Vocabulary Gains of Mono- and Multilingual Learners in a Linguistically Diverse Setting: Results From a German-English Intervention With Inclusion of Home Languages

Abstract

Today, group settings (e.g., in kindergarten) are more linguistically diverse than ever. However, concepts in language acquisition only rarely include this fact. This paper reports on the effects of a language intervention which is based on a concept specifically designed for linguistically diverse settings ("PROgramme for BI-and MUltilingual Children"; Festman and Rinker, 2014). The implementation of the programme and its outcomes are described with the example of a German-English-immersion kindergarten, which was in fact plurilingual. We aimed at supporting children's acquisition of these two languages in parallel with inclusion of their home languages. Overall, 52 (mono-, bi-, and trilingual) children took part in the intervention, but data will only be presented for those children (n = 22; 12 male; mean age 3;9 years, SD 0.526) who also participated in the evaluation. Two weeks before (T1) and 12 weeks after (T2) intense intervention, we administered a word production and word comprehension test (picture naming) both in German and English. Furthermore, parents filled out a questionnaire on language background and use; after the intervention, they provided feedback on the programme (their impressions and observations, etc.). Paired t-tests showed that the intervention noticeably boosted all children's word learning (all gains from T1 to T2 were significant with p < 0.001 for both languages and both production and comprehension). With a head start in German (i.e., at T1 significantly higher scores in German comprehension and production), the monolingual German participants (n = 11) reached significantly higher scores in German at T2 compared to their peers. The international group (n = 11) had significantly larger gains in German than their monolingual peers (p = 0.037 for production; p = 0.015 for comprehension), but not in English. We conclude that with the help of this structured programme and due to plurilingual experiences, minority children were able to improve language skills in two newly-learned languages, Festman Vocabulary Gains in Linguistically Diverse Settings whereas the monolingual children were still consolidating knowledge in their first language and focused on the acquisition of the new language. Parents' responses described the positive impact of the programme on their children's language learning interest and their own.

A Comparison of English Vocabulary Learning Strategies Employed by Bilingual and Multilingual Students

“…This is in line with the results of Sazvar and Varmaziyar (2017), which examined the differences between Iranian EFL monolinguals and bilinguals in terms of vocabulary language learning strategies, and found that both groups were the same in terms of their proficiency, so there was no significant variation between their success in terms of vocabulary learning. Nevertheless, it is essential to underline the fact that the scores of the multilingual learners on the vocabulary achievement test were slightly higher than those of the bilingual learners in this study, similar to in earlier research (Festman, 2018;Keshavarz & Astaneh, 2010;Möhle, 1989;Arslan, 2014). This can be attributed to multilingual learners' more frequent use of vocabulary language learning strategies compared to those of bilingual learners, which had a positive impact on their learning results.…”

The Dynamic Multicausality of Age of First Bilingual Language Exposure: Evidence From a Longitudinal Content and Language Integrated Learning Study With Dense Time Serial Measurements

“…The children first exposed to English at the bilingual school all have parents who are native speakers of Swiss German; some of the parents have had instruction in English or other FLs, but no language other than Swiss German was spoken in the home. Following Festman (2018), those I refer to as ‘international students’ (i.e., earlyPAC–int; Group 4) are children born outside of Switzerland who have grown up with another language abroad (English) that was still spoken in their international families in the new context (i.e., living and working in Switzerland). These children are in the same classes as the children in Groups 1–3.…”

Learning and Processing Multiple Languages: The More the Easier?

“…Parallel exposure to two L2s was in the focus of a lexical learning study with a group of 52 kindergarten children (mean age 3;9 years) comprised of monolingual children and those from an international background (Festman, 2018). All kindergarten children participated in a structured intervention program (combining German and English).…”