Classroom composition, classroom quality and German skills of very young dual language learners and German-only learners

Abstract

This study examined associations between the classroom percentage of dual language learners (DLLs), observed classroom quality, and children's German majority language skills. The cross-sectional sample of 2.5 years olds (n = 93 immigrant DLLs and n = 363 monolingual German-only learners) was clustered within n = 197 classrooms. Classrooms with higher percentages of DLLs demonstrated slightly lower levels of overall classroom process quality. DLLs scored about 1 SD below monolingual children on German language skills when adjusting for family and classroom covariates. Moderation analyses revealed that this difference did not depend on the percentage of DLLs in a classroom. In fact, the classroom percentage of DLLs was related to children's German skills only when omitting the child level language status (DLL vs. monolingual) from the analyses. However, classroom quality moderated the difference between DLLs’ and monolingual children's German skills. This difference was estimated as about only 0.5 SD for DLLs and monolingual children experiencing higher classroom quality, but as about 1.5 SD for those experiencing lower quality. We conclude that high quality classrooms may promote the majority language skills of DLLs.