Tilburg University Emergent academic language at home and at school Laghzaoui, M. Publication date: 2011 Link to publication in Tilburg University Research Portal Citation for published version (APA): Laghzaoui, M. (2011). Emergent academic language at home and at school: A longitudinal study of 3-to 6-year- old Moroccan Berber children in the Netherlands. BOXPress BV. 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Download date: 30. sep. 2021 Emergent academic language at home and at school Emergent academic language at home and at school A longitudinal study of 3- to 6-year-old Moroccan Berber children in the Netherlands P R O E F S C H R I F T ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan Tilburg University op gezag van de rector magnificus, prof. dr. Ph. Eijlander, in het openbaar te verdedigen ten overstaan van een door het college voor promoties aangewezen commissie in de aula van de Universiteit op vrijdag 9 september 2011 om 10.15 uur door Mohammadi Laghzaoui geboren op 20 januari 1971 te Nador, Marokko PROMOTIECOMMISSIE Promotores prof. dr. Sjaak Kroon prof. dr. Ton Vallen † Copromotores dr. Abderrahman El Aissati dr. Jeanne Kurvers Overige leden prof. dr. Fatima Agnaou prof. dr. Jan Blommaert prof. dr. Yamina El Kirat prof. dr. Mena Lafkioui prof. dr. Ulrich Mehlem prof. dr. Kris Van den Branden ISBN 978-90-8891-316-7 NUR 616 Cover design Proefschriftmaken.nl || Printyourthesis.com Lay-out Carine Zebedee, Tilburg Printed by Proefschriftmaken.nl || Printyourthesis.com Published by Uitgeverij BOXPress, Oisterwijk © 2011 Mohammadi Laghzaoui All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any other means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission from the author. To the memory of my beloved mother To the memory of my supervisor Ton Vallen Table of contents Preface xi 1 Introduction 1 1.1 The DASH project 2 1.2 Scientific relevance 3 1.3 Societal relevance 5 1.4 Overview of the present dissertation 7 2 Berbers and their languages in Morocco and the Netherlands 9 2.1 The Berber language 9 2.2 Language attitudes, policy and use in Morocco 12 2.3 The Moroccan Berber community in the Netherlands 15 2.3.1 Demographic and immigration background 16 2.3.2 Position of Moroccan Berbers in Dutch education 17 2.3.3 Position of Moroccan Berbers in the Dutch labor market 18 2.4 Position of the Berber language in the Netherlands 19 2.4.1 Language acquisition, choice and use 20 2.4.2 Berber in the mass media 21 2.4.3 Berber in culture and religion 22 2.4.4 Berber in education 23 3 Academic language 25 3.1 Impact of interaction and input 26 3.2 Academic language: theoretical considerations 27 3.3 The academic language register 29 3.4 Lexical features of academic language 33 3.4.1 Lexical richness 33 3.4.2 Research on lexical richness 34 viii EMERGENT ACADEMIC LANGUAGE AT HOME AND AT SCHOOL 3.5 Syntactic features of academic language 36 3.5.1 Syntactic complexity 36 3.5.2 Research on syntactic complexity 37 3.6 Textual features of academic language 38 3.6.1 Decontextualization 38 3.6.2 Research on decontextualization 41 3.7 Academic language in Berber 43 4 Research design and methodology 47 4.1 Research questions 47 4.2 Recruitment procedures 48 4.2.1 Recruitment of families 48 4.2.2 Recruitment of schools 49 4.3 Instruments 50 4.3.1 Home interaction tasks 50 4.3.2 School interaction tasks 52 4.3.3 Questionnaires 54 4.3.4 Vocabulary test 56 4.4 Participants 56 4.5 Data collection 58 4.6 Transcription 59 4.6.1 Transcription of home data 60 4.6.2 Transcription of school data 61 4.7 Coding the transcripts 62 4.8 Data analysis 66 5 The lexical level of academic language: density and diversity 69 5.1 The lexical features of academic language operationalized 70 5.2 Lexical richness in mothers’ input 74 5.2.1 Relationship of mothers’ input with SES and literacy 79 5.3 Lexical richness in teachers’ input 83 5.4 Input in two settings: mothers and teachers compared 86 5.5 Lexical richness in children’s output 88 5.5.1 Home data 88 5.5.2 Relationship of children’s output with family SES and literacy 92 5.5.3 School data 94 5.5.4 Children’s home and school data