Cargando…

Polish-German preschoolers develop and use heritage Polish differently depending on whether they heard German from birth or not

This study assessed the language proficiency and use of a hitherto under-investigated group, viz., 3.5-year-olds growing up with Polish as a heritage language and German as societal language. All children (N = 28) heard Polish from birth in the home but half the children also heard German from birth...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor principal: De Houwer, Annick
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10086410/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37057150
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1080122
_version_ 1785022146819391488
author De Houwer, Annick
author_facet De Houwer, Annick
author_sort De Houwer, Annick
collection PubMed
description This study assessed the language proficiency and use of a hitherto under-investigated group, viz., 3.5-year-olds growing up with Polish as a heritage language and German as societal language. All children (N = 28) heard Polish from birth in the home but half the children also heard German from birth (Bilingual First Language Acquisition, BFLA) while the other half added German through preschool (Early Second Language Acquisition, ESLA). All children attended German preschools. Data collection relied on an online survey filled out by 28 mothers and 20 fathers. There were large discrepancies between parental answers to general versus detailed questions regarding language use (choice) amongst parents and children. This has important repercussions for much of questionnaire based bilingualism research. Children were developing productive language as expected but BFLA preschoolers spoke German better or spoke both languages equally well whereas ESLA preschoolers spoke Polish better. Apart from BFLA children’s much longer and daily exposure to German from birth, these BFLA-ESLA differences in relative Polish proficiency may relate to different current patterns of language choice, with (1) Polish less present in parent–child interactions involving BFLA than ESLA preschoolers, and with (2) BFLA but not ESLA preschoolers mostly hearing Polish from just a single parent. The BFLA-ESLA difference thus made a difference to children’s heritage Polish development and use already at age 3.5.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-10086410
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2023
publisher Frontiers Media S.A.
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-100864102023-04-12 Polish-German preschoolers develop and use heritage Polish differently depending on whether they heard German from birth or not De Houwer, Annick Front Psychol Psychology This study assessed the language proficiency and use of a hitherto under-investigated group, viz., 3.5-year-olds growing up with Polish as a heritage language and German as societal language. All children (N = 28) heard Polish from birth in the home but half the children also heard German from birth (Bilingual First Language Acquisition, BFLA) while the other half added German through preschool (Early Second Language Acquisition, ESLA). All children attended German preschools. Data collection relied on an online survey filled out by 28 mothers and 20 fathers. There were large discrepancies between parental answers to general versus detailed questions regarding language use (choice) amongst parents and children. This has important repercussions for much of questionnaire based bilingualism research. Children were developing productive language as expected but BFLA preschoolers spoke German better or spoke both languages equally well whereas ESLA preschoolers spoke Polish better. Apart from BFLA children’s much longer and daily exposure to German from birth, these BFLA-ESLA differences in relative Polish proficiency may relate to different current patterns of language choice, with (1) Polish less present in parent–child interactions involving BFLA than ESLA preschoolers, and with (2) BFLA but not ESLA preschoolers mostly hearing Polish from just a single parent. The BFLA-ESLA difference thus made a difference to children’s heritage Polish development and use already at age 3.5. Frontiers Media S.A. 2023-03-28 /pmc/articles/PMC10086410/ /pubmed/37057150 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1080122 Text en Copyright © 2023 De Houwer. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
De Houwer, Annick
Polish-German preschoolers develop and use heritage Polish differently depending on whether they heard German from birth or not
title Polish-German preschoolers develop and use heritage Polish differently depending on whether they heard German from birth or not
title_full Polish-German preschoolers develop and use heritage Polish differently depending on whether they heard German from birth or not
title_fullStr Polish-German preschoolers develop and use heritage Polish differently depending on whether they heard German from birth or not
title_full_unstemmed Polish-German preschoolers develop and use heritage Polish differently depending on whether they heard German from birth or not
title_short Polish-German preschoolers develop and use heritage Polish differently depending on whether they heard German from birth or not
title_sort polish-german preschoolers develop and use heritage polish differently depending on whether they heard german from birth or not
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10086410/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37057150
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1080122
work_keys_str_mv AT dehouwerannick polishgermanpreschoolersdevelopanduseheritagepolishdifferentlydependingonwhethertheyheardgermanfrombirthornot