MEZ

The guiding question of this project was whether multilingual development bolsters or obstructs educational success. While multilingualism has been cited as a disadvantage, there are also indications that it supports successful (language) learning. The goal of this project was therefore to obtain primary information on the language development of multilingual secondary school pupils in order to begin to clarify this question. Reading and writing skills in German (the majority language of schooling), Russian and Turkish as heritage (i.e. immigrant) languages, and English as a school-taught foreign language were assessed. Some pupils were also tested in a second foreign language, French or Russian. Much research in this area measures reading skills only; by considering both receptive and productive language skills, this project could reach conclusions on language abilities beyond a single skill set.

The investigating team comprised researchers from intercultural educational research, pedagogical psychology, English, Romance and Slavic linguistics.

Two parallel cohorts were followed over four waves of data collection. The student participants began in either Grade 7 or 9 and were followed through to the end of Grade 9 or 11, respectively. Of the ca. 2,000 participants in 75 schools, students in the multilingual group had either Russian or Turkish as a heritage language; a comparison group of monolinguals (i.e. only German) was also included. The study investigated the development of skills in German and the heritage languages, as well as in English as a foreign language (all participant pupils) and, where applicable, French or Russian as second foreign language. The project employed language tests and student questionnaires. A test for nonverbal cognitive skills as well as parental and school principal questionnaires were also conducted.

Subsamples of ca. 140 German-Russian-, 160 German-Turkish- and 120 monolingual German-speaking students took part in a linguistically in-depth investigation, the focus of which was to examine transfer between languages. Special attention was paid to spoken language, in particular the realisation of single sounds and intonation. These phenomena are responsible for the perception of different accents in a language. Participants were tested for phonological awareness, completed free written texts and a word order test (with focus on grammatical inferences), and took part in language-biographic interviews.

All participants were learning English as their first foreign language. Around 850 were learning French and 70 Russian as a second foreign language. Approximately 55 % grew up monolingually with German, 29 % had a Turkish- and 17 % Russian- language background.

German as language of instruction is the dominant language of all pupils, their language background notwithstanding. A large proportion of the multilingual pupils are also able to read and write in their heritage language.

Analyses of pupils’ self-assessment show that all regard German as their best language, followed by English. This holds true for students both with and without a migration background. Students with a migration background assess their heritage-language skills lower than their skills in German and English. They further assess their oral skills better than their written skills. The language data from the project confirm these self-assessments.

Any apprehension that support for the heritage language hampers acquisition of the language of schooling is not supported by the project data. Participants who demonstrated good writing skills in their heritage language showed better writing skills in German and English than their peers with poor writing skills in the same heritage languages

Concentration on reading skills as a general measure of language skills appears inappropriate as reading skills cannot account for the whole phenomenon of language development. The project data show that the connection between reading and writing skills is only partly direct and that these skills are not influenced by social background and personal characteristics in the same way.

Whether multilingual learners have advantages in foreign-language pronunciation appears to depend on the heritage languages and e.g. phonetic similarities between the languages in question. Advantages were not readily apparent among the study participants. In particular, those with a Russian-language background deviated significantly from expectations. Language support through teaching is therefore necessary for multilingual learners to expand their potential in further language acquisition.

The practical benefit of this study is primarily to generate better information on the conditions that foster or hinder multilingual development and school-based learning. In particular, information on the reciprocal influences between different languages can be used in the design of educational processes, with transfer between languages used sys- tematically for teaching and learning.

This study also provides information on the strategies used by students themselves when making connections between their languages. Such strategies can be a disadvantage (i.e. negative transfer) if they set students on the wrong track. However, they can also be supportive when they are systematically developed, which requires expert support in the classroom.

Here you can find a selection of publication. All publications and working papers can be found here: https://www.mez.uni-hamburg.de/5publikationen.html

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Dünkel, N., Heimler, J., Brandt, H., Gogolin, I. (Redaktion) (2018). Mehrsprachigkeitsentwicklung im Zeitverlauf. Ausgewählte Daten und Ergebnisse (PDF). Autor(inn)en der Beiträge: Bonnie, Richard J.; Brandt, Hanne; Dünkel, Nora; Feindt, Kathrin; Gabriel, Christoph; Gogolin, Ingrid; Klinger, Thorsten; Krause, Marion; Lagemann, Marina; Lorenz, Eliane; Rahbari, Sharareh; Schnoor, Birger; Siemund, Peter; Usanova, Irina. Hg. v. Ingrid Gogolin, Christoph Gabriel, Michel Knigge, Marion Krause und Peter Siemund. Universität Hamburg. Hamburg.

Rahbari, S., Gabriel, C., Krause, M., Siemund, P., Bonnie, R. Jr., Dittmers (geb. Pron), T., Feindt, K., Lorenz, E. & Topal, S. (2018). Die linguistische Vertiefungsstudie des Projekts Mehrsprachigkeitsentwicklung im Zeitverlauf (MEZ). Hamburg: Universität Hamburg, 210 S. - (MEZ Arbeitspapiere; 2).

