wwww.coe.int
Language development and
learning in multilingual settings
Ingrid Gogolin & Joana Duarte
University of Hamburg
What to expect
1. Introduction
2. Language acquisition and
development: from toddler to
schoolchild
3. Support in early language acquisition
4. Summary and outlook
5. Questions for group discussion
©
Duarte/ Gogolin 2012
Introduction
• Education institutions ⇨ social cohesion and
respect for human rights
• Most education systems have problems to deal
with disadvantaged pupils in a way that reduces
their disadvantages
• Explanations: individual factors, background
factors & characteristics of education systems
• Foci of the presentation:
– aspects relevant to education establishments and their
room for manœuvre
– period of early language development and the
transition into (primary) school
Language acquisition and
development: from toddler
to schoolchild
What is language?
phonetic
and
phonology
L1
Areas of focus
for most
literal
pragmatic
educational
institutions
L 2 (L3)
Language
discursive
semantic
Morphosyntactic
based on Ehlich 2005
How is language acquired?
language aquisition
=
complex phenomenon
Perspectives on language
acquisition
The language acquisition
continuum
The shift from intuitive to
cognitive language learning
entails different methods of
We did the - hum - invention
support Ayşe:
or instruction
of the air balloon... I don‘t
know how it‘s called…
Child (4): Did you see that
Teacher: The experiment with the air
big / long – hum - car? to explicit
balloon.
Mother: Yeah, it was a big
Ayşe: The experiment with the air
truck.
balloon.
Child: I like big trucks.
Quehl, 2009
 from implicit
Stages of language acquisition
• 12-24 months: playing with sounds 
uttering single words
Foundation: gaining
• 24-30 months: experimenting with first
words permodifying
day;
structures 20-30
(subject-verb;
verbs;
developing
using content
words, ‘grammar’
no function words)
• 30-36 months: producing structures
(utterances of 2-5 words with little extra
morphology, morphological overgeneralization, easier and more productive
morphemesFine-tuning
come fist) (5-10 yrs.)
refining grammar,
extending lexicon etc.
The U-Curve
1. Non-analysed
forms:
went
No errors but
transition
phenomena
3. Discovery of the
rule and
exceptions
went
man/men
2. Discovery of the rule
went
*goed
man
*mans
apparent
regression
men
Factors affecting language
acquisition
Individual
Age
Familial
Educational
Socio-economic status
Interaction
Cognitive
Opportunities
development
NegativeInteraction
attitudes, low
for language use
expectations,
lack
of
Motivation
opportunities
for language
use
Literacy orientations
Classroom
culture
Learning style
 affect language acquisition
Teacher
Experienced
Discrimination Attitudes expectations
Instructional
towards L1
Proficiency in
feedback
other languages
Motivation
Language acquisition & use
Multingualism in practice
The Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (as an
example) harbours people from roughly 200
nations – such as:
Turkey
55,000
Poland
Ghana
Philippines
China
India
South
Africa
Malaysia
Language diversity = ‚normal‘
20,000 5,000 4,500 3,500 2,500 400
300
setting of language
development, at least in
European urban areas
Uganda
Lesotho
42
1
Source: Public Record Office, 2009
Language acquisition
Simultaneous early language
acquisition
Successive language acquisition
Basic idea:
monolingualism =
norm;
bilingualism =
exception
Reality: Multilingualism as context
The individual‘s plurilingual
repertoire is made up of various
languages he / she has absorbed in
various ways (childhood learning,
teaching, independent acquisition,
etc.) and in which he / she has
acquired different skills
(conversation, reading, listening,
etc.) to different levels (Beacco,
2005).
Europe celebrates…..
