Het Ongelijk van Netelenbos?

2005 ◽  
Vol 74 ◽  
pp. 123-133 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ludo Verhoeven ◽  
Anne Vermeer
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Minority ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Parental Education ◽  
Language Use ◽  
School Success ◽  
Home Language ◽  
Language Test ◽  
Minority Children ◽  
Dutch Language ◽  
Ethnic Minority Children

Within the context of school success of ethnic minority children in the Netherlands, it is currently debated what criteria should be applied by the Ministery of Education in assigning extra funds to children at risk. To this date, two criteria are used: level of parental education and parents' country of origin. As both criteria do no longer fully comply with the needs, it is proposed to test the children entering Kindergarten, with respect to their language proficiency in Dutch and/or their intelligence. This article reports the results of a longitudinal study on the language and school development of monolingual Dutch and bilingual ethnic minority children who were followed from entering Kindergarten at the age of 4, to the end of grade 6 in primaty school at the age of 12. During the first four years, Dutch language tasks ( ) were annually administered. Besides, children took an intelligence test (RAKIT) at the age of five. In grade 6, at the age of 12, a test battery of Dutch language proficiency, writing, reading, mathematics, science and information processing tasks were administered (Cito Eindtoets) to operationalise 'school success'. Finally, several background data were gathered, such as level of parental education and home language use. The results of regression analyses tentatively show that a language test administered in Kindergarten is the best predictor of school success (Multiple R= .432), that the intelligence test adjusts 4% to that, and that both home language use and parental education add another 2%. For the ethnic minority children alone, the Dutch language test (R2=.275) and home language use (adding 5%) are the only two predicting factors. However, if we look into the data as if we were teachers and had to decide whether or not to assign extra funds to a specific child on the basis of his/her test scores in Kindergarten, 29% of those assignments had been wrong: 14% wrongly not assigned ('false negatives'), and 15% wrongly assigned ('false positives'). For only 11% of the children the assignment of funds would have been predicted correctly. From this perspective, testing children in Kindergarten is not the most appropriate way to assign extra funds to children at risk.

scholarly journals The Impact of the Sociolinguistic Environment on the State Language Proficiency of Children from Ethnic Minorities in a Preschool Educational Institution

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dace Markus ◽  
◽  
Dina Bethere
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Minority ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Educational Institution ◽  
Language Choice ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Minority Children ◽  
Ethnic Minority Children ◽  
The Impact ◽  
State Language

The article discusses the impact of the daily language choice of ethnic minority children on Latvian language skills in a preschool educational institution. The aim of the study is to explore the impact of the daily language choice of ethnic minority children on Latvian language skills in a preschool educational establishment, surveying the children’s parents. Within the project LAMBA (2015–2017), the researchers Olga Ureka, Dace Markus and Anna Vulane adapted a survey elaborated by Sharon Unsworth (Utrecht Bilingual Language Exposure Calculator (UBiLEC): Questionnaire and notes on Completing the Excel file) to Latvian for surveying bilingual parents. Sharon Unsworth has developed this method in Utrecht to use as a survey for parents of bilingual children. The set of questions is included in the survey which is based on the previous experience of educators and linguists in work with children. The questions included are about children’s linguistic surroundings at home, in preschool setting, in other activities and during free time. The answer options included in the tables allow to investigate parents’ opinions about children language comprehension and application quality and frequency, but in the survey tables we can obtain also quantitative data about the use of language and children’s linguistic environment. Employing UBiLEC, an internationally approbated survey adapted to Latvian for parents of bilingual children, the Latvian language skills of ethnic minority children are compared in the preschool groups where children daily use Latvian or Russian. The topicality of the issue is intensified by the requirement, in force from September 1, 2019, that in Class 1 of all ethnic minority schools 50% of learning must take place in the state language; therefore, it is important to make sure that preschool-age children are prepared for learning in Latvian. In recent years, there has been a tendency for the ethnic minority parents to enrol their children not only in the preschool groups taught in Russian, but also in Latvian. Parents’ survey data show that the ethnic minority children who attend a Latvian preschool group are linguistically ready to continue their education in Latvian or bilingually – the same as children with Latvian as their mother tongue, but if Russian is used as a language of instruction, the lack of Latvian sociolinguistic environment becomes a major obstacle for acquisition the necessary Latvian language proficiency. This research was done in National Research Programme “Latvian Language” Nr. VPP-IZM-2018/2-0002.