Gogolin, I., Klinger, T., Lagemann, M. & Schnoor, B. (2017). Indikation, Konzeption und Untersuchungsdesign des Projekts Mehrsprachigkeitsentwicklung im Zeitverlauf (MEZ). Hamburg: Universität Hamburg, 26 S. - (MEZ Arbeitspapiere; 1) http://www.pedocs.de/frontdoor.php?source_opus=14825

Brandt, H., Lagemann, M. & Rahbari, S. (2017). Multilingual Development. A Longitudinal Perspective – Mehrsprachigkeitsentwicklung im Zeitverlauf (MEZ). In European Journal of Applied Linguistics, 5 (2), S. 347-357. doi: 10.1515/eujal-2017-0024

Lorenz, E., Bonnie, R. Jr., Feindt, K., Rahbari, S. & Siemund, P. (2018). Cross-linguistic influence in unbalanced bilingual heritage speakers on subsequent language acquisition: Evidence from pronominal object placement in ditransitive clauses. In International Journal of Bilingualism. doi:10.1177/1367006918791296

Dittmers, T., Gabriel, C., Krause, M. & Topal, S. (2018). The production of voiceless stops in multilingual learners of English, French, and Russian: Positive transfer from the heritage languages?. In M. Benz, C. Mooshammer, S. Fuchs, S. Jannedy, O. Rasskazova & M. Zygis (Hrsg.) Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Phonetics and Phonology in the German-Speaking Countries (P&P 13), Berlin 28-29 Sep 2017. S. 41-44. https://edoc.hu-berlin.de/handle/18452/19531

Gabriel, C. & Thiele, S. (2017). Learning and teaching of foreign language pronunciation in multilingual settings: A questionnaire study with teachers of English, French, Italian and Spanish. In C. Schlaak & S. Thiele (Hrsg.) Migration, Mehrsprachigkeit und Inklusion. Strategien für den schulischen Unterricht und die Hochschullehre. Stuttgart: ibidem, S. 79-104.

Siemund, P. & Lechner, S. (2015). Transfer effects in the acquisition of English as an additional language by bilingual children in Germany”. In H. Peukert (Hrsg.) Transfer Effects in Multilingual Language Development. Hamburg Studies on Linguistic Diversity, Bd. 4. Amsterdam/ Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company, S. 147-160.

Klinger, T., Usanova, I. & Gogolin, I. (2019) Entwicklung rezeptiver und produktiver schriftsprachlicher Fähigkeiten im Deutschen. In Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft 22, 1, S. 75-103. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11618-018-00862-0

Usanova, I. (2019). Biscriptuality. Writing skills among German-Russian adolescents. Amsterdam, Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Brehmer, B. & Usanova, I. (2017). Biscriptality and heritage language maintenance: Russian in Germany. In H. Peukert & I. Gogolin (Hrsg.) Transfer Effects in Multilingual Language Development. Hamburg Studies on Linguistic Diversity, Bd.6. Amsterdam, Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company, S. 99-121.

Usanova, I. (2016). Transfer in bilingual and (bi)scriptual writing: can German-Russian bilinguals profit from their heritage language? The interaction of different languages and different scripts in German-Russian bilinguals. In P. Rosenberg & C. Schroede (Hrsg.) Mehrsprachigkeit als Ressource in der Schriftlichkeit. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton, S. 159-177. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110401578-010

Lagemann, M., Brandt, H. & Gogolin, I. (2017). Renditen von Investitionen in fremdsprachliche Fähigkeiten: Eine Untersuchung von Schülerwahrnehmungen und deren Zusammenhang mit ihren Englischkenntnissen. In N. McElvany & A. Sander (Hrsg.) Bildung und Integration - Sprachliche Kompetenzen, soziale Beziehungen und schulbezogene Zufriedenheit. Landau: Empirische Pädagogik, S. 460-494.

Brandt, H. & Gogolin, I. (2015) Zum Erwerb der CLIL-Fremdsprache durch Schülerinnen und Schüler mit Migrationshintergrund. In B. Rüschoff, J. Sudhoff & D. Wolff (Hrsg.) CLIL Revisitied: Eine kritische Analyse zum gegenwärtigen Stand des bilingualen Sachfachunterrichts. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, S. 127-150.

Heimler, J. (2017). Migration und Geschlecht: Geschlechtsspezifische Unterschiede sprachlicher Fähigkeiten von Jugendlichen verschiedener Herkunftssprachen. In K. Göbel & Z. M. Lewandowska (Hrsg.) Interdisziplinäre Forschungsperspektiven auf Zuwanderung und Akkulturation im Kontext Schule. Essen, S. 29-31.