Project cammino

Multilingualism and Transition from Kindergarten to Primary School

Results of many studies have indicated that verbal skills have a significant effect on children’s academic achievement. However, accurate assessment of children’s language abilities is challenging, especially when the children are multilingual, as it is difficult to ascertain whether their language development is appropriate.

The aims of the project cammino, funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research from 2011 to 2015, were to gain better insights into how decision-makers assess the verbal skills of multilingual children, to understand better the processes involved in multiple language acquisition, and to establish valid criteria upon which speech development should be judged. To reach these aims, parents, teachers, and pediatricians have been interviewed and have completed questionnaires concerning the language performance of multilingual kindergarten children at the time of their transition to primary school. Since autumn 2012 the verbal skills of one hundred children between the ages of four and six have been measured at various points in time and their speech development has been traced.

Selected Publications

Schulz, P., Grimm, A., Geist, B., & Voet Cornelli, B. (2014). cammino – Mehrsprachigkeit am Übergang zwischen Kita und Grundschule. In Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (Ed.), Bildungsforschung 2020 – Herausforderungen und Perspektiven (pp. 281–284). Berlin: BMBF.

Voet Cornelli, B., Geist, B., Grimm, A., & Schulz, P. (2012). Wie wird der Sprachstand mehrsprachiger Kinder in pädiatrischen Vorsorgeuntersuchungen erhoben? Erste Ergebnisse aus dem Projekt cammino. In S. Jeuk, & J. Schäfer (Eds.), Deutsch als Zweitsprache in Kindertageseinrichtungen und Schulen. Aneignung, Förderung, Unterricht. Beiträge aus dem 7. Workshop Kinder mit Migrationshintergrund (pp. 43–73). Freiburg im Breisgau: Fillibach.