Het inzetten van meertaligheid in het leerproces: effecten van een meertalige digitale leeromgeving op prestaties wereldoriëntatie

Linguistic diversity is often perceived as an obstacle for learning, resulting in the exclusion of pupils’ home languages at school. However, scientific research advocates the inclusion of pupils’ multilingual repertoires for language minority (LMi) pupils’ well-being and learning. In line with this, the Validiv-intervention aimed to welcome all pupils’ home languages through introducing three experimental tools. This study evaluates the effectiveness of the Validiv-intervention on pupils’ science achievement, focusing in particular on E-Validiv, a multilingual computer-based learning environment that pupils worked with during science class. We also investigate whether the Validiv-intervention was able to change pupils’ feelings of shame when using their home language in the school context. Data were collected from 865 LMi pupils from 60 primary schools in Flanders (Belgium). Of all the participating schools, 29 schools were randomly assigned to the intervention condition, whereas 31 schools acted as control schools. Pupils were followed during one and a half years. At the beginning of the study, they had just started in fourth grade; by its closure, they were at the end of fifth grade. Before and after the intervention, pupils were administered a science test, a reading comprehension test, and a background questionnaire. Science achievement and feelings of shame were not affected by the Validiv-project, a finding that might be explained by the implementation conditions of the intervention. A discussion of possible explanations for the absence of a significant change is provided. Furthermore, a negative association between feelings of shame and science achievement was found.

Jaar van publicatie:2015