Language skills of qualified persons in education (SprachKoPF)

Starting point were the following three research questions: 1. Can language advancement competence be standardized, computer-based and time-effectively be tested in a way that the target population in the elementary field edits the test instrument well and with adequate motivation? 2. What do pedagogically qualified employees know about language, language acquisition and multilingualism as well as about language diagnostics and language advancement in relation to the current state of knowledge in language acquisition research? 3.

Which influence do different dimensions of professionalism of pedagogically qualified employees have on their language advancement competence? The answer to the first, methodological-statistical question is combined with the examination of test-statistical quality criteria as well as with the practicability and the assessment of the relevance and acceptance of the instrument by the target group. The second, content-related question is closely linked with the examination of validity of the underlying construct of language advancement competence (Hopp, Thoma and Tracy 2010), while the third, professionality-related question is accompanied by the investigation of relevance and representativeness of contents and test persons (content validity).

Topics: information on work place: institution; position within the institution; full-time or part-time work; share of children with native language other than German. Language biography: native language German or other native language; foreign language competence and competence level; way of acquisition of German language. School education: highest school qualification; country of acquiring graduation; final grade of the school leaving certificate; grade in the subject German; grammar lessons in the subject German respectively another language; affinity for grammar lessons and for language; occupation with language (e.g. reading books or magazines , writing, reading out).

Professional education: learned profession (educator, childcare worker, social pedagogue); institution of vocational training; duration of training; year of ending vocational training; year of professional activity (classed). Further education: further training on the field of language; number, duration and topics of the further education; further training for an advancement program respectively a process for the assessment of literacy skills; naming of the particular process; time of last further training; implementation of the knowledge to practice; satisfaction with the further training; further education enables to perform language advancement and to assess the language development of children in the German language; preferences for the range of future further trainings in the area of language; additionally used opportunities for further education.

Language advancement in the institution: prioritized language advancement of children with German as native language, of children who start learning German in the nursery or of all children of the institution; personal sense of responsibility for the linguistic development of the above named groups of children; implementation of language advancement; preference for intuitive and spontaneous language advancement instead of advancement material; integral language advancement more important than advancement in special language areas; years of language advancement; used advancement program; application of Würzburger Training; type of organization of language advancement (according to instructions with material of a advancement program, according to guidelines of the advancement program with own aspects or exclusively self-designed elements).

Assessment of literacy skills: ascertainment of literacy skills prior to language development; use of a process for the assessment of literacy skills (Sismik, Seldak, HAVAS-5, SETK 3-5, MSS, VER-ES, DELFIN-4, CITO, Fit in Deutsch, HASE) and reason (open comment); additionally used processes and reason; observation and assessment of language development of a child regarding vocabulary, sentence structure etc. by video.

Language development competence, partial competence knowledge: detailed recording of own knowledge in the fields phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, sociolinguistics, language acquisition, language advancement and language diagnostics by test paper language advancement competence. Demography: age; gender; location of institution; birthplace/country of origin; duration of residence in Germany. Additionally coded: date of interview, beginning of interview; test person-ID; test values (linguistic knowledge, application-oriented knowledge, phonology, lexicon, morphology, syntax, semantics/pragmatics, sociolinguistics, language acquisition, language advancement and language diagnostics, knowledge, being able to observe and overall test value).