Anuario de Psicologia
Volume 38, Issue 3, 2007, Pages 357-375

The acquisition of Spanish in migrant children. The role of length of stay and family language [La adquisición del castellano por los escolares inmigrantes. El papel del tiempo de estancia y la lengua familiar] (Article)

Huguet Á.* , Navarro J.L. , Janés J.
  • a Universidad de Lleida, Facultad de Ciencias de la Educación, Universitat de Lleida, Complex de La Caparrella s, 25192 Lleida, Spain
  • b Universidad de Lleida, Facultad de Ciencias de la Educación, Universitat de Lleida, Complex de La Caparrella s, 25192 Lleida, Spain
  • c Universidad de Lleida, Facultad de Ciencias de la Educación, Universitat de Lleida, Complex de La Caparrella s, 25192 Lleida, Spain

Abstract

Spain has recently become the largest immigrant-receiving country in the European Union. As a result, immigrant children are now entering the Spanish school system and are posing a set of challenges that were unknown until very recently. The one that probably worries teachers most is how to help their pupils achieve a level of linguistic competence that will allow them to follow teaching in a language that is often very different from their own L1. In this study, a sample of 49 immigrant boys and girls were compared to a group of 44 local pupils of the same age and school level. We analysed the progress in the knowledge of Spanish and the effect of factors such as the length of stay in the host country and the family language. The results obtained indicate that the process is long and complex, even in the case of pupils from Latin America whose L1 is Spanish. © 2007, Universitat de Barcelona, Facultat de Psicologia.

Author Keywords

Spanish Linguistic knowledge Migrant Children Length of stay

Index Keywords

linguistics male controlled study Spain female immigrant length of stay Article human language ability Child
Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-44449140418&partnerID=40&md5=8f4d234ce693cd16b9df0b10f374d1a5
ISSN: 00665126
Cited by: 24
Original Language: Spanish