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Based on findings from multilingualism and literacy research, this study investigated how the repeated use of different ‘writing arrangements’, i.e. text production settings, affects the quality of texts written by 6th-grade students with different family languages. The distinctive feature of these arrangements was their ‘linguistic profiling’ in terms of the linguistic supports offered to the participating students.

The study examined both intra- and interlingual effects of differently profiled writing arrangements. In intralingual terms, the effects of different writing arrangements on German text production were investigated. From an interlingual perspective, focus was placed on the effects of writing arrangements in German on Turkish texts produced by a subgroup of bilingual students having Turkish (or Turkish and German) as a family language.

An intervention study was conducted across 15 6th-grade classrooms, lasting around 5 months with 7 data collection points for both German and Turkish. The intervention took place exclusively in German classes. At each data collection point, students were tasked with revising a poorly written description of a character (a superhero or a villain).

Four groups were formed, three intervention groups and one control group. These settings involved either the presentation of (1) only topic knowledge (control condition), (2) topic knowledge and task schemata (language functions), (3) topic knowledge and language-dependent text schemata (language forms), or (4) topic knowledge, task schemata and language-dependent text schemata.

A total 322 students produced 2166 texts in German. A further 607 texts were produced in Turkish by the bilingual subgroup (n=91). All texts were analysed with regard to length and quality. Background data on language and literacy skills were also collected.

In the German written texts, there were no differences between students who speak solely German at home, those who speak mostly a heritage language at home or those who speak a combination of both.

Regarding the intralingual intervention, effects in German were evident. Students participating in writing tasks involving task schemata (2 and 4 above) profited most from the intervention, whilst students receiving only topic knowledge support or form-focused support without schematic information also improved, but not as much as those who received this information.

Interlingual intervention effects were also evident, provided students profited from the intervention in German and participated in interventions which focused on task schemata (2 and 4 above). Thus, even those students who profited in German from a form-based intervention could not transfer this knowledge to Turkish, whilst students who profited from an intervention involving language functions could, and subsequently did, produce better texts. Interlingual relations were found for the text quality in German and Turkish: those students who wrote better texts in German also produced better texts in Turkish.

Students’ writing can be improved through language-focused instruction, especially when information on language function is included in the writing tasks; simply providing language forms, however, does not result in a marked increase in text quality. Furthermore, the concentration on language function has an added, interlingual benefit: students who receive information on task schemata not only benefit in the focus (majority) language, but can also transfer this newly gained knowledge to another (heritage) language, even without further intervention steps.

Marx, N. & Steinhoff, T. (2017). Schreibförderung in der multilingualen Orientierungsstufe. Zur Wirksamkeit des wiederholten Einsatzes unterschiedlich profilierter Revisionsarrangements auf die Textproduktion von Schülerinnen und Schülern der 6. Jahrgangsstufe in Oberschulen, Gesamtschulen und Gymnasien in den Erstsprachen Deutsch und Türkisch und in der Zweitsprache Deutsch. Abschlussbericht für das BMBF.

Rüssmann, L., Steinhoff, T., Marx, N., & Wenk, A. K. (2016). Schreibförderung durch Sprachförderung? Zur Wirksamkeit sprachlich profilierter Schreibarrangements in der mehrsprachigen Sekundarstufe I unterschiedlicher Schulformen (PDF). In Didaktik Deutsch 40, S. 41-59. 

Wenk, A. K., Marx, N., Rüssmann, L. & Steinhoff, T. (2016). Förderung bilingualer Schreibfähigkeiten am Beispiel Deutsch - Türkisch (PDF). In Zeitschrift für Fremdsprachenforschung 27, S. 2.

Rüßmann, L. (2018). Schreibförderung durch Sprachförderung. Eine Interventionsstudie zur Wirksamkeit sprachlich profilierter Schreibarrangements in der mehrsprachigen Sekundarstufe I. Dissertation. Münster: Waxmann.

Wenk, A. K. (2017). Bilinguale Schreibförderung. Eine Interventionsstudie zur Wirksamkeit sprachlich unterschiedlich profilierter Schreibarrangements im Deutschunterricht auf die Textqualität in der Familiensprache Türkisch bei bilingualen Schülerinnen und Schülern der Sekundarstufe I. (Dissertationsschrift, Universität Bremen).