First-language skills of bilingual Turkish immigrant children growing up in a Dutch submersion context

The interdependence between the first and second language of bilingual immigrant children has not received sufficient attention in research. Most studies concentrate on mainstream language skills of immigrant pupils. In some studies, the gaps in the language development of immigrant children are documented by comparing mainstream pupils with immigrant children. The competence in the first language receives very little attention. In order to show the role of first language competence in second-language acquisition and lower school achievement, we present the findings of our empirical study by c... Mehr ...

Verfasser: Akoglu, Gözde
Yagmur, Kutlay
Dokumenttyp: Artikel
Erscheinungsdatum: 2016
Reihe/Periodikum: Akoglu , G & Yagmur , K 2016 , ' First-language skills of bilingual Turkish immigrant children growing up in a Dutch submersion context ' , International journal of bilingual education and bilingualism , vol. 19 , no. 6 , pp. 706-721 . https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2016.1181605
Schlagwörter: Bilingual development / first language skills / submersion education / Turkish immigrant children
Sprache: Englisch
Permalink: https://search.fid-benelux.de/Record/base-29029955
Datenquelle: BASE; Originalkatalog
Powered By: BASE
Link(s) : https://research.tilburguniversity.edu/en/publications/7747b1b4-3f19-4959-bc66-fe6a095938e1

The interdependence between the first and second language of bilingual immigrant children has not received sufficient attention in research. Most studies concentrate on mainstream language skills of immigrant pupils. In some studies, the gaps in the language development of immigrant children are documented by comparing mainstream pupils with immigrant children. The competence in the first language receives very little attention. In order to show the role of first language competence in second-language acquisition and lower school achievement, we present the findings of our empirical study by comparing bilingual Turkish immigrant children (n = 30, mean age = 67.27 months) in the Netherlands and monolingual Turkish speakers (n = 30, mean age = 66.97 months) in Turkey. The evidence presented in this paper shows that compared to monolingual Turkish speakers, Turkish immigrant children lag behind in their first language cognitive concepts, lexical, syntactic, and textual skills. Mothers’ education level turns out to be an important factor in explaining the performance differences of immigrant children. This would have an effect on their concept and cognitive development as well as on their second-language acquisition.