Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-18T18:47:58.400Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Patterns of educational achievement among groups of immigrant children in Denmark emerge already in preschool second-language and preliteracy skills

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2019

Anders Højen Open the ORCID record for Anders Højen [Opens in a new window] ,
Dorthe Bleses ,
Peter Jensen  and
Philip S. Dale
Anders Højen*
Affiliation:
Aarhus University
Dorthe Bleses
Affiliation:
Aarhus University
Peter Jensen
Affiliation:
Aarhus University
Philip S. Dale
Affiliation:
University of New Mexico
*
*Corresponding author. Email: hojen@au.dk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Immigrant children in Denmark differ greatly in educational outcomes. This study examined whether systematic differences in majority language (L2) and preliteracy skills are apparent already at ages 2–6 in immigrant children in Denmark across regional immigration background. Danish language and preliteracy skills in 1,211 immigrant children in four regional groups (based on maternal origin) and 11,259 native Danish nonimmigrant children, all enrolled in Danish childcare centers, were assessed using an age- and gender-normed language assessment instrument. Hierarchical linear models showed that all four immigrant groups scored significantly lower than the native Danish group; the negative coefficients diminished but remained significant when socioeconomic background and having a native Danish father were controlled for. In addition, even with these controls, significant differences existed between some of the immigrant groups, suggesting that factors relating to regional immigrant background were important sources of differences in L2 development. A greater immigrant disadvantage for language than preliteracy skills was found; two immigrant groups did not differ significantly from the nonimmigrant Danish group for preliteracy skills. The results suggest that measures to reduce inequalities in long-term educational achievement between immigrant groups should be taken already before school with a particular focus on L2 language skills.

Keywords

bilingual childrenimmigrant childrenmajority language skillspreliteracy skillsschool readiness
Type
Original Article
Information
Applied Psycholinguistics , Volume 40 , Issue 4 , July 2019 , pp. 853 - 875
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adesope, O. O., Lavin, T., Thompson, T., & Ungerleider, C. (2010). A systematic review and meta-analysis of the cognitive correlates of bilingualism. Review of Educational Research, 80, 207–245. doi: 10.3102/0034654310368803CrossRefGoogle Scholar
August, D., & Shanahan, T. (Eds.) (2006). Developing literacy in second-language learners: Report of the National Literacy Panel on Language-Minority Children and Youth. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Bialystok, E., Majumder, S., & Martin, M. M. (2003). Developing phonological awareness: Is there a bilingual advantage? Applied Psycholinguistics, 24, 27–44. doi: 10.1017/s014271640300002xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bleses, D., Højen, A., Dale, P. S., Justice, L. M., Dybdal, L., Piasta, S., … Haghish, E. F. (2018). Effective language and literacy instruction: Evaluating the importance of scripting and group size components. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 42, 256–269. doi: 10.1016/j.ecresq.2017.10.002CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bleses, D., Højen, A., Justice, L. M., Dale, P. S., Dybdal, L., Piasta, S., … Haghish, E. F. (2017). The effectiveness of a large-scale language and pre-literacy intervention: The SPELL randomized-controlled-trial in Denmark. Child Development, 89, e342–e363. doi: 10.1111/cdev.12859CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bleses, D., Makransky, G., Dale, P. S., Højen, A., & Ari, B. A. (2016). Early productive vocabulary predicts academic achievement 10 years later. Applied Psycholinguistics, 37, 1461–1476. doi: 10.1017/S0142716416000060CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bleses, D., Vach, W., Jørgensen, R. N., & Worm, T. (2010). The internal validity and acceptability of the Danish SI-3: A language-screening instrument for 3-year-olds. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 53, 490–507.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Campbell, R., & Sais, E. (1995). Accelerated metalinguistic (phonological) awareness in bilingual children. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 13, 61–68. doi: 10.1111/j.2044-835X.1995.tb00664.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chiat, S., & Polišenská, K. (2016). A framework for crosslinguistic nonword repetition tests: Effects of bilingualism and socioeconomic status on children’s performance. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 59, 1179–1189. doi: 10.1044/2016_JSLHR-L-15-0293CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Conger, D., Schwartz, A. E., & Stiefel, L. (2007). Immigrant and native-born differences in school stability and special education: Evidence from New York City. International Migration Review, 41, 403–432.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cummins, J. (2000). Language, Power and Pedagogy. Bilingual Children in the Crossfire. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Danish Ministry for Social Affairs. (2015). Statistik om dagtilbudsområdet [Numbers and statistics about daycare]. Retrieved from https://www.uvm.dk/Dagtilbud/Love-og-regler/StatistikGoogle Scholar
