Chapter 3
Correlates of Turkish vocabulary in
adolescent Turkish heritage language learners in
Germany
An explorative study
Little is known about
resources for adolescent heritage language
learners’ vocabulary. In a sample of adolescents
(n = 78), we exploratively
examined correlates of seventh-graders’ Turkish
vocabulary as potential resources. Drawing on what
is known about young heritage language learners
and monolingual adolescent vocabulary learners, we
considered a number of adolescent characteristics
such as nonverbal reasoning (analogies subtest of
the SON-R, Snijders, Tellegen, & Laros, 2005) and
their self-reported identification with Turkish
culture (Berry
et al., 1993; Phinney & Ong, 2007). We
also considered adolescents’ self-reports on
reading activities, language use in the family and
among friends, the percentage of Turkish speakers
among their friends, as well as whether they
attended Turkish classes. Turkish receptive
vocabulary was assessed with an adapted research
version modelled on the PPVT-4 (Dunn & Dunn,
2007; Glück, 2009). A set of regression analyses
indicated that adolescent characteristics such as
nonverbal reasoning skills and identification with
the Turkish culture explained the most variance in
Turkish vocabulary. This suggests that being motivated
to maintain the heritage language may be major
resources for adolescents’ vocabulary. However, it
raises the question from what sources adolescents
are receiving input in their heritage language. We
discuss various reasons for why the other factors
such as language use in the family and reading
activities may not have shown significant
connections to Turkish vocabulary and provide
impulses for further research.
Article outline
-
1.Introduction
- 1.1Young heritage language learners’
vocabulary development
- 1.2Monolingual adolescents’ vocabulary
development
- 1.3Adolescent Turkish heritage language
learners in Germany
- 2.This study: Potential resources for adolescents’
Turkish heritage language vocabulary
- 3.Method
- 3.1Recruitment
- 3.2Participants
- 3.3Measures
- 3.3.1Turkish receptive vocabulary
- 3.3.2Adolescent questionnaire
- 3.3.3Nonverbal reasoning
- 3.4Procedure
- 4.Results
- 4.1Bivariate correlations
- 4.2Multiple regression analyses
- 5.Discussion
- 5.1Adolescents own characteristics are
potential resources
- 5.2Reading as a resource?
- 5.3Family language use as a resource?
- 5.4Friends as a resource?
- 5.5Instruction as a resource?
- 5.6Limitations and future directions
- 6.Conclusion
-
References