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Programme: accepted abstracts

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Abstract ID: 1376

Part of General Poster Session (Other abstracts in this session)

Bilingual literacy learning in the context of an Italian-German two-way immersion project in Frankfurt.

Authors: Streb, Reseda
Submitted by: Streb, Reseda (Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, Germany)

This Poster shall present the work-in-progress of a four year longitudinal PhD research in a bilingual project on primary school level. The school project is organized according to the ideas of the two-way immersion method. The Italian-German bilingual language learning starts from the first day on with simultaneous alphabetization, lead by a bilingual team of teachers and taking into account the different multilingual resources of the children, whether they are speakers of German, Italian or both.

 

The four year study is based on empirical research, such as regular field research and interviews in one class, continuously from first to fourth grade. At the same time different testing types were developed to record the level of the children’s Italian knowledge and their language awareness. Following the sociolinguistic assumption, that language learning is a part of social practice, the data shall be analyzed on the basis of different aspects (selection):

 

1) Having a heterogeneous profile of language learners with different cultural and linguistic backgrounds, the above cited observations and tests shall be used to discover if such bilingual language learning can be observed as a process, to be divided in phases, as Tomasello (2002) did for first language learners. The diverse linguistic resources of the children shall be included in this analysis.

 

2) Following Utz Maas’ (2008) approach of focusing on the differences of oral and written language learning in two languages, the data shall be examined for indicators, which refer on the competences of the Italian-German project class and their literacy learning. Which impact does the simultaneous alphabetization have on the childrens’ language learning?

 

3) The above mentioned data shall also be discussed against the background of „construction grammar” (Fischer/Stefanowitsch, 2007). Two main questions shall be investigated: Which insights may there from arise in relation to bilingual language learning and do existing concepts of language learning need to be reconsidered in the context of multilingual education contexts?

 

This Poster shall contribute to a closer look at the processes of bilingual learning on the basis of a longitudinal ethnographic research project.

 

References:

-          Fischer, Kerstin/Stefanowitsch, Anatol (Hrsg.) (2007): Konstruktionsgrammatik 1. Von der Anwendung zur Theorie. Tübingen: Stauffenburg.

-          Goldberg, Adele E. (2006): Constructions at work: the nature of generalization in language. Oxford: University Press.

-          Maas, Utz (2008): Sprache und Sprachen in der Migrationsgesellschaft. Die schriftkulturelle Dimension. Osnabrück: Universitätsverlag.

-          Tomasello, Michael (2002): Die kulturelle Entwicklung des menschlichen Denkens. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.