Page 63 - Second language development of newly arrived migrant kindergarteners - Frederike Groothoff

Present study: extended research questions and methodology 63 ten teachers whose teacher behavior was observed. (4) The final set of data includes the observations of the pupils’ experiences in class. In doing so, this study is a response to Ortega and Ibberri-Shea’s call, who stated that “\[...\] the diversity and accumulation of recent and future longitudinal research will help chart the development of advanced L2 capacities and help us understand the appropriate timing, duration, and content of optimal educational practices for L2 learning across educational settings and multilingual contexts” (Ortega & Iberri-Shea, 2005, 42). 3.3.3 Further methodological considerations Investigating the learning environment and the second language of young newly arrived migrant pupils longitudinally implies multiple methodological considerations. First, it was decided to use observations in the classroom itself because many educational researchers have argued that such a method is more valid than studying policy documents, relying on program design, relying on teacher qualifications, or using self-report of teachers (e.g., Mashburn et al., 2008). Observing actual practices in the classroom reveals the implemented curriculum instead of the intended curriculum (van den Akker, 2003). Inferring the quality of the school learning environment from individual teaching qualifications also seems less reliable, because it is questionable whether teachers actually act on specific cornerstones of their training (e.g., Henrichs et al., 2017; De Haan, Leseman, & Elbers, 2011; Bulters & Vermeer, 2007). Therefore, the choice in this dissertation has been to conduct observations in the classroom to investigate the school learning environment. The focus of the observations is on the pedagogical practices in the classroom based on observations of teacher behavior and based on the observations of the experiences of the focal pupils: investigation the specific interactions these pupils had with their teachers and peers. A second consideration was that two levels of narrative ability were included with which the productive abilities of the pupils were analyzed which made the picture of the second language development of the participants more complete: (1) the microstructural level: focusing on word-level. What kind of words did pupils use to tell the story? What was the lexical diversity of the words used? And (2) the macrostructural level: were pupils able to tell a story with a coherent structure? Did they use all relevant story grammar elements? (e.g., Stein & Glenn, 1979). The pupils were assessed four times over a period of two-and-a-half years with these instruments to capture their development on these various aspects of the second language. Finally, besides being a researcher, I am a primary school teacher with eight years of experience with newly arrived migrant pupils, including kindergarteners. These experiences also guided me to take into account the workload that teachers experience. I was able to carefully choose instruments which would not add to their workload and with which I would not disturb the routines in the classroom. The pupils were quickly