Open question: how can we
Celebration
optimally support language
s
acquisition
in linguistic diversity
European Day of
(resulting in: a balanced
Languages
combination of access
to the
majority language(s) [language(s)
of
schooling]
& of
foreign languages
International
Year
& Languages
heritage languages  the
plurilingual repertoires)
The language mode continuum
It can be
any of the
speaker‘s
languages
Language X
Basic Language
Monolingual
Mode
Bilingual
Mode
Language Mixed Mode
1
Language Mode
2
Language Y
3
Degree of
activation of
languages
Grosjean 1999
Features of ‚plurilingual normality‘
(1): Switching, mixing
Language
mixing
in children:
(1) tu DO
THAT
avec la table
• Strategies
to compensate
for possible
you do
that with the
table lack of knowledge
(2) moi,
I GETphenomenon
DOWN
Transition
which tends to disappear with
me,
I get down
acquisition
French-English bilingual 3:8 (in: Jisa, 2000)
Language mixing, switching: Indicators of
plurilingual competence
(and also common practice of ‘monolingual’ adolescents in
multilingual areas)
Features of ‚plurilingual normality‘ (2):
metalinguistic competence
„Also
mir fiel es also sehr leicht, Französisch, Spanisch und ebenso
auch Englisch zu lernen, weil Englisch auch römische Wörter
benutzt, und da jaEarly
Spanisch,
Portugiesisch undof
Französisch
acquisition
romanische Sprachen sind, besteht eine gewisse Ähnlichkeit da
language
zwischen diesen
Sprachen, undawareness
deswegen, wenn /
ich das
verglichen hab, das istmetalinguistic
immer dieselbe Struktur, und manchmal
auch die gleichen Wörter,
oder ähnliche Wörter.
Hier zum
competence

Beispiel, hier ist sogar ´n Beispiel im Buch, „Garten“, in Deutsch
cognitive

heißt das „Garten“,
in Englischadvantage
„garden“, auf Französisch
support
of language
„jardin“, auf Portugiesisch
„jardim“
und auf Spanisch heißt es „el
jardin“, und deswegen,
ja, das kann
schon automatisch so
acquisition
inman
general
machen.“
(Schüler mit Portugiesisch als Herkunftssprache; Hu, 2003)
Features of ‚plurilingual
normality‘ (3): Transfer
Common Underlying Proficiency
Cummins,
BICS&CALP
Examples for Transfer
 Knowledge that written symbols correspond to
sounds and can be decoded in order and
direction
 How school genres work (narrating, explaining,
etc.)
 Activation of semantic and syntactic knowledge
 Knowledge of text structure
 Learning to use cues to predict meaning
 Awareness of the variety of purposes for reading
and writing
 Confidence in oneself as literate
…
Research suggests “that academic and
linguistic skills in a minority language
transfer relatively easily to the second
= advantage –
language. Transfer
Simply stated,
a child who learns
to read in Spanish
at home,
orISin school,
PROVIDED
THAT IT
does not have to start from the beginning
when learning
to read in English”.
SUPPORTED
BY
TEACHING(Baker, 2006, p. 330)
“Foundations of Bilingualism and Bilingual
Education”
Summary: multilingual
language acquisition
• Acquisition takes place by unconsciously
generating rules – learning takes place
explicitly
• Errors indicate that learning is taking place
• Switching, mixing, metalinguistic repertoires,
transfer are indicators for succeeding and
successful development of …
• … plurilingual repertoires
• …
3. Language support
in early years
Principles and
examples
Source: http://www.ojeichwachse.de/wpcontent/uploads/2011/03/Tegen-je-baby-praten-is-goedvoor-zijn-ontwikkeling.jpg
Cummins’ Quadrants
Model of Academic Language
Cognitively Undemanding
•Oral:
talking in the family,
•Oral: phone conversations
following simple directions,
•Written: notes, written
face toFrom
face discussions
directions
Aim of early
language support
intuitive,
•Written: informal mailsshould be to help children
implicit…
moveAfromCquadrant A to D, in
Context Reduced
Context Embedded
terms of emergent literacy
B
Dforms.
•Oral:
demonstrations, audio-visual
assisted lessons, science
experiments
•Written: social studies project
Oral: lecture, explaining new &
abstract concepts
…to
Written: Readingcognitive,
a textbook,
matching concepts & application
Cognitively Demanding
explicit
strategies
Video on early language support
Thank you, merci & danke
Questions for discussion in the groups
Language support will succeed to the extent
that it follows children’s preferred acquisition
or learning strategies.
1. What features of your context support the
implementation of this principle?
2. What features of your context are likely to
undermine the implementation of this principle?
3. If you could start an innovation programme for
the implementation of this principle in your
context, what measure would you introduce as a
first step?