Overview

The proposed project extends the study of «Regulation of Developmental Transitions in Second Generation Immigrants in Germany and Israel» (Nauck/Silbereisen) by looking at identity and attitudes and their relationship to language acquisition among Russian-background language minority children. The study focuses on linguistic and social development in early childhood (ages 4-7) and on formal transitions from home to kindergarten to school and informal transitions from family to peers to group identities. Language acquisition and language use patterns, including lexical, grammatical pragmatic and phonetic data, will be used as a window to the child’s identity and attitudes and prospects for social integration. Identity, attitude and behavioral measures of language development will be used to investigate the extent to which Russian immigrant children are likely to integrate into German and Israeli society. Data from the interface of language acquisition and identity/attitudes are expected to help identify policy options for social integration of language minority students in both formal and informal German/Israeli educational frameworks.