Page 38 - Second language development of newly arrived migrant kindergarteners - Frederike Groothoff
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38 Chapter 2 2.4.1 Dual language learners, bilinguals, and second language learners Learning two or more languages can take place under different circumstances. Although the group of second language learners is, by their own nature, heterogeneous and there is considerable debate about how to classify them (Genesee, Paradis, & Crago, 2004), the existing body of literature identifies two kinds of bilinguals or dual language learners: (1) simultaneous bilinguals and (2) sequential/successive bilinguals. Simultaneous bilinguals acquire two languages early on, mostly from birth: “two languages are present from the onset of speech” (Gass & Selinker, 2008, p. 28). On the other hand, successive or sequential bilinguals are bilinguals who learn the second language after establishing the first: the “second language is added at some stage after the first had begun to develop” (ibidem.). Paradis, Genesee, and Crago (2011) call simultaneous bilinguals, bilinguals, while they refer to sequential bilinguals as second language learners. Nevertheless, they emphasize that there is no real cut-off point between being bilingual or a second language learner. However, they refer to the age of 3 because at that point the first language can be well established and the learning of the first language can be visible in the learning of the second. The critical milestones of bilinguals are comparable with those of monolinguals. For example, babbling (Oller, Eilers, Urbano, & Cobo-Lewis, 1997; Maneva & Genesee, 2001) or the production of the first words (Conboy & Thal, 2006; Marchman, Martínez- Sussmann, & Dale, 2004; Nicoladis, 2001). Paradis et al. (2011) however do emphasize the fact that bilinguals do not parallel monolinguals in all respects. Especially the amount of exposure to each of the languages influences the rate of development in bilinguals. All participants in the current study are members of a minority group in the Netherlands and their education is in their “second” language, Dutch, which is the majority language in the Netherlands. However, the population of this study includes several children who were already bilingual when they started to learn Dutch. See Chapter 3, Section 3.4.2 on the demographic characteristics of the participants. 2.4.2 The importance of learning the second language A second language is acquired to varying degrees of proficiency depending on the context in which the acquirer needs to use the second language (Collier, 1987). For newly arrived migrant pupils arriving in the Netherlands, it is extra important to become highly proficient in the majority language of the country, Dutch, because it is also the language of instruction in school. It is generally acknowledged that a weak command of the second language, when it is the language(s) of schooling, may delay the overall cognitive development of the pupil in school (e.g., August, Carlo, Dressler, & Snow, 2005; Verhallen & Schoonen, 1993; Wong Fillmore, 1983). A limited vocabulary may limit the comprehension of a text (August et al., 2005). As a result, these pupils are at risk of being diagnosed as learning disabled (August et al., 2005) or they end up in a lower track of education (Golberg, 


































































































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