Der Zusammenhang Von Muttersprache Und Zweit-Sprache Bei Der Sozialisation Von Migrantenkindern in Der Bundesrepublik Deutschland

In the Federal Republic of Germany a discussion is going on about the role of teaching the mother tongue. This paper presents part of the data from a project presently carried out at the University of Essen (FRG). They consist of language tests (C-tests) in both the mother tongue of the students and German, as well as of a social survey investigating the students' attitude to school, the social situation and the language spoken at home, etc.
The sample was taken from three nationalities. 1200 Greek, Turkish and Yugoslavian students were tested (400 for each nationality) aged between 10 and 16 (5th. to 10th. grade in the German school system). The sample was grouped into sets of two grades (5th, 6th. 7th., 8th. and 9th andl0th grade in the German school system) in each nationality.
The language data confirm that supporting the mother tongue has no bad effects on the acquisition of the second language.