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Home literacy as a special language environment to prepare children for school

  • Schwerpunkt: Familienbildung
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Summary

The present study examined the relationship between language and literacy activities at home and the emergence of so called academic language in a sample of 68 four-year-old Dutch children. The focus was on children’s understanding and production of narrative texts, seen as a common age-appropriate pre-academic text genre. Home language and literacy was measured with a short questionnaire, administered in personal interviews with the mothers. Other measures were the family’s socioeconomic status (SES), children’s receptive vocabulary and working memory. Children’s productive language in narrative text (re)telling already revealed many features of academic language. Furthermore, moderate to strong correlations were found between children’s emergent academic language and the language and literacy activities at home. Multiple regression analyses indicated that, in addition to working memory, home talking and reading predicted children’s vocabulary, and especially children’s text comprehension and text (re)telling. Finally, main and interaction-effects of working memory and home language and literacy on emergent academic language were examined. Although the results were not conclusive regarding the expected moderator effect of working memory, they revealed that children with both low working memory capacity and low academic language input were most disadvantaged.

Zusammenfassung

Elterliche Sprachkompetenz als besondere Sprachumgebung zur Heranführung des Kindes an die Schule

Die vorliegende Studie untersuchte den Zusammenhang zwischen der im Elternhaus entwickelten Sprach-bzw. Lesepraxis und der Entwicklung der so genannten akademischen Sprachkompetenz, in Deutschland auch als ‚bildungssprachliche Kompetenz’ bezeichnet. Hierzu wurden in den Niederlanden insgesamt 68 Kinder im Alter von 4 Jahren untersucht. Es wurde insbesondere untersucht, inwieweit die Kinder in der Lage sind, Geschichten zu verstehen und zu produzieren. Geschichten werden im Rahmen der Studie als altersgemäße vorakademische Texte aufgefasst. Der Familiensprachgebrauch und die literarische Praxis wurden anhand eines kurzen Fragebogens und in Interviews mit den Müttern erhoben. Zusätzlich wurden der sozioökonomische Status der Familie sowie der passive Wortschatz der Kinder und deren Merkfähigkeit unter Arbeitsbedingungen (working memory) herangezogen.

Die Nacherzählungen der Kinder wiesen sprachlich bereits viele Merkmale der so genannten akademischen Sprache auf. Außerdem zeigte sich ein mittlerer bis starker Zusammenhang zwischen der sich entwickelnden Sprachfähigkeit der Kinder (akademische Sprache) und den sprachlichen und literarischen Praktiken der Familie. Multiple Regressionsanalysen haben gezeigt, dass — neben dem Arbeitsgedächtnis (working memory) der Kinder insbesondere die Qualität der Sprache innerhalb der Familie und das gemeinsame Lesen im Elternhaus positiven Einfluss auf den Wortschatz und das Textverständnis der Kinder hatten. Außerdem wurde die Fähigkeit, Geschichten nachzuerzählen dadurch besonders gefördert.

Schließlich wurde die Wirkung des Arbeitsgedächtnisses und der mitgebrachten Sprachkompetenz auf die Entwicklung einer akademischen Sprache überprüft. Obwohl die Resultate den erwarteten Effekt nicht vollends bestätigen konnten, zeigte sich, dass Kinder mit geringer Merkfähigkeit bei gleichzeitig geringem Kontakt mit akademischer Sprachpraxis im Elternhaus in besonderer Weise benachteiligt waren.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Langeveld Institute, Utrecht University, P.O. Box 80140, NL-3508 TC, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Paul P. M. Leseman

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  1. Paul P. M. Leseman
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  2. Anna F. Scheele
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  3. Aziza Y. Mayo
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  4. Marielle H. Messer
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Correspondence to Paul P. M. Leseman.

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Leseman, P.P.M., Scheele, A.F., Mayo, A.Y. et al. Home literacy as a special language environment to prepare children for school. ZfE 10, 334–355 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11618-007-0040-9

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