Page 54 - Second language development of newly arrived migrant kindergarteners - Frederike Groothoff
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54 Chapter 2 Leseman and Slot recommend implementation of a system for quality care and continuing professionalization. Furthermore, they recommend the systematic planning of the daily activities over a longer period of time with a good balance between (guided) play and educational activities. De Haan, Elbers and Leseman (2014) investigated children’s daily experiences in preschool classrooms and found that teacher-managed academic activities did not occur often. Despite the low occurrence, young children (ages 2 to 4) exhibited language-literacy and math development that was positively associated with the amount of teacher-managed activities. For kindergarten children (ages 4 to 6) only a positive association of the amount of math activities on math development was found and not for language activities. Slot, Broekhuizen, Leseman, and Veen (2015a) continued with the Pre-COOL data on which previous researchers already had concluded that the emotional and behavioral support was of medium to high quality, while the instructional support was of low to medium quality (Slot, 2014; Leseman & Slot, 2013; Veen et al., 2013). Slot et al. (2015a) looked at effects of quality on cognitive development and they found small positives effects of emotional support on vocabulary development. Informal and personal conversations with the child about everyday experiences which are related to the interest of the children seem to contribute to vocabulary growth. Slot et al. did not find an effect of instructional support on vocabulary. Their explanation was that the instrument they used, the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Task (Dunn & Dunn, 2005) was not sufficiently sensitive because it measures general vocabulary and not the specific vocabulary that was actually taught in class. Instructional support does seem to have an effect on selective attention. Similarly, Verhagen et al. (2016) looked at the influence of certain activities on vocabulary development. In environments where teachers encouraged fantasy play and where free play has been enriched by the teachers a positive relation has been found for vocabulary development. Contrary to De Haan et al. (2013) Verhagen et al. (2016) did find an effect of the use of an early care program on vocabulary development. To summarize, the quality of Dutch early educational facilities could be optimized for both L1 and L2 learners, especially in the area of instructional support (e.g., Slot et al., 2015a; Slot, Leseman, Verhagen, & Mulder, 2015). However, the quality of educational facilities for newly arrived migrant pupils has not yet been investigated specifically. Therefore, the influence of this quality on the development of this target group cannot be established yet. In Chapter 1 the Dutch educational context for newly arrived migrant kindergarteners was described, distinguishing two types of organization: separate DL2- schools or Mainstream schools. It is relevant to know whether these two types show differences in quality. However, it might also be possible that different teachers within one and the same educational facility act differently and consequently influence child outcomes, as De Haan et al. (2013) have shown for individual teachers using the same program. It is 


































































































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