Project management: Prof. Dr. Thomas Lachmann, apl. Prof. Dr. Maria Klatte, PD Dr. Claudia Steinbrink

Funded by: State of Rhineland-Palatinate, Ministry of the Interior and Sport

Funding volume: approx. 172,000 € (educator position TVöD 8, doctoral scholarship, material resources)

Duration: 42 months (September 2009 to February 2013)

Content:

As part of a longitudinal study, the influence of an immersive English language program in a daycare center on the linguistic development of children in German and English as well as on general cognitive development will be investigated. Two groups of kindergarten children are taking part in the study. In the immersion group, a full-time teacher who is a native English speaker communicates with the children exclusively in English, which is intended to facilitate an acquisition process similar to native language acquisition (immersion). In contrast, the control group, which is parallelized by age and gender, receives early English support with structured instruction once a week. The children's linguistic and cognitive development is assessed at the end of each kindergarten year. This is intended to quantify the learning progress of the immersion group in English compared to the control group taught using conventional methods and to rule out any negative effects of the "English language bath" on the acquisition of the German mother tongue. In addition, it will be examined whether and to what extent the beneficial effects of early bilingualism on the development of executive functions, as found in studies with children growing up bilingually, can also be evoked by immersive language learning in daycare centers.