English in Inclusive Multilingual Preschools. Kirsten Birsak de Jersey

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СКАЧАТЬ bin der Meinung, dass Kinder in diesem Alter mehrere Sprachen lernen können, wenn die aktiv erlebt werden und im Kindergartenalltag gesprochen und spielerische erlebt werden” (qu. 3a: advantage).

      “Es können beide Sprachen parallel gelernt werden. Englisch könnte auch spielerisch im Tagesablauf eingebaut und so erlernt werden” (qu. 3b-1).

      It may come as some surprise that this last positive comment came from a preschool teacher in whose group 20 children out of 22 learnt German as a second language.

      As has been said above, my teacher education project would need to address the prevalent idea that the consecutive learning of languages qualifies as the appropriate approach that the majority of preschool teachers expressed. This understanding has been described to be a widely cherished myth by language acquisition researchers. Referring to Gogolin (1994), who quite some time ago criticised the prevalent monolingual mind-set of parents and teachers and argued for a multilingual understanding of education instead, Tracy (2008) wrote:

      Das mehr oder weniger friedliche Zusammenleben mehrerer Sprachen im Kinderkopf verträgt sich anscheinend schlecht mit unseren Alltagsweisheiten und hartnäckigen Mythen über Spracherwerb und Mehrsprachigkeit. … Es passt nicht zum monolingualen Habitus (Gogolin 1994), auf den Punkt gebracht also zur Vorstellung: ein Kopf – eine Sprache. Außerdem zwingt es uns, liebgewordene Mythen loszulassen. (p. 113; in a chapter on ‘Warum erregt der doppelte Erstsprachenerwerb die Gemüter’; italics in original)

      But what would preschool teachers think about introducing English in preschool: would they consider it to be an asset for other languages to be learnt, including German as a second language? The data shows that over a quarter of the teachers considered it to be an asset and just under a quarter believed that this would not be the case. Almost half of the preschool teachers were undecided on the question (→ statistical data 12).

      Figure 13:

      Statistical data 12: Comment on the public opinion “Introducing English in preschool is an asset also for other languages, including German”

      The teachers who did not agree that introducing English would be an asset for other languages were – from what has been said, not very surprisingly – mostly concerned that the children would primarily need to learn German and also their mother tongue. They agreed that the experience of learning a foreign language would support the children when they learn another language. However, at the same time they said that preschool children would only benefit from learning another foreign language after they were competent in German:

      “Nur, wenn die Kinder schon gut Deutsch können wäre es eine Bereicherung” (qu. 3b-2: no).

      “Nicht in einem Kindergarten mit ca. 90 % unterschiedlichen fremdsprachigen Kindern” (qu. 3b-2: no).

      “Es ist für später eine Bereicherung mehr Sprachen zu können” (qu. 3b-2: no).

      “Erst sollte die deutsche Sprache erlernt sein, weitere können folgen” (qu. 3b-2: no).

      “Wenn die Kinder zwischen drei Sprachen jonglieren müssen, finde ich das nicht gut. Als einsprachiges Kind mit großer Freude und Sprachbegabung eventuell” (qu. 3b-2: no).

      “Nur für deutschsprachige Kinder” (qu.3b-2: no).

      “Die Kinder wären mit drei Sprachen überfordert!” (qu. 3b-2: no).

      There was also about a quarter of the preschool teachers (25.7%) (→ statistical data 12) who argued that the process of learning German would benefit if another foreign language was introduced. They referred to the English words that are frequently used in German and said children enjoyed learning many languages:

      “Viele neue englische Wörter und Bedeutungen verwenden wir auch im Deutschen” (qu. 3b-2: yes).

      “Kinder haben Freude am Sprechen vieler Sprachen, da dies lustbetont geschieht!” (qu. 3b-2: yes).

      10 of the 15 teachers who did not answer the question felt overwhelmed by it and simply included a number of question marks instead of answering the question or they quite openly admitted that they simply had no idea about the subject:

      “Dazu kann ich leider nichts sagen, weil ich nicht weiß wie es sich auswirkt. Ich könnte mir allerdings vorstellen, dass die Kinder die falsche Satzstellung übernehmen werden, von Englisch auf Deutsch” (qu. 3b-2: no answer).

      “Weiß ich nicht” (qu. 3b-2: no answer).

      The next question (→ question 3b-3) was to find out if teachers felt that learning a foreign language in preschool would be a burden for the children because preschool life in itself was challenging enough for them to cope with. Results were heterogeneous: while 30.6% of the teachers confirmed this idea, 19.8% felt that the children would not be burdened and about half of the teachers (49.6%) had mixed views and marked partly in the questionnaire (→ statistical data 13). As the majority of the preschool teachers were undecided, no valid answer to this question can be presented here.

      Figure 14:

      Statistical data 13: Comment on the public opinion “An additional language in the preschool would burden children because preschool life is challenging enough for them”

      Preschool teachers’ explanatory comments for their choices if they opted for yes or partly in the questionnaire indicated that they viewed children’s low level of German as a cause for preschool life being too challenging to introduce another language. Again, this strongly supports the validity of the questionnaire as this corresponds with the reasons that preschool teachers gave in answering the other prompts in question 3b). It was apparent that the majority of the answers of partly agree were prompted by the distinction the teachers made between the children who were in the early process of learning German and the children who could speak German already. They also were concerned that some children had deficits in other areas as well which would contradict the introduction of another language:

      “Eher die nicht deutschsprechenden Kinder” (qu. 3b-3: partly).

      “Bei vielen Kindern ist die Muttersprache noch ein Problem und Deutsch erst recht. Noch eine Sprache dazu wäre zu viel. Ist die erste Sprache gefestigt und das „Regelwerk Sprache“ angekommen, sind mehrere Sprachen kein Problem” (qu. 3b-3: partly).

      “Viele kommen mit wenig Sprachkenntnissen und auch großen Defiziten aus anderen Gebieten. Ein zu viel an Angeboten könnte einige Kinder überfordern” (qu. 3b-3: partly).

      “Kommt auf das Sprachverständnis jedes einzelnen Kinders an” (qu.3b-3: partly).

      “Speziell für Migrantenkinder” (qu. 3b-3: partly).

      Apart from considering children’s language competence levels they also reflected individual children’s different abilities and aptitudes when commenting on their choice of partly agree. They also maintained that coping would depend on the contextual support provided for the child, either by their parents or the preschool:

      “Kommt auf die individuelle Begabung des Kindes, Förderung von zu Hause etc. an” (qu. 3b-3: partly).

      “Kommt natürlich auf die Begabung und Einrichtung an” (qu. 3b-3: partly).

      “Stimmt СКАЧАТЬ