Page 73 - Second language development of newly arrived migrant kindergarteners - Frederike Groothoff

4.2 Receptive vocabulary The studies we outlined in Chapter 2 on receptive vocabulary development indicate that vocabulary is essential for academic development. However, second language learners often have a vocabulary gap compared to their peers because they must divide their language learning time over multiple languages. This vocabulary gap implies an academic catch up phase. Research has indicated that this catch up phase may take 5 to 7 years (Collier & Thomas, 1989; Cummins, 1981). In fact, several studies into second language development carried out in the Netherlands show that second language learners of Dutch have a smaller Dutch vocabulary than first language learners. Bilingual children consistently scored below monolingual children on Dutch vocabulary test, and even though the bilingual children showed a faster Dutch vocabulary development than the monolingual Dutch children, they still lagged behind at the age of six (Scheele, 2010; See also other Dutch studies like Strating-Keurentjes, 2000; Leseman, Henrichs, Blom, & Verhagen, 2019). Additionally, according to Driessen (1996) and Verhoeven and Vermeer (1996), the difference in Dutch vocabulary persists until at least the end of primary education – and according to some researchers the difference in Dutch vocabulary size between L1 and L2 learners even increases throughout their educational career. To understand how vocabulary develops in second language learners, and how they accelerate the catch up phase it is important to focus on vocabulary development in young second language learners and from very early on. Furthermore, it is important to understand which factors influence vocabulary development to support the pupils in their academic catchup phase. When variables are discovered that influence the vocabulary development of newly arrived migrant kindergarteners these variables can be taken into account in education. 4.3 Method 4.3.1 Participants In this study 42 pupils (21 girls) participated who, in the beginning, were enrolled in ten different schools (see Chapter 3 section 3.4 for details about the participants and schools). Due to their transfer from DL2-schools to mainstream schools the participants were enrolled in 35 schools at Session 3. The participants were tested four times. All parents signed a consent form for the participation of their child and filled in a questionnaire with a few background questions (see Chapter 3, Section 3.4.2). Three variables concerning child characteristics were considered: Age, Exposure to Dutch at School, and Educational Facility in order to find out whether the development of pupils differed between school types. The Age of the pupils and Exposure to Dutch at School are correlated, given that every month a child grows older the Exposure to Dutch at Development of receptive vocabulary 73