Danish Ministry of Immigration and Integration. (2016). Integration i tal [Numbers on integration]. Retrieved from http://uim.dk/nyheder/integration-i-tal/integration-i-tal-nr-3-september-2016/efterkommere-i-dagtilbudGoogle Scholar
Demie, F. (2001). Ethnic and gender differences in educational achievement and implications for school improvement strategies. Educational Research, 43, 91–106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dickinson, D. K., McCabe, A., Clark-Chiarelli, N., & Wolf, A. (2004). Cross-language transfer of phonological awareness in low-income Spanish and English bilingual preschool children. Applied Psycholinguistics, 25, 323–347. doi: 10.1017/S0142716404001158CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dustmann, C., Frattini, T., & Lanzara, G. (2012). Educational achievement of second-generation immigrants: An international comparison. Economic Policy, 27, 143–185. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-0327.2011.00275.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Floccia, C., Sambrook, T. D., Luche, C. D., Kwok, R., Goslin, J., White, L., … Plunkett, K. (2018). III: Analyses and results for study 1: Estimating the effect of linguistic distance on vocabulary development. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 83, 43–60. doi: 10.1111/mono.12350CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fuligni, A. J. (1997). The academic achievement of adolescents from immigrant families: The roles of family background, attitudes and behavior. Child Development, 68, 351–363.Google ScholarPubMed
Gang, I. N., & Zimmermann, K. F. (2000). Is child like parent? Educational attainment and ethnic origin. Journal of Human Resources, 35, 550–569.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gathercole, V. C. M., Kennedy, I., & Thomas, E. M. (2016). Socioeconomic level and bilinguals’ performance on language and cognitive measures. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 19, 1057–1078.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hakuta, K., Butler, Y. G., & Witt, D. (2000). How long does it take English learners to attain proficency? Santa Barbara, CA: University of California Linguistic Minority Research Institute.Google Scholar
Hammer, C. S., Hoff, E., Uchikoshi, Y., Gillanders, C., Castro, D., & Sandilos, L. E. (2014). The language and literacy development of young dual language learners: A critical review. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 29, 715–733. doi: 10.1016/j.ecresq.2014.05.008CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Han, W.-J. (2008). The academic trajectories of children of immigrants and their school environments. Developmental Psychology, 44, 1572.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Han, W.-J. (2012). Bilingualism and academic achievement. Child Development, 83, 300–321. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2011.01686.xCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hoff, E., Rumiche, R., Burridge, A., Ribot, K. M., & Welsh, S. N. (2014). Expressive vocabulary development in children from bilingual and monolingual homes: A longitudinal study from two to four years. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 29, 433–444.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Justice, L. M., Logan, J. R., & Damschroder, L. (2015). Designing caregiver-implemented shared-reading interventions to overcome implementation barriers. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 58, S1851–S1863. doi: 10.1044/2015_JSLHR-L-14-0344CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Justice, L. M., McGinty, A. S., Cabell, S. Q., Kilday, C. R., Knighton, K., & Huffman, G. (2010). Language and literacy curriculum supplement for preschoolers who are academically at risk: A feasibility study. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 41, 161–178.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kieffer, M. J. (2008). Catching up or falling behind? Initial English proficiency, concentrated poverty, and the reading growth of language minority learners in the United States. Journal of Educational Psychology, 100, 851.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kieffer, M. J. (2012). Early oral language and later reading development in Spanish-speaking English language learners: Evidence from a nine-year longitudinal study. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 33, 146–157. doi: 10.1016/j.appdev.2012.02.003CrossRefGoogle Scholar
