Introduction. In Germany, immigrant children often learn or acquire German as their second or third language. In the current study, English- (EN), Arabic- (AR), Turkish- (TU), Russian- (RU), and Italian-speaking (IT) children were compared regarding their German language skills and sociodemographic conditions of the German language acquisition. Methods. A sample of 2,569 four- and five-year-old immigrant children was analysed. Children’s German language skills were assessed by the language tests KiSS.2 (speech comprehension, vocabulary, articulation, grammar, phonological short-term memory) and S-ETK 3-5 (grammar, phonological short-term memory). Sociodemographic characteristics of children and their families were documented in KiSS.2 questionnaires for parents and kindergarten teachers. Results. EN and IT showed above-average, AR and TU below-average, RU average German language skills. EN, IT, and RU produced more “advanced” error patterns in KiSS.2 (e.g., wrong morphology), AR and TU produced simplest error patterns (e.g., no morphology). The quality and quantity of the German language input were better for EN, IT, and RU and worse for AR and TU. Discussion. German spoken by TU and AR is not as elaborate as that of EN, IT, and RU. TU and AR avoid morphology in the grammar and use simplest umbrella terms in the vocabulary, whereas EN, IT, and RU produce at least some kind of morphology and can utilize synonyms or narrower terms in the vocabulary. Differences in the German language skills between these two subgroups can be traced back to the sociodemographic conditions of the German language acquisition. These are clearly unfavourable for TU and AR.

Authors:
Eugen Zaretsky, Marburg University Hospital, Germany
Benjamin P. Lange, International University of Applied Sciences, Germany
Christiane Hey, Marburg University Hospital, Germany

About the Presenter(s)
Dr. Eugen Zaretsky is currently a researcher (post-doc) at the Department of Phoniatrics and Pediatric Audiology, University of Marburg

See this presentation on the full schedule – On Demand Schedule

Bookmark