The development of newly immigrated students’ receptive vocabulary size in German and English

词汇技能的重要性，特别是对第二语言学习者是众所周知的，以前的研究表明，词汇技能与其他语言技能，如阅读理解（Lervåg和Aukrust，2010）。能够用教学语言阅读是学校教授的几乎所有科目的先决条件。例如，在家不讲德语的学生用德语解决数学单词问题的能力受到他们德语词汇技能的影响（Paetsch和Kempert，2022）。在我的项目中，我计划调查在德国就读中学的新移民学生的接受性词汇量。我计划特别关注那些由于年龄原因被分配到德国中学的新移民学生，他们在德国开始上学时并不精通德语。现有的几项针对学龄移民的研究表明，年龄较小的儿童比年龄较大的儿童更容易达到与其年龄相适应的标准（帕拉迪斯等人，2020; Thordardottir和Juliusdottir，2013），从而进一步强调了调查这一特定的第二语言学习者群体的重要性。第一个目标是调查他们的接受词汇量在德国相比，他们的同龄人参加德国学校从一年级的差异。第二个目标是评估与较大词汇量相关的不同因素（德国的学校教育时间、德语支持计划的持续时间和强度、学校课程之外的德语输入和使用以及抵达年龄）。此外，我计划调查在学校教授的第一外语（英语）的接受性词汇量，以评估这两种语言的词汇发展是如何相关的。一方面，有证据表明，教学语言（德语）的语言熟练程度是学校教授的外语语言熟练程度的重要预测因素（Baumert等人，2020年）。另一方面，将德语作为第二语言的双语儿童在外语学习方面具有优势（Salomé等人，2022年）。因此，调查双语儿童在外语学习中可能具有优势的条件将是有趣的。两种语言的接受性词汇量将使用基于频率的词汇测试进行评估。该测试基于Nation（1983）词汇水平测试，由五个频率水平组成，每个频率水平包含30个目标单词，这些单词来自1000，2000，3000，4000和5000个最常见的德语和英国英语单词。该测试将在两个不同的时间点对100名新移民学生和100名同龄人进行，以便能够调查发展情况。

The importance of vocabulary skills particularly for second language learners is well-known, and previous studies have shown that vocabulary skills correlate with other language skills such as reading comprehension (Lervåg and Aukrust, 2010). Being able to read in the language of instruction is a prerequisite for almost all subjects taught in school. For example, the ability of students who did not speak German at home to solve math word problems in German was influenced by their vocabulary skills in German (Paetsch and Kempert, 2022). In my project, I plan to investigate the receptive vocabulary size of newly immigrated students attending secondary schools in Germany. I plan to specifically focus on newly immigrated students who were allocated to a secondary school in Germany due to their age and who were not proficient in German when they started school in Germany. The few available studies that have focused on school-aged immigrants indicate that it is easier for children who arrive at a younger age to meet their age-appropriate norms than it is for older children (Paradis et al., 2020; Thordardottir and Juliusdottir, 2013), thus further highlighting the importance to investigate this specific group of second-language learners. The first goal is to investigate the difference between their receptive vocabulary size in German in comparison to that of their peers attending German schools since Grade 1. The second goal is to assess different factors (length of schooling in Germany, duration and intensity of German language support programs, German input and use outside of school lessons as well as age of arrival) that correlate with larger vocabulary sizes. In addition, I plan to investigate the receptive vocabulary size in the first foreign language taught at school (English) in order to assess how the vocabulary development in these two languages is correlated. On the one hand, there is evidence that the language proficiency in the language of instruction (German) is an important predictor for the language proficiency in the foreign language taught at school (Baumert et al., 2020). On the other hand, bilingual children acquiring German as a second language were shown to have advantages with regard to foreign language learning (Salomé et al., 2022). Therefore, it will be interesting to investigate the conditions under which bilingual children might have an advantage in foreign language learning. The receptive vocabulary size in both languages will be assessed using frequency-based vocabulary tests. The test is based on Nation’s (1983) Vocabulary Levels Test and consists of five frequency levels containing 30 target words each, which were taken from the 1000, 2000, 3000, 4000 and 5000 most frequent German and British English words. The test will be administered to 100 newly immigrated students and 100 of their peers at two different time points in order to be able to investigate the development.