KREVI. (2011). Folkeskolens Faglige Kvalitet: Analyse af Skolernes Undervisningseffekt [The quality of Danish public schools: Analysis of the schools’ teaching efficiency]. Retrieved from http://krevi.dk/files/Rapport_Folkeskolens_faglige_kvalitet.pdfGoogle Scholar
López, L. M., & Greenfield, D. B. (2004). The cross-language transfer of phonological skills of Hispanic Head Start children. Bilingual Research Journal, 28, 1–18. doi: 10.1080/15235882.2004.10162609CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lundberg, S., & Rose, E. (2000). Parenthood and the earnings of married men and women. Labour Economics, 7, 689–710. doi: 10.1016/S0927-5371(00)00020-8CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mancilla-Martinez, J., & Lesaux, N. K. (2011). The gap between spanish speakers’ word reading and word knowledge: A longitudinal study. Child Development, 82, 1544–1560. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2011.01633.xCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Marchman, V. A., Fernald, A., & Hurtado, N. (2010). How vocabulary size in two languages relates to efficiency in spoken word recognition by young Spanish-English bilinguals. Journal of Child Language, 37, 817–840. doi: 10.1017/S0305000909990055CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mayberry, R. I., & Lock, E. (2003). Age constraints on first versus second language acquisition: Evidence for linguistic plasticity and epigenesis. Brain and Language, 87, 369–384.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
National Early Literacy Panel. (2008). Developing Early Literacy. Washington, DC: National Institute for Literacy.Google Scholar
Oller, D. K., Pearson, B. Z., & Cobo-Lewis, A. B. (2007). Profile effects in early bilingual language and literacy. Applied Psycholinguistics, 28, 191–230.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Proctor, C. P., Carlo, M., August, D., & Snow, C. (2005). Native Spanish-speaking children reading in English: Toward a model of comprehension. Journal of Educational Psychology, 97, 246.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Raudenbush, S. W., & Bryk, A. S. (2002). Hierarchical Linear Models: Applications and Data Analysis Methods (Vol. 1). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Rescorla, L. (2009). Age 17 language and reading outcomes in late-talking toddlers: Support for a dimensional perspective on language delay. Journal of Speech, Language & Hearing Research, 52, 16–30.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ryan, C. L., & Bauman, K. (2016). Educational attainment in the United States: 2015. Retrieved from US Census Bureau, http://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2016/demo/p20-578.pdfGoogle Scholar
Santos, M. D. D., & Wolff, F.-C. (2011). Human capital background and the educational attainment of second-generation immigrants in France. Economics of Education Review, 30, 1085–1096. doi: 10.1016/j.econedurev.2011.05.012CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scheele, A. F., Leseman, P. P., & Mayo, A. Y. (2010). The home language environment of monolingual and bilingual children and their language proficiency. Applied Psycholinguistics, 31, 117–140.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scheeren, L., Das, M., & Liefbroer, A. C. (2017). Intergenerational transmission of educational attainment in adoptive families in the Netherlands. Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, 48, 10–19. doi: 10.1016/j.rssm.2016.12.002CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schnepf, S. V. (2004). How different are immigrants? A cross-country and cross-survey analysis of educational achievement. IZA Discussion Paper 1398. Bonn, Germany: IZA.Google Scholar
Schwartz, A. E., & Stiefel, L. (2006). Is there a nativity gap? New evidence on the academic performance of immigrant students. Education, 1, 17–49.Google Scholar
Statistics Denmark. (2018). Indvandrere og Efterkommere [First and second genereation immigrants]. Retrieved from https://www.dst.dk/da/Statistik/emner/befolkning-og-valg/indvandrere-og-efterkommere/indvandrere-og-efterkommereGoogle Scholar
Strand, S., & Demie, F. (2005). English language acquisition and educational attainment at the end of primary school. Educational Studies, 13, 275–291. doi: 10.1080/03055690500236613CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thordardottir, E., Rothenberg, A., Rivard, M.-E., & Naves, R. (2006). Bilingual assessment: Can overall proficiency be estimated from separate measurement of two languages? Journal of Multilingual Communication Disorders, 4, 1–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Verhoeven, L. (2007). Early bilingualism, language transfer, and phonological awareness. Applied Psycholinguistics, 28, 425–439. doi: 10.1017/S0142716407070233CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, K. R. (1982). The relation between socioeconomic status and academic achievement. Psychological Bulletin, 91, 461–481.CrossRefGoogle Scholar