The effects of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) on students' foreign language skill development have been overestimated by previous studies, as most studies needed to have considered selection and preparation effects appropriately. We used complete survey data from a 1996-2003 cohort to investigate English skill development of N =…

The present exploratory study investigated the efficacy of secondary face-to-face classroom-based English as a Foreign Language (EFL) instruction digitally supported by the FeedBook, an interactive computer assisted language learning web-based suite of exercises providing item-level scaffolded feedback. Seventy-seven native (L1) German…

Metalinguistic awareness (MLA) is a predictor of adult foreign language (FL) learning in instructed settings. Following Bialystok and Ryan (1985) two-component model of MLA, we distinguish ML analysis as the ability to compare and select language items from ML control as the ability to detect and manipulate rule-based linguistic patterns. So far,…

This paper reports findings of a project on pedagogical translanguaging (PTL) among 128 fourth-grade students learning English as a foreign language (EFL) in German primary schools. Over a period of six months, 20% of lesson time in EFL classes was devoted to multilingualism involving students' minority languages. In a control group pre-post-test…

Striving to be more representative in their answer to the question, "What is German," many programs are expanding their curricula to include the history and perspectives of Black Germans and Austrians. Through discussion of a course on "Die afrikanische Diaspora im deutschsprachigen Europa," this article argues that examining…

This paper presents an approach to standard setting that combines the prototype group method (PGM; Eckes, 2012) with a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. The combined PGM-ROC approach is applied to setting cut scores on a placement test of English as a foreign language (EFL). To implement the PGM, experts first named learners whom…

We report on a research project that develops and measures the efficacy of multilingual teaching approaches in the early English foreign language (FL) classroom in Germany. Although there is an abundance of programmatic calls for integrating minority and other languages the students speak in FL teaching, there are few materials and methods for…

Background: English language proficiency is considered a basic skill that students from different language backgrounds are expected to master, independent of whether they are native or non-native speakers. Tests that measure language proficiency in non-native speakers are typically linked to the common European framework of reference for…

This article reports on an investigation of changes in the grammatical competence of Germans living in the Netherlands. The participants (N = 52) were asked to give their judgments on the grammaticality of infinitive clauses in German. The judgments of this group were compared to those of a control group that lived in Germany and did not have…

Most linguistic processes--acquisition, change, deterioration--take place in and are determined by a complex and multifactorial web of language internal and language external influences. This implies that the impact of each individual factor can only be determined on the basis of a careful consideration of its interplay with all other factors. The…

This study examined the impact of family interaction, perceived discrimination, stressful life events, and the hosting country on the adjustment of Israeli and German immigrants. Results show that changes in self-esteem between the 1st year of immigration and 2 and 4 years later were significantly related to family relations: the better the…

Although most researchers recognise that the language repertoire of bilinguals can vary, few studies have tried to address variation in bilingual competence in any detail. This study aims to take a first step towards further understanding the way in which bilingual competencies can vary at the level of syntax by comparing the use of syntactic…

Analyzes the everyday academic language proficiency of German-Turkish Bilinguals who grew up in Germany as children of Turkish immigrants and learned German as a second language. Everyday and academic language proficiency was measured with two different C-tests. Scores obtained were compared with those of a control group of Turkish university…