Project meRLe

Promoting German reading skills via multilingual-sensitive reciprocal teaching in primary education

With our project meRLe we aim to take up the linguistic diversity of fourth grade primary school children and integrate it into our programme for learning and reading strategies. Reading is a key competence for successful education. Reading and learning strategies support children’s scholastic achievement even after their transition to secondary school. A scientifically based method to acquire these strategies is “reciprocal teaching” where pupils learn and teach each other the strategies in small groups.What is special about the project meRLe? Children can use all languages in the classroom that may help them learn the strategies. This fosters a cooperative learning environment in which German and all other languages are welcome.

The project meRLe addresses primary schools in North Rhine-Westphalia and Hesse. The participating teachers receive free and scientifically sound training and classroom materials to implement multilingual-sensitive reciprocal teaching into their classes. Furthermore, teachers get opportunities on how to develop the multilingual children’s German reading skills without speaking these languages themselves. The programme will be evaluated via questionnaires and video recordings to gain new insights into the support of children’s reading competence.

Cooperation

Bergische Universität Wuppertal

Selected Publication

• Schastak, M., Reitenbach, V., Rauch, D. & Decristan, J. (2017). Türkisch-deutsch bilinguale Interaktion beim Peer-Learning in der Grundschule: Selbstberichtete Gründe für die Annahme oder Ablehnung bilingualer Interaktionsangebote. Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft, 20, 213–23.
• Kempert, S., Edele, A., Rauch, D., Wolf, K., M., Paetsch, J., Darsow, A., Maluch, J. & Stanat, P. (2016). Die Rolle der Sprache bei der Entstehung, Aufrechterhaltung und Kompensation ethnischer Bildungsungleichheiten. In. C. Diehl, C., Hunkler, C. Kristen (Hrsg.) Ethnische Ungleichheiten im Bildungsverlauf: Mechanismen, Befunde, Debatten, Teil II; Mechanismen der Entstehung und Reproduktion ethnischer Bildungsungleichheiten: Ziele, Ressourcen und Opportunitäten, (pp.157-241). Berlin: Springer.