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Programme: accepted abstracts

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Abstract ID: 775

Part of Session 188: Relating the Productions of Multilingual Children and Adolescents in their Languages (Other abstracts in this session)

Linguistic Development of Multilinguals with Migration Background

Authors: Yilmaz, Seda
Submitted by: Yilmaz, Seda (University of Potsdam, Germany)

This proposed paper investigates the mutual influence of the knowledge of Turkish (L1), German (L2) and English (L3) of multilingual adolescents with Turkish migration background on their realization of complex sentences structures. The corpus consists of data from the longitudinal study (LLDM - Free University of Berlin/ MULTILIT - University of Potsdam & Free University of Berlin) of bilinguals in 10th and 12th grade (secondary school) in Berlin, Germany.

The focus of this sociolinguistic paper is on the qualitative and quantitative analysis of trilingual students’ oral and written text productions in narrative and expository contexts in L1, L2 and L3, in each language produced in their monolingual modes, addressing the following questions:

-Which grammatical and pragmatic aspects of complex structures reveal language

contact phenomena?

-How does a prolonged exposure and the use of second language affect the first language?

-What are the parallels and differences between languages of the same individual?

-What are the patterns of linguistic development in this longitudinal study?

First results show that at each grade level most participants use complex sentences of all types in all languages examined. The most frequently used Turkish connectors are those which are parallel to those used in German; these are the forms used during the classes in both languages in the bilingual program. Turkish develops with noticeable parallels to German constructions and with more parallels to spoken usage. With respect to the complex structures, I observe no nonstandard forms and no nonstandard placement of verbs in German, Turkish or English. Cross-linguistic transfer is apparent in orthography and in order of adverbials, as will be exemplified in my presentation. Similar patterns of development are found in Turkish and German. English is affected by Turkish semantics.

There are many explicit signs of linguistic insecurity like self-corrections in all of the languages. Also, because of syntactic and semantic complexity of attributive participle form in Turkish, the pupils seemed to be more uncertain in their usage. Certain strikingly divergent constructions are less frequent in bilinguals‘ usage: preposed participial constructions in Turkish; postposed relative clause constructions in German. In general, no L1 attrition can be observed, in fact the participants are acquiring aspects of the academic registers of their other languages.

References:

Aksu-Koç, A. & Erguvanlı-Taylan, E. (1998) “The functions of complex sentences in narrative discourse”. In L. Johanson (ed.) Proceedings of the 7th international conference on Turkish Linguistics. Germany: Harrasowitz Verlag, pp. 271-285.

Herkenrath, A. & B. Karakoç (2002) “Zum Erwerb von Verfahren der Subordinationen bei türkisch-deutsch bilingualen Kindern-Transkripte und Quantitative Aspekte”. Hamburg Universität: Arbeiten zur Mehrsprachigkeit. 37. Sonderforschungsbereich 538. Hamburg: Universität Hamburg.

Pfaff, Carol W. (2009) “Parallel assessment of oral and written text production of multilinguals: Methodological and analytical issues”. In B. Ahrenholz (ed.) DaZ-Forschung. Empirische Befunde zum Deutsch-als-ZweitspracheErwerb und zur Sprachförderung. Beiträge aus dem 3. ‚Workshop Kinder mit Migrationshintergrund.’ Freiburg in Breisgau: Fillibach Verlag. pp. 213-233.