Länderbericht Luxemburg: Épreuves Standardisées (ÉpStan)

Presentation (2013, October)

Bilingualism enriches the poor: Enhanced cognitive control in low-income minority children

Scientific Conference (2013, September 04)

Living in poverty is often accompanied by conditions that can negatively influence cognitive development. Is it possible that being bilingual might counteract these effects? Although previous research has ... [more ▼]

Living in poverty is often accompanied by conditions that can negatively influence cognitive development. Is it possible that being bilingual might counteract these effects? Although previous research has shown that being bilingual enhances executive functioning in middle-class children, less is known about how it affects lower income populations. This study was the first to explore whether the cognitive advantage associated with bilingualism in executive functioning extends to young immigrant children challenged by poverty and, if it does, which specific processes are most affected. A total of 80 second graders from low-income families participated in the study. Half of the children were first or second generation immigrants to Luxembourg, originally from Northern Portugal, who spoke both Luxembourgish and Portuguese on a daily basis. The other matched half of children lived in Northern Portugal and spoke only Portuguese. Children completed measures of vocabulary and visuospatial tests of working memory, abstract reasoning, selective attention, and interference suppression. Two broad cognitive factors of executive functioning — representation (abstract reasoning and working memory) and control (selective attention and interference suppression) — emerged from principal component analysis. Although the bilingual children knew fewer words than their monolingual peers, and did not show an advantage in representation, the bilinguals performed significantly better than did the monolinguals in cognitive control. These results demonstrate, first, that the bilingual advantage is neither confounded with nor limited by socioeconomic and cultural factors and, second, that separable aspects of executive functioning are differentially affected by bilingualism. The bilingual advantage lies in control but not in visuospatial representational processes. This is the first study to show that, although they may face linguistic challenges, minority bilingual children from low-income families demonstrate important strengths in other cognitive domains. The study therefore informs efforts to reduce the achievement gap between children of different socioeconomic backgrounds. [less ▲]

Lehrerurteile sagen Lebensläufe voraus

Scientific Conference (2013, September)

How well does ‚general language proficiency’ explain language test performance?

Scientific Conference (2013, August 28)

The current research addresses the seemingly contradiction between the multiple findings of C-tests loading on a single general language proficiency (GLP) factor on the one hand, and the assumption that ... [more ▼]

The current research addresses the seemingly contradiction between the multiple findings of C-tests loading on a single general language proficiency (GLP) factor on the one hand, and the assumption that language proficiency as considered by language testing researchers is multi-dimensional. Research on the structure of language proficiency and in psycholinguistics suggests that GLP may best be represented as the common core across diverse language measures. In the present research, it is hypothesized that C-tests are excellent measures of this common core. In contrast, other language measures, beyond putting demands on GLP, are assumed to tap unique processes, explaining why multi-dimensionality often best reflects the structure of language measures. The current research addresses this hypothesis by examining structural equation models that evaluate alternative assumptions about the dimensionality of language proficiency. 222 students from the highest academic school track in Luxembourg completed a French C-test, as well as the Test de Connaissance du Français (TCF), encompassing measures of reading, listening, speaking and writing. The results show that the four TCF measures put extra demands on unique processes, whereas the C-test measured GLP only. The findings point out that the C-test should not be expected to replace measures of the four basic language skills, i.e., of reading and listening comprehension, or of written and spoken production, when a clear diagnostic of language proficiency in one of those domains is needed. [less ▲]

Impact of Usability on Computer-Based Concept Maps in Educational Assessment

Presentation (2013, July 03)

A meta-analysis of the effectiveness of bilingual programs in Europe

in The 9th International Symposium on Bilingualism (2013, June)

The effectiveness of bilingual programs for promoting academic achievement of language-minority in the United States has been examined in six meta-analyses. The present meta-analytic study investigates ... [more ▼]

The effectiveness of bilingual programs for promoting academic achievement of language-minority in the United States has been examined in six meta-analyses. The present meta-analytic study investigates this topic for the first time in the European context. Thorough literature searches uncovered 101 European studies, with only seven meeting the inclusion criteria. Two studies were excluded from further analyses. Results from the random-effects model of the five remaining studies indicate a small positive effect (g = 0.23; 95% CI [0.10, 0.36]) for bilingual over submersion programs on reading of language-minority children. Thus, this meta-analysis supports bilingual education—that is, including the home language of language-minority children—in school instruction. However, the generalizability of the results is limited by the small number of studies on this topic. More published studies on bilingual education in Europe are needed as well as closer attention to the size of the effects. [less ▲]

Differential network-activations in adults, typical children and children with developmental dyscalculia

Poster (2013, March 01)

Evaluation externe d’un lycée-pilote au Luxembourg – utilisation de questionnaires en miroir pour comparer l’opinion des différents acteurs de la communauté scolaire.

in Actes du 25ème colloque de l’ADMEE-Europe Fribourg 2013 : Evaluation et autoévaluation, quels espaces de formation (2013)

PISA 2012 – Ziele der Studie und methodische Grundlagen

in SCRIPT; EMACS (Eds.) PISA 2012. Nationaler Bericht Luxemburg (2013)

Unterschiede zwischen Schulformen und das Pilotprojekt PROCI

in SCRIPT; EMACS (Eds.) PISA 2012. Nationaler Bericht Luxemburg (2013)