Page 223 - Second language development of newly arrived migrant kindergarteners - Frederike Groothoff

General discussion and conclusions 223 the in-depth analysis can shed a light on more authentic behavior and include information about coping mechanisms that pupils use in every day communication (Schaefer & Bowyer-Crane, 2016). In the present study the narratives of the participants were video- recorded and with that a lot of information was gathered about the communication strategies the pupils used, their strategic competence, and how these developed over time. Unfortunately, it was beyond the scope of the present study to report the data from those observations. Sociocultural competence was only briefly mentioned in Chapter 5 and 7 and was not a specific focus of the analysis in the current set-up of the study. Nevertheless, it is interesting to mention that the participants were almost never observed using other languages than Dutch, except for interactions with pupils with a shared language background. It would be interesting to study if these pupils would use code-switching during story generation in situations with an interlocutor who understands their home language. The use of a narrative instrument such as the MAIN seems to be suitable to measure several parts of communicative competence. However, for the educational practice it might be difficult to use this instrument to its full extent because of its time consuming analysis. Just like in the present study we expect that teachers will select certain aspects that are most informative or most useful for the situation at hand. It would be recommendable for further research to focus on developing holistic ways to assess language development, but at the same time to take into account the limited time teachers have for analyzing results. Furthermore, suggestions should be made on feasible follow-up after the assessments: how can teachers stimulate different aspects of language development? 9.6 Concluding remarks To conclude, this thesis contributes to a better understanding of second language development, specifically, the receptive vocabulary development and narrative ability development of newly arrived migrant kindergarteners. We have found that different language measures show different growth trajectories and that the child characteristics Age and Exposure to Dutch at School influence these trajectories differently. We also found factors in the school learning environment that influenced different aspects of the language development. A beginning has been made with the investigation of the specific learning environment for newly arrived migrant kindergarteners, and this study can be a starting point for extended research on this matter, since at least two questions remain: (1) which factors in the school learning environment are the most important for the language development of newly arrived migrant kindergarteners? and (2) is it possible to ensure that those factors are part of the school learning environment of newly arrived migrant pupils irrespective of the type of schooling?