compared 98 TABLE OF CONTENTS ix 5.6 Input-output relationships 101 5.7 Discussion 105 6 The morpho-syntactic level of academic language: clause combining 109 6.1 The morpho-syntactic features of academic language operationalized 110 6.2 Clause combining in mothers’ input 115 6.2.1 Relationship of mothers’ input with SES and literacy 126 6.3 Clause combining in teachers’ input 127 6.4 Input in two settings: mothers and teachers compared 133 6.5 Clause combining in children’s output 134 6.5.1 Home data 134 6.5.2 Relationship of children’s output with family SES and literacy 141 6.5.3 School data 142 6.5.4 Children’s home and school data compared 146 6.6 Input-output relationships 146 6.7 Discussion 148 7 The textual level of academic language: decontextualized language 151 7.1 Textual features of academic language operationalized 152 7.2 Decontextualized language in mothers’ input 158 7.2.1 Relationship of mothers’ input with SES and literacy 160 7.3 Decontextualized language in teachers’ input 164 7.4 Input in two settings: mothers and teachers compared 166 7.5 Children’s decontextualized language 171 7.5.1 Home data 171 7.5.2 Relationship of children’s output with family SES and literacy 172 7.5.3 School data 173 7.5.4 Children’s home and school data compared 175 7.6 Input-output relationships 176 7.7 Discussion 176 x EMERGENT ACADEMIC LANGUAGE AT HOME AND AT SCHOOL 8 Conclusions and discussion 181 8.1 Academic language input at home 181 8.2 Academic language input at school 186 8.3 Children’s use of academic language 188 8.4 Input-output relationships 195 8.5 Implications, future directions and limitations 197 References 201 Appendix 1 Example of a home transcript 219 Appendix 2 Example of a school transcript 221 Appendix 3 List of abbreviations and symbols used in the glosses 223 Appendix 4 Individual scores at the lexical level 225 Appendix 5 Individual scores at abstraction levels 229 Summary in English 231 Summary in Dutch 237 Curriculum Vitae 245 Dissertations in Language and Culture Studies 247 Preface A Moroccan Berber baby in the Netherlands hears its mother talking in Berber and starts to imitate her. Slowly, speech emerges. In time, one or more other languages will come into play - a rich inheritance that can ease learning and open doors but also a big load to carry. The period that may set the child up for success or failure is when that second language comes along, jostling with the first, pushing some language out, re-enforcing other parts, devaluing or revalidating past achievements. This PhD dissertation is about this very period - the academic language development of Moroccan Berber children in the Netherlands before the age of six. It is part of a larger research project entitled ‘Development of Academic Language in School and at Home’ (DASH). The DASH project was funded by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO). The grant number of the Berber study is 411-03-063. I am grateful to NWO for the funding provided. My scientific journey and the realization of this book could not have been finished without the help and support of many people. I am happy to acknowledge those who contributed to the completion of this work, although I know I cannot do them all justice. First and foremost I owe my deepest gratitude to my late supervisor Ton Vallen for his guidance from the very beginning of this dissertation. We started this endeavor together but he passed away without witnessing the results of his inspiration and encouragement. I would also like to thank my supervisor Sjaak Kroon who, without any hesitation stepped in and took over the task of supervision. Sjaak, although you joined the DASH project at a later stage, I benefited a lot from your broad expertise and your critical comments. I also wish to thank my co-supervisor Jeanne Kurvers for her enthusiasm and dedication. Jeanne, exactly one year ago, you told me in the corridor: ‘Dit is het jaar van de waarheid’ (this is the year of truth). Thank you for your supervision, xii EMERGENT ACADEMIC LANGUAGE AT HOME AND AT SCHOOL your methodological advice and your assistance with statistical analyses.