English in Inclusive Multilingual Preschools. Kirsten Birsak de Jersey

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СКАЧАТЬ would require an analysis that ideally involved all the state preschools in this education context. Questions therefore first aimed to identify the preschool’s size which included the number of groups in a preschool and the group size (→ question 1a, 1b) and the number of children who spoke German as a second or third language (→ question 1c). This would indicate how many preschools were multilingual in profile. The next question aimed to find out if preschools provided support for the children to learn German and who was responsible to teach it (→ question 2a). This would provide an insight both in the workload of the staff and in their experience in the area of language teaching. Finally, the contextual framework also included the question of how many preschools actually offered English, and if they did offer English, whether the preschool teachers themselves taught English or if it were taught by external staff. It also aimed to find out if English was an integral part of an individual preschool’s programme and in what way it was organised (→ question 2b).

      Results are presented in the following chapters.

      3.2.1 The size and characteristics of children’s groups

      State preschools vary from area to area. Some of the preschools are small with only one or two groups while others have up to five or six groups, depending on whether they are situated in a densely populated area or not. The size of the groups also varies. There is also a quite substantial diversity when it comes to children’s language profiles. While in some preschools almost all the children learn German as a second or third language, other preschools only have a few children with a multilingual background in their groups. Despite this heterogeneity of state preschool contexts, it would be necessary to identify a type of preschool that would qualify to be representative for the majority of preschools in this context as only then a suitable sample for the teacher education research could be identified. Data that provided this information resulted from the following questions:

      How many groups are in your preschool? (Wie viele Gruppen gibt es in Ihrem Kindergarten?) (question 1a).

      How many children are in your group? (Wie viele Kinder sind in Ihrer Gruppe?) (question 1b).

      How many children speak German as their second or third language? (Für wie viele Kinder ist Deutsch die zweite oder dritte Sprache?) (question 1c).

      In statistical data 1 (below) the horizontal bar shows the number of groups that made up the sizes of the preschools, while the vertical frequency bar represents the number of preschools that had those numbers of groups (e.g., 13 preschools consist of 2 groups). Statistical data 2 (below) represents the number of children in 89 groups out of 127 groups, which took part in the survey. The horizontal bar illustrates the number of children in the preschool groups and the vertical frequency bar represents the number of groups that comprised those children (e.g., 10 of the preschool groups from the state preschools included 20 children).

      From all of the 30 preschools that participated in the survey the majority of the preschools (27 preschools) comprised between two groups and four groups (→ statistical data 1) and of the 89 groups that responded to question 1b, the majority of the group sizes ranged between 19 children and 25 children (→ statistical data 2). There were only few exceptions: in terms of the size of the preschool, the smallest state preschool provided only one group while the two largest state preschools offered 6 and 5 groups respectively. In terms of the size of the groups, there were 9 preschools with small groups (13 to 19 children in a group). Reduced sizes of groups are usually due to the special needs of some of the children in the group. The largest groups comprised 25 children, which was the case in 24 groups (→ statistical data 2).

      Figure 2:

      Statistical data 1: The number of groups in state preschools

      Figure 3:

      Statistical data 2: The number of children in state preschool groups

      The following statistical data 3 illustrates the number of children who were learning German in state preschool groups at the time of the research (horizontal bar). The vertical frequency bar relates the number of children who were learning German to the number of preschool groups comprising of those numbers, thereby showing the frequency of the numbers of the children in the groups (e.g., in 8 groups there were 13 children who were learning German as a second language).

      All the preschool groups comprised children who were learning German as a second language. In most of the groups the number of these children ranged between 11 and 21; but overall, the groups varied greatly (→ statistical data 3). On one extreme 2 groups had 2 children learning German, while on the other extreme 1 group had all 25 children learning German. Because of this enormous heterogeneity in the groups, statistical data 4 simplifies the situation by establishing whether preschools had over 50 % or under 50 % of their children learning German. The groups in each preschool were combined to calculate the percentage of children who were learning German in that particular preschool (→ statistical data 4). The data shows that in the majority of the preschools, the children were learning German as a second language (73.3%) (→ statistical data 4). This information was important to be able to select a representative sample.

      Figure 4:

      Statistical data 3: The number of children learning GSL in state preschool groups

      Figure 5:

      Statistical data 4: The percentage of children learning GSL in state preschools

      3.2.2 State preschools offering German as a second language

      The next questions aimed to find out how many state preschools offered German as a second language (→ question 2a) and if the preschool teachers were involved in teaching German to the children (→ question 2a-1). Apart from the relevance of this information to be able to select a representative context of practice for the sampling, it would also indicate if preschool teachers had some experience in teaching children languages (in this case, German as a second language), through which teachers might have developed some competence that they could then transfer to teaching English. Data that provided this information resulted from the following questions:

      Is German taught in your preschool? (Findet in Ihrem Kindergarten Deutschförderung statt?) (question 2a).

      Who teaches German in your preschool? (Wer unterrichtet Deutsch als zweite Sprache?) (question 2a-1).

      The staff involved in teaching the children comprises the head of the preschool, the preschool teachers, preschool teachers’ assistants, teachers for special needs and expert language teachers who come to the preschool. With the exception of one preschool, all state preschools offered German as a second language. In over half of the preschools, the preschool teachers were not responsible for teaching the children German (→ statistical data 5). With one exception, preschool teachers otherwise shared the responsibility with expert teachers coming to the preschool and / or with the head of the preschool or other staff members. 22 of the preschools had an external expert teacher who came to the preschool to support language teaching (→ statistical data 5 & 6).

      Figure 6:

      Statistical СКАЧАТЬ