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Double threshold in bi- and multilingual contexts: preconditions for higher academic attainment in English as an additional language
Bi- and multilingualism has been shown to have positive effects on the attainment of third and additional languages. These effects, however, depend on the type of bi- and multilingualism and the status of the languages involved (Cenoz, 2003; Jessner, 2006). In this exploratory trend study, we revisi...
Autores principales: | , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2014
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Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4046175/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24926277 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00546 |
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author | Lechner, Simone Siemund, Peter |
author_facet | Lechner, Simone Siemund, Peter |
author_sort | Lechner, Simone |
collection | PubMed |
description | Bi- and multilingualism has been shown to have positive effects on the attainment of third and additional languages. These effects, however, depend on the type of bi- and multilingualism and the status of the languages involved (Cenoz, 2003; Jessner, 2006). In this exploratory trend study, we revisit Cummins' Threshold Hypothesis (1979), claiming that bilingual children must reach certain levels of attainment in order to (a) avoid academic deficits and (b) allow bilingualism to have a positive effect on their cognitive development and academic attainment. To this end, we examine the attainment of English as an academic language of 16-years-old school children from Hamburg (n = 52). Our findings support the existence of thresholds for literacy attainment. We argue that language external factors may override positive effects of bilingualism. In addition, these factors may compensate negative effects attributable to low literacy attainment in German and the heritage languages. We also show that low attainment levels in migrant children's heritage languages preempt high literacy attainment in additional languages. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4046175 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2014 |
publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-40461752014-06-12 Double threshold in bi- and multilingual contexts: preconditions for higher academic attainment in English as an additional language Lechner, Simone Siemund, Peter Front Psychol Psychology Bi- and multilingualism has been shown to have positive effects on the attainment of third and additional languages. These effects, however, depend on the type of bi- and multilingualism and the status of the languages involved (Cenoz, 2003; Jessner, 2006). In this exploratory trend study, we revisit Cummins' Threshold Hypothesis (1979), claiming that bilingual children must reach certain levels of attainment in order to (a) avoid academic deficits and (b) allow bilingualism to have a positive effect on their cognitive development and academic attainment. To this end, we examine the attainment of English as an academic language of 16-years-old school children from Hamburg (n = 52). Our findings support the existence of thresholds for literacy attainment. We argue that language external factors may override positive effects of bilingualism. In addition, these factors may compensate negative effects attributable to low literacy attainment in German and the heritage languages. We also show that low attainment levels in migrant children's heritage languages preempt high literacy attainment in additional languages. Frontiers Media S.A. 2014-06-05 /pmc/articles/PMC4046175/ /pubmed/24926277 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00546 Text en Copyright © 2014 Lechner and Siemund. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ 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) or licensor 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 Lechner, Simone Siemund, Peter Double threshold in bi- and multilingual contexts: preconditions for higher academic attainment in English as an additional language |
title | Double threshold in bi- and multilingual contexts: preconditions for higher academic attainment in English as an additional language |
title_full | Double threshold in bi- and multilingual contexts: preconditions for higher academic attainment in English as an additional language |
title_fullStr | Double threshold in bi- and multilingual contexts: preconditions for higher academic attainment in English as an additional language |
title_full_unstemmed | Double threshold in bi- and multilingual contexts: preconditions for higher academic attainment in English as an additional language |
title_short | Double threshold in bi- and multilingual contexts: preconditions for higher academic attainment in English as an additional language |
title_sort | double threshold in bi- and multilingual contexts: preconditions for higher academic attainment in english as an additional language |
topic | Psychology |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4046175/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24926277 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00546 |
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