The relationship between the language development competencies of pedagogical and teaching staff and the linguistic development of children

In your dissertation, you are looking at the influence of teachers' language development skills on children's linguistic development. How does language development take shape in children and what can be influenced?

Children's first language development begins before birth and continues until the end of nursery school and the beginning of primary school. Children seem to learn their first language almost effortlessly and automatically: first, individual words are learned, which then develop into two-word sentences, which in turn are followed by complex word combinations and sentences. Language development can be divided into different milestones and language domains (e.g. lexis, semantics, syntax, morphology), which are based on different development mechanisms. Children succeed in learning their first language under a wide variety of environmental conditions. However, it is important that the linguistic input the child receives is of high quality (i.e. varied, grammatically and lexically rich and intensive).

How can the influence of teachers on children's language development be analyzed? What methods did you apply?

There are various approaches to investigating the influence of language development skills on children's language development. Interviews, case vignettes, video recordings or standardized tests are used to record the language development skills of specialists and teachers. Standardized language assessment procedures have become established for recording children's language skills. I myself have chosen a mixed methods approach. I evaluated the data from the standardized online test SprachKoPFv07 at two times in order to record the theoretical knowledge and abilities (skills) of the teachers. The language development activities were evaluated at the first point in time from a sub-sample based on the use of language development techniques. The children's language level was recorded and evaluated at three points in time using the SET 5-10.

What are the results of your study? Have your expectations been confirmed or were there any surprises with regard to the results?

My work provides important information on possible correlations between the language development skills of specialist and teaching staff and the linguistic development of children. In particular, children with a linguistically weaker starting level seem to benefit from the support. In my view, a differentiated approach according to the individual language domains is a sensible way of investigating possible correlations and should definitely be pursued further. I never expected to be able to fully answer my research questions within the scope of my dissertation. Rather, I expected to be able to contribute to clarifying the connection between language development skills and language development, which I was able to do.