Tweede-Taalverwerving in Peuterspeelzalen en Latere Schoolprestaties van Allochtone Kinderen

2005 ◽  
Vol 74 ◽  
pp. 21-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roel van Steensel ◽  
Elma Nap-Kolhoff
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Minority ◽  
School Success ◽  
Preschool Education ◽  
School Curriculum ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Public Attention ◽  
Minority Children ◽  
Comprehension Skills ◽  
Multiple Case ◽  
Ethnic Minority Children

Over the last years public attention has focused more and more on preschool playgroups as a means of improving ethnic minority' children's chances for later school success. With regard to literacy development, one of the pillars of the school curriculum, ethnic minority children often appear to lag behind on comprehension literacy skills, rather than on technical literacy skills. Smith & Dickinson (1994) showed that the improvement of comprehension skills is possible in preschool education, provided they are accompanied by cognitively challenging interactions. It can be expected, however, that children whose home language is not the (pre)school language have difficulties participating in such interactions. The two studies presented in this paper seem to confirm this line of thought. The results of Study 1, a quantitative investigation into the relation between preschool playgroup participation and later school success, showed no significant differences on literacy tests in kindergarten, grades 1 and 2, between ethnic minority children who had and had not visited preschool playgroups. Study 2, a multiple case-study of three Turkish boys in a Dutch preschool playgroup, showed that Mehmet, Batuhan, and Yunus were only able to engage in cognitively challenging interactions after more than a year of preschool participation.

Second Language Acquisition in Pre-School Playgroups and its Relation to Later School Success

2005 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 243-255 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elma Nap-Kolhoff ◽  
Roel Van Steensel
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
Ethnic Minority ◽  
Language Proficiency ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Current Practice ◽  
First Language ◽  
Minority Children ◽  
Comprehension Skills ◽  
Ethnic Minority Children

Using a combination of quantitative and qualitative data, the authors focused on the relation between pre-school classroom experiences and the development of later comprehension skills in ethnic minority children whose first language is different from the language they learn in (pre-)school. In Study 1, the relation between pre-school playgroup participation and later comprehension skills (some two to four years after playgroup participation) was investigated. The results did not reveal any effect of playgroup participation. At least two explanations for this lack of effect are possible: (i) taking part in playgroups did not contribute to comprehension skills at all; (ii) taking part in playgroups did affect comprehension skills, but this effect diminished. Aiming to find support for either of these hypotheses, in Study 2 the authors took a closer, qualitative, look at what actually happens in preschool playgroups. The findings provided some indications of the acquisition of comprehension skills toward the end of the playgroup period, but this proved to be highly dependent on children's general language proficiency. The combined outcomes of these studies suggest that, if ethnic minority children are to benefit from taking part in playgroups, they need to have at least a basic proficiency in the second language, or playgroups need to change their current practice. However, as many of these children presumably arrive in playgroups without such a basic proficiency, they will probably fail to profit sufficiently from the stimulating environment provided there.

The Schooling of Ethnic Minority Children: Commentary

2001 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carol A. Wong ◽  
Stephanie Johnson Rowley
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Minority ◽  
Minority Children ◽  
Ethnic Minority Children

Televisions in the Bedrooms of Racial/Ethnic Minority Children: How Did They Get There and How Do We Get Them Out?

2009 ◽  
Vol 48 (7) ◽  
pp. 715-719 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elsie M. Taveras ◽  
Katherine H. Hohman ◽  
Sarah Price ◽  
Steven L. Gortmaker ◽  
Kendrin Sonneville
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Minority ◽  
Minority Children ◽  
Ethnic Minority Children ◽  
Racial Ethnic

scholarly journals The Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives (MAIN): Adding Kam to MAIN

2020 ◽  
Vol 64 ◽  
pp. 147-151
Author(s):  
Wenchun Yang ◽  
Angel Chan ◽  
Natalia Gagarina
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Minority ◽  
Southern China ◽  
Mainland China ◽  
Assessment Instrument ◽  
Narrative Development ◽  
Growing Up ◽  
Minority Children ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Ethnic Minority Children ◽  
Minority People

This paper introduces the Kam version of the Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives (LITMUS-MAIN). Kam is a minority language in southern China which belongs to the Kam-Tai language family and is spoken by the Kam ethnic minority people. Adding Kam to MAIN not only enriches the typological diversity of MAIN but also allows researchers to study children’s narrative development in a sociocultural context vastly distinctly different from the frequently examined WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic) societies. Moreover, many Kam- speaking children are bilingual ethnic minority children who are “left-behind” children living in Mainland China, growing up in a unique socio-communicative environment.

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