Impact of early English language teaching on L1 and L2 development in children in Dutch schools

This article reports on the outcomes of a project aimed at the evaluation of early English language teaching (EELT) in Dutch primary education, starting at age 4. Between 2003 and 2008 four cohorts of first- and second-grade children receiving one to three hours of English language teaching per week were tested with standardized Dutch and English versions of the Reynell tests for language development. The outcomes show that all children acquire some basic skills in English leading to a native age equivalent of 2.5 years for comprehension and 2.1 years for language production. First language (L1) development is not affected by the EELT program in the sense that the majority of the children are within the age equivalent range. Furthermore, children with a non-Dutch background do not suffer from EELT in the sense that their L2 Dutch development is within the normal range though significantly lower than that of their Dutch peers. It is concluded that some of the arguments against early foreign language teaching, in particular the problems it might have for L1 development and the additional problems in language acquisition it could pose for non-native children, are not supported by our data.This article reports on the outcomes of a project aimed at the evaluation of early English Language Teaching (EELT) in Dutch primary education, starting at age 4. We start with a short description of the socio-political context of EELT in the European and Dutch context. Then, we discuss the main findings in the literature on the effects of EELT. Finally, we present data from five cohorts on the impact of EELT on first (L1) and second language (L2) development in a number of schools in the Netherlands.</p

Psychosocial health of 4-year-old boys and girls, as observed by parents and teachers

Both parents and teachers assessed the psychosocial health of 228 4-year-old children at the start of elementary school in the Netherlands. Assessments were conducted using the Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL; ages 1 1/2-5) and the Caregiver-Teacher Report Form (C-TRF; ages 1 1/2-5). Results were compared to epidemiological studies with respect to informants, instruments, gender and age of the children. Most children in this study were thriving. The percentage of children without problems varied from 88 to 98%. The difference depended on the informant (parent or teacher) and the gender. Teachers recognized significantly more externalizing problems among girls and anxious/depressed problems among boys and girls. Parents reported more somatic complaints among girls. The problems identified by parents and teachers did not predominantly concern the same children. This has to be taken into account in the case of screening on psychosocial problems

Measuring speech sound development:An item response model approach

<p>Research aim: The primary aim of our study is to investigate if there is an ordering in the speech sound development of children aged 3-6, similar to the ordering in general language development.</p><p>Method: The speech sound development of 1035 children was tested with a revised version of Logo-Articulation Assessment. The data were analyzed with the Mokken Scale Program (MSP) in order to construct scales with satisfactory scalability (H-coefficient) and sufficient reliability (rho).</p><p>Results: The majority of children over 4.3 years of age turned out to have mastered most speech sounds. An ordering was only found in the youngest age group (3.8-4.3 years of age), for the sounds of /r/ in initial and final position and /s/ in initial position. This resulted in a set of scales. The scales developed for /r/ (in initial and final position) and /s/ were moderately scalable (H > 0.43) and reliable (rho > 0.83), and independent of gender. Moreover, we found variation in the judgment of speech sound development, which may perhaps have been due to where exactly the examiner was positioned during the assessment procedure: in front of the child, or sitting beside the child.</p><p>Conclusions: We could not detect an ordering for all speech sounds. We only found an ordering for In in initial and final position and /s/ in initial position. In the Mokken analysis we conducted, these scales turned out to be moderately strong and reliable. Our research also underlines that speech sound development is judged not only in an auditory sense, but judgment also depends on the visual interpretation of the listener. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.</p>

The ordering of milestones in language development for children from 1 to 6 years of age

Purpose: To scale language milestones in a group of 527 children to provide an instrument for screening language development. Procedure: The questionnaire regarding these milestones was completed by parental report. It was evaluated whether the scaled milestones satisfied the assumptions of the Mokken item response model. Results: The scalability of the final scale of 14 milestones was strong (H = .95), its reliability was high (p = .96), and it satisfied the assumptions of the Mokken model. Conclusions: A single, unidimensional scale of diverse milestones was developed. It tops lexical, syntactic, and phonological skills, as well as both receptive and expressive language skills, and is well suited for mapping progress in language ability

Nasal Growth and Maturation Age in Adolescents

Objective: To define the end of the nasofacial growth spurt in order to schedule rhinoseptoplasty in patients with cleft without disturbing nasofacial growth. Data Sources: We searched the PubMed and Cochrane bibliographic databases from inception through December 31, 2007, using the primary indexing term facial growth with the confining search terms growth AND (face OR nose) AND (cephalometry OR anthropometry). The reference lists of the retrieved articles were searched for missed relevant studies. Articles written in English, German, or Dutch were included in the review. Study Selection: Studies of white adolescents without genetic disorders or malformations whose growth patterns had been followed up from at least 12 years of age until 18 years of age, with intervals between relevant measurements not longer than 2 years, were selected for this review. Data Extraction: A reviewer performed data extraction by obtaining raw study data from the selected studies or by requesting them from the authors. Data Synthesis: Growth velocity curves were fit to different relevant measures for nasofacial growth. The end of the nasofacial growth spurt was defined as the age at which these growth velocity curves have their steepest descending slope. This definition yielded an average age of 13.1 years for adolescent girls and 14.7 years for adolescent boys. Because no information could be found for the spread in age of nasal growth spurt of individuals, 2 SDs of the age distribution for body height growth velocity were added. This resulted in 98% of white adolescent girls being nasally mature at the age of 15.8 years and 98% of white adolescent boys being nasally mature at the age of 16.9 years. Conclusion: Rhinoseptoplasty can safely be performed after the age of 16 years in girls and 17 years in boys