Acquisition and promotion of language and reading competencies
The PISA study conducted in 2000 showed that almost 23 percent of 15-year-olds in Germany did not reach proficiency level II for reading comprehension. While students who fall below proficiency level II are capable of extracting information from the surface of the text and of making basic connections between information stated explicitly in the text and their everyday knowledge, they only succeed in doing so if they are given concrete references to the relevant information in the text. If asked to integrate information from different parts of the text, the students will struggle. We can assume that these young people will have difficulties in fulfilling the basic reading comprehension tasks that will arise in daily life and in training situations.
Although the number of 15-year-olds failing to achieve level II fell significantly between 2000 and 2009, the figure (18.5 percent) is still very high. In addition, the language spoken at home has been shown to have a major impact on a student’s reading performance in school. In particular, children and young people from immigrant families often lack opportunities to acquire the German-language skills necessary for a successful school career.
Against the background of the particular significance of language skills, we are involved in a series of research projects focussing different facets of language and reading competencies, as well as their precursor skills. Besides questions concerning the acquisition, measurement and promotion of language competencies, structural characteristics of language skills and their cognitive, motivational and affective determinants in different contexts are also investigated. Particular attention is given to children and adolescents with different language and family backgrounds as well as the respective disparities in the language of instruction involved.
Part of the investigation is, e.g., if and which features of the so called academic language (e.g., the complexity of the grammar or the abstractness of the vocabulary) cause non-native speakers particular difficulties in understanding German language texts. Another area of our work focuses on how the skills that students of non-German origin have in their native language affect their acquisition of German and their success in school. In addition to an evaluation of methods for language and reading promotion that are already implemented, another emphasis of our research activity lies on a theory-led development of new approaches to language promotion in professional contexts and the systematic investigation of their effectiveness within the framework of experimental and quasi-experimental studies. Our research activities in this field also include evaluating promotional measures that have already been implemented, using theory-led methods to develop new approaches to language promotion, and carrying out field studies to systematically examine the effectiveness of these approaches.
Selected publications:
- Darsow, A., Paetsch, J., Stanat, P. & Felbrich, A. (2012). Ansätze der Zweitsprachförderung: Eine Systematisierung. Unterrichtswissenschaft, 40, 64–82.
- Edele, A. & Stanat, P. (2015, July 20). The role of first-language listening comprehension in second-language reading comprehension. Journal of Educational Psychology. Advance online publication. doi:10.1037/edu0000060
- Henschel, S., & Schaffner, E. (2014). Differenzielle Zusammenhänge zwischen Komponenten der Lesemotivation und dem Verständnis literarischer bzw. expositorischer Texte. Psychologie in Erziehung und Unterricht, 16, 112-126. doi: 10.2378/peu2014.art10d
- Heppt, B., Haag, N., Böhme, K., & Stanat, P. (2015). The role of academic-language features for reading comprehension of language-minority students and students from low-SES Families. Reading Research Quarterly, 50, 61-82. doi: 10.1002/rrq.83
- Heppt, B., Stanat, P., Dragon, N., Berendes, K., & Weinert, S. (2014). Bildungssprachliche Anforderungen und Hörverstehen bei Kindern mit deutscher und nicht-deutscher Familiensprache. Zeitschrift für pädagogische Psychologie, 28, 1-11. doi: 10.1024/1010-0652/a000130
- Kempert, S., Edele, A., Rauch, D., Paetsch, J., Darsow, A., Wolf, K., Maluch, J., & Stanat, P. (im Druck). Die Rolle der Sprache für zuwanderungsbezogene Ungleichheiten im Bildungserfolg. In: C. Diehl, C. Hunkler & C. Kristen (Hrsg.), Ethnische Ungleichheiten im Bildungsverlauf: Mechanismen, Befunde, Debatten. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag.
- Maluch, J. T., Kempert, S., Neumann, M., & Stanat, P. (2015). The effect of speaking a minority language at home on foreign language learning. Learning and Instruction, 36, 76–85. doi: 10.1016/j.learninstruc.2014.12.001
- Marx, A., Stanat, P., Roick, T., Segerer, R., Marx, P., & Schneider, W. (2015). Components of reading comprehension in adolescent first-language and second-language students from low-track schools. Reading and Writing, 28, 891-914. doi: 10.1007/s11145-015-9554-3
- Paetsch, J., Wolf, K. M., Stanat, P. & Darsow, A. (2014). Sprachförderung von Kindern und Jugendlichen aus Zuwandererfamilien. Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft, 17, 315-347. doi: 10.1007/s11618-013-0474-1
- Schöppe, D., Blatter, K., Faust, V., Jäger, D., Stanat, P., Artelt, C. et al. (2013). Effekte eines Trainings der phonologischen Bewusstheit bei Vorschulkindern mit unterschiedlichem Sprachhintergrund. Zeitschrift für Pädagogische Psychologie, 27 (4), 241–254. doi: 10.1024/1010-0652/a000110
- Stanat, P., Becker, M., Baumert, J., Lüdtke, O. & Eckhardt, A. G. (2012). Improving second language skills of immigrant students: A field trial study evaluating the effects of a summer learning program. Learning and Instruction, 22, 159–170. doi: 10.1016/j.learninstruc.2011.10.002
- Wolf, K. M., Felbrich, A., Stanat, P. & Wendt, W. (2011), Evaluation der kompensatorischen Sprachförderung in Brandenburger Kindertagesstätten. Empirische Pädagogik, 25 (4), 423–438.