Abstract: Objectives: The present study aimed at exploring selected language
development dimensions in kindergarten children with a migration background
taking into consideration the duration of kindergarten attendance and home
language. Participants: 60 children with normal intelligence, 3 (n = 13), 4 (n
= 24), 5 (n = 23) years of age, mean: 56.1 (SD 8.7) months. Methods: Retrospective analysis of a data set. Instruments: The
subtests "Phonological Non Word Repetition" and "Sentence Comprehension" from
the German SETK 3-5 (Grimm, 2008); "Auditorial Sequential Memory for Digits",
"Doll Play", "Word Explanation" from the German WET (Kastner-Koller &
Deimann, 2002); and the German questionnaire SISMIK (Ulich & Mayr, 2003)
for the assessment of language behaviour via the kindergarten educator. Results: The mean performance on phonological memory for nonword
repetition (T-score 48.4; SD 12.0) and for digits (Centile 4.9; SD 1.9) was
found normal. Lexical knowledge and usage tended towards the lower norm range
(mean Centile 3.5; SD 2.1); the individual result was in 20% of the children
⩾ 2 SD below the mean age norm. Lexical performance was the only one which
was significantly higher in children with a kindergarten attendance > 1
year. The understanding of sentence comprehension was on average in the lower
norm range (T-score 42.2; SD 11.2; Doll Play: Centile 2.8; SD 2.3); the
individual result fell in 10% resp. 33% of the children below the criterion
⩾ 2 SD below mean age norm. Language behaviour in contact with children
(T-score 56.6; SD 10.4), in contact with kindergarten educators (T-score 56.4;
SD 11.5), and linguistic competence (T-score 56.9; SD 10.9) were rated
age-appropriate (SISMIK). No gender differences were observed. Children
communicating bilingually within the family showed higher language competencies. Conclusion: Despite performance in the norm range, on average, still
33% of immigrant children display deficiencies both in syntactical and semantic
capacities in the German language.
Keywords: Migration background, second language acquisition, language competencies, language behaviour, kindergarten- and preschool children
