This book discusses literacy development in heritage language speakers and presents the results of four different quantitative studies that investigate the transfer of literacy skills in bi- and multilingual language development. The empirical studies focus on different populations of pupils, most of them located in various parts of Switzerland, and emphasise the potential residing in shared or transferred resources between their heritage languages and the languages spoken in the region to which their family has immigrated. The goal of all studies was to gain an understanding of the factors, both linguistic and non-linguistic in nature, that contribute to the development of language skills in both the heritage and school languages. Theoretical assumptions are put to the test via hypothesis testing and the generally shared assumptions on bilingual education are questioned based on the data. Furthermore, methodological problems in the investigation of linguistic interdependence are discussed. This book contributes to the scholarly investigation of potential beneficial effects in academic proficiency across languages in migrant children.

This book discusses literacy development in heritage language speakers and presents the results of four different quantitative studies that investigate the transfer of literacy skills in bi- and multilingual language development. The empirical studies focus on different populations of pupils, most of them located in various parts of Switzerland, and emphasise the potential residing in shared or transferred resources between their heritage languages and the languages spoken in the region to which their family has immigrated. The goal of all studies was to gain an understanding of the factors, both linguistic and non-linguistic in nature, that contribute to the development of language skills in both the heritage and school languages. Theoretical assumptions are put to the test via hypothesis testing and the generally shared assumptions on bilingual education are questioned based on the data. Furthermore, methodological problems in the investigation of linguistic interdependence are discussed. This book contributes to the scholarly investigation of potential beneficial effects in academic proficiency across languages in migrant children.

In diesem Buch wird der sprachliche Ausdruck von statischen und dynamischen Raumrelationen untersucht. Es werden typologische und variationslinguistische Ansatze integriert, um nicht nur Standardsprachen, sondern auch Dialekte zu vergleichen. Auf empirischer Basis wird nachgewiesen, dass sich auch nahe verwandte Varietaten betrachtlich unterscheiden. Die syntaktische und semantische Feinanalyse der raumbezogenen Prapositionen, Verben, Adverbien und Verbalphrasen fuhrt zu einer Revision der gangigen Typologie. Eine zusatzliche typologische Dimension wird herausgearbeitet, die systematisch mit den vorgefundenen Gebrauchsmustern kovariiert: Die Groesse der Sprachgemeinschaft und damit verbunden unterschiedliche Standardisierungsgrade sowie mundliche Gepragtheit der untersuchten Varietaten. Diese zusatzliche Dimension ist fur die typologische Einordnung der Varietaten mindestens ebenso wichtig wie ihre genetische Verwandtschaft.

Der vorliegende Band versammelt BeitrAge zur Entstehung der deutschen Schriftsprache, wobei anhand von Texten aus dem deutschen und niederlAndischen Raum unterschiedliche Aspekte des Standardisierungsprozesses in der frA1/4hen Neuzeit erArtert werden. Die Diskussion um die Rolle von regionalen, textsortenspezifischen und sozialen Faktoren liefert neue sprachgeschichtliche Erkenntnisse.

This study looks at the language community constituted by a Swiss primary school class of children with a highly assorted mixture of mother tongues. The language used in class is described in terms of variety linguistics and the social processes within the class are examined sociographically. Dialectologic and socio-psychological variables are related to one another; in addition, observations on social solidarity and demarcation are subjected to a qualitative analysis. The language of the class is interpreted as a cumulative product of individual communicative interests. The findings contribute to a better understanding of language and its development in multifactorial contexts.