Page 66 - Second language development of newly arrived migrant kindergarteners - Frederike Groothoff

66 Chapter 3 Four out of the eleven teachers at DL2-schools had followed a specific in-service training after their bachelor’s in education on second language learning. Six other DL2- school teachers followed different courses on vocabulary teaching/learning9 within their own school and received coaching. One teacher in a DL2- school did not receive any specific training for teaching newly arrived migrant pupils. Two of the six Mainstream school teachers had followed a similar course like the one from the DL2-schools on vocabulary teaching/learning. The other four did not receive specific education on second language learners/teaching. At the end of the study more than ten schools were involved in this study, since the participants from DL2-schools transferred to mainstream schools. However, these new mainstream schools were not analyzed on their characteristics of the school learning environment. Around the time of the new round for data collection we approached the former teacher of the participating pupil and asked for details of the new school. We then telephoned or emailed the new school, explained our intentions, and made an appointment for the next round of data collection. All new schools allowed us to come. 3.4.2 Demographic characteristics of the participating pupils Forty-two pupils (21 girls) participated in the study. They were enrolled in the ten different schools described above. All parents signed a consent form for the participation of their child, which also included a few background questions. At the time of the first data collection the mean age of the participants was 5;1 years old (range 4;0–6;4). Three children started their Dutch education at the end of school year 2013–2014, but the other 39 children started in 2014–2015. At the beginning of the study all pupils were less than a year in the Netherlands. On average they had been at the Dutch school for two months when the data collection began. The number of months a pupil has attended a Dutch school (excluding summer months) is used to measure the Exposure to Dutch in school (see Table 3.3). 9 The course is called “Met woorden in de weer” and is based on the methodology by van der Nuft and Verhallen.