Raising educational expectations: A case in favor of bilingual language practices in migrant families

Adolescents with a migration background are characterized by significantly lower educational attainment rates than their peers without a migration background in most Western OECD countries. Most research explains this gap with reference to an unequal distribution of economic, social and cultural capital across social strata, which in turn leads to systematically lower levels of academic performance in the migrant population. In addition to these factors, bilingual language practices in migrant families have been claimed to be a major determinant of lower achievement and attainment due to negative effects on the acquisition of majority language skills. However, this claim has remained controversial as there is also evidence on the negative consequences of students\u27 loss of their heritage languages. We hypothesize that bilingual language practices can raise students\u27 educational aspirations and expectations due to their positive influence on parent-adolescent interaction and a more effective transmission of parental aspirations. Estimating multivariate binary response models, we find that higher levels of parent-adolescent interaction are related to higher probabilities of expecting to complete high educational levels, and that monolingual language practices in migrant families may negatively influence students\u27 educational outcomes due to lower levels of parent-child interaction. (DIPF/Orig.

Language development in mono- and multilingual children: A longitudinal approach

"Sowohl theoretische Überlegungen als auch empirische Ergebnisse betonen die Notwendigkeit der Analyse longitudinaler Daten, um tiefere Einblicke in Spracherwerbs- und Sprachentwicklungsprozesse zu gewinnen. Auf Basis einer Studie zur Sprachentwicklung in Hamburg lebender ein- und mehrsprachiger Kinder und Jugendlicher mit zwei Messzeitpunkten (LiMA Panel Study) untersucht der vorliegende Artikel die produktiven oralen Sprachkompetenzen von 81 Kindern zu Beginn ihrer Schulkarriere. Die Studie identifiziert Unterschiede in den Mustern der Sprachentwicklung ein- und mehrsprachiger Kinder und diskutiert mit der Erfassung oraler Sprachkompetenzen, insbesondere in longitudinaler Perspektive, verbundene Herausforderungen." (Autorenreferat)"Both theoretical considerations and empirical results have emphasized the need for longitudinal data in order to gain a more fine-grained insight into the processes of language acquisition and development. Based on data from a two-wave study on the language development of mono- and multilingual children and adolescents in Hamburg (LiMA Panel Study), this article investigates the productive oral language competencies and patterns of language development in 81 children at the beginning of their school careers. The study identifies differences in the patterns of language development in mono- and multilingual children and discusses several challenges that are related to the assessment of oral language competencies in general and in a longitudinal perspective specifically." (author's abstract