Background A physical education (PE) intervention for young refugees was designed combining physical activity within the context of primary PE games with second language learning activities in German. The intervention was based on theoretical implications from the field of second language acquisition and evidence for positive effects of physical activity on cognitive outcomes (e.g. language acquisition). The aim of this study was to analyze short term effects on second language acquisition. Methods Sixty-one young refugees were included in the study (age: 8.5 ± 1.4 years). The intervention group participated in language-enriched PE lessons based on an elaborated approach to second language learning acquisition. The control group did not receive any treatment. Both groups were pre-and post-tested in domain specific vocabulary, listening comprehension and use of local prepositions within the context of primary PE games. Results Results from linear mixed-effect modelling suggest that the intervention group significantly improved domain specific vocabulary and listening comprehension in comparison to the control group. Conclusions The intervention was successful since the PE lessons contributed to the second language acquisition of young refugees. Therefore, this learning approach might also be useful for physical activity based second language learning activities in other PE contexts for early second language learners in primary school. © 2018 Mirko Krüger. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

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primary school physical activity Language Tests communication barrier language development Communication Barriers comprehension refugee human Refugees controlled study language Vocabulary Humans school child psychology male female pilot study Article human experiment Pilot Projects Multilingualism physical education Learning Physical Education and Training language test Child