifying Bilingual Experience (Q-BEx) and children’s language outcomes in the majority and minority language. Participants were 52 3-to-5-year-old Polish-Dutch and Turkish-Dutch children in the Netherlands and Bayesian informative hypothesis evaluations were applied. In 14 out of 15 regression analyses, the LENA and Q-BEx measures yielded similar associations with children’s language outcomes. Parental language mixing was not related to majority language outcomes, but a negative relation was found with expressive vocabulary in the minority language. Longitudinal studies are needed to pinpoint the directionality of this negative relation.

The linguistic profile of multilingual individuals can vary significantly due to diversity in linguistic experience. This poses challenges for language researchers, educators, and clinical practitioners. We developed a Multilingual Use Assessment Questionnaire (MUAQ) to capture the heterogeneous nature of multilinguals profiles integrating three dimensions: self-assessment of language(s) competence, language(s) use for mental operations, and language(s) use in different contexts. The questionnaire was administered to bilingual Catalan/Spanish children and adults across three educational levels: elementary school (year 6), secondary school (year 10), and university level. The application of the MUAQ revealed that Catalan/Spanish bilinguals displayed variations in their self-assessed proficiency based on the type of linguistic activity required by each language. While high bilingual competence was concentrated in oral comprehension, production skills exhibited lower bilingual competence and a strong asymmetry between languages emerged in writing. Also, more pronounced preferences for one language were observed for Thinking and Counting. Whereas Catalan (the language of schooling) was more frequently preferred for Counting, a more multilingual approach was observed for Thinking. A significant heterogeneity was also evident in the language(s) used in different contexts, with each third of the study population demonstrating distinct patterns of linguistic behavior depending on the context. An Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) identified two key dimensions (linguistic competence skills and languages involved in mental operations) that accounted for a substantial portion of the variance, while the third dimension (language use in different contexts) bifurcated into situational/communicative vs. personal contexts. These results endorse multidimensional approaches for a comprehensive understanding of multilingualism.

The present paper compares the linguistic competence of German-Portuguese bilinguals with upper-intermediate German L2 learners (L2ers) of EP (European Portuguese) and with monolingual Portuguese speakers. The bilingual speakers are heritage speakers (HSs), who were raised bilingually with EP as the minority language and German as the majority language. The aim of our comparison is to verify in which way different input sources and maturational effects shape the speakers’ linguistic knowledge. The findings of two studies, one focused on the morpho-syntactic knowledge of clitics and the other on global accent, corroborate the assumption that L2ers and HSs behave differently, despite superficial similarities observed in the morpho-syntactic study. In contrast to that of the L2ers’, the accent of the HSs is perceived as being native-like, whereas their morpho-syntactic competence is mainly shaped by their dominant exposure to colloquial Portuguese and reduced contact with formal registers.

Objectives: This study examines the mediating role of children’s language attitudes in the relationship between parental language practices and children’s use of the minority language. Methodology: This cross-sectional study uses questionnaires filled out by children individually, focusing on their and their parents’ language attitudes and practices. Data and analysis: The study was conducted with 135 children ( Mage = 10.76 years) living in a bilingual family in France. We tested our hypotheses using regression analyses (logistic and linear) and a mediation analysis. Findings: Our findings indicate that (1) parents’ use of the minority language significantly predicts children’s; (2) children’s attitudes towards their minority language significantly predict its use; and (3) children’s language attitudes mediate a more important part of the relationship between their own and their parents’ use of the minority language when both parents use the majority language and only one uses the minority language. Implications: Reinforcing children’s positive attitudes towards their minority language can foster its use. Children have a role in the development of their bilingualism. When the child’s bilingual development is not supported by active language use by both parents at home, the children’s attitudes are crucial and decisive. Originality: This study focuses on the role of 10-year-old children’s perceptions of their bilingual development. This study provides interesting new insights into children’s agency in minority languages maintenance.