Peer Interaction and Language Acquisition in German Kindergartens

Timm Albers

doi:10.5901/jesr.2013.v4n3p11

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to show the correlation between linguistic and communicative competencies of children in the everyday life of four German preschools. Particular attention is paid to the importance of the linguistic environment, which is constituted of the peer interaction and the interaction between children and early education specialists. A cross-sectional analysis using quantitative and qualitative methods was performed in the evaluation of the research questions. The findings especially highlight the major importance of access to peer interaction. Competent speakers therefore prove to be the most popular play partners within the same age group. However, also children at risk are capable of complex linguistic expression when they are especially interested in a subject or object, or if the early education specialists succeed in establishing a situation of “sustained shared thinking” (Siraj-Blatchford & Sylva, 2004, p. 718). DOI: 10.5901/jesr.2013.v4n3p11

Highlights

Under the present pressure for action in the elementary area exerted by the educational policies that the German states have presented and the discussion about meaningful surveys on language proficiency, early education specialists in Germany are currently faced with the challenge of developing facility-specific concepts in light of systematic information on language development and promotion in children in order to provide them with equal opportunities when entering school
The data obtained in this study supports the construct of a Social Consequences Account developed by Rice (1993) in which linguistic competencies are viewed as the key to social interaction in the peer group
Children who are limited in their communicative skills due to a lack of linguistic variability prove to be especially vulnerable to rejection and exclusion processes in accordance with this

Summary

Introduction

Under the present pressure for action in the elementary area exerted by the educational policies that the German states have presented and the discussion about meaningful surveys on language proficiency, early education specialists in Germany are currently faced with the challenge of developing facility-specific concepts in light of systematic information on language development and promotion in children in order to provide them with equal opportunities when entering school. The discrepancy between the demands of everyday language and formal school language is documented by estimates that children with a migration background had a 2.16 times higher risk of being referred to a special needs schools (Werning, 2010). In this sense, the support for early language diagnostics and language promotion appears to be justified: this must be specified with respect to the requirements of first- and second-language acquisition at the children’s daycare centers. Implications for language diagnostics and promotion on the basis of the findings (Chapter 4) are presented as the conclusion (Chapter 5)

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion