The relationship between first and second language reading skills of Turkish immigrant children growing up in the Netherlands

Abstract

By using empirical evidence derived from a bilingual test of reading in Dutch-Turkish, French-Turkish and German- Turkish from 10 years-old and 15 years-old Turkish immigrant children growing up in the Netherlands, France andGermany, this presentation discusses the claimed link between first and second language skills of Turkish bilingual children. By using international testing programs, PIRLS & PISA tests, we tested the reading proficiency of 10 and15 years-old Turkish immigrant children. The linguistic interdependence hypothesis of Jim Cummins (1979) is for the first time tested in the Netherlands in two different age groups. The findings support Cummins’ hypothesis, thatthe level of the second language competence of a bilingual child is indeed partially a function of the type of competence the child has already developed in the first language. This research also concludes that the competences in the first and second languages are more comparable for the 15 years-old Turkish immigrant children than for the 10 years-old children. Significant differences between the national contexts show the possibleeffects of integration policies on the cognitive outcomes of acculturation.