Page 113 - Second language development of newly arrived migrant kindergarteners - Frederike Groothoff

Development of narrative ability 113 Importantly, the effect of Age became insignificant when Exposure to Dutch at School was added: the main effect of Age was overshadowed by Exposure to Dutch at School. This is plausible since Exposure to Dutch at School goes hand in hand with growing older. So, in this respect Age and Exposure to Dutch at School are (partly) the same variable (1 month increase in Exposure to Dutch at School equals 1 month increase in Age). However, it is visible in Figure 5.7 that Exposure to Dutch at Schools exceeds Age, represented by the line “Exposure = 0” which indicates general growth. At any age the additional effect of Exposure of Dutch at School was similar but significant. 5 4,5 4 3,5 3 2,5 Exposure = 0 Exposure = mean = 14 months Exposure = mean + 1sd = 24 months Age in Months Figure 5.7: Development of GIS with Exposure to Dutch at School as Explanatory Variable. The addition of the variable Educational Facility did not improve the general model of growth in Guiraud Index Score. This means that we could not establish a relationship between being at a DL2-school or a Mainstream school and the development of pupils’ GIS. Measure of Lexical Richness Example (5) and (6) illustrate our variable Measure of Lexical Richness. The stories in (5) and (6) both have a NDW score of 43, but the story in Example (5) has a MLR score of 9.42 (low frequent words are indicated in bold). For comparison, the story in Example (6) has a MLR score of 1, only high frequent words were used for this story. 51 55 59 63 67 71 75 79 83 87 91 95 99 103 Guiraud Index Score