Music supports bilingual language acquisition in Turkish immigrants : a qualitative music-educational study on preschool child development in Germany

Kurzfassung/Abstract

Previous studies revealed similarities between neuro-cognitive music and language processing, assuming specific cross-cortical interactivities to exert positive mutual effects on learning processes (Patel, 2003; Schön, Gordon and Besson, 2005); moreover the research promotes the use of music and musical instruction to support children’s language abilities. (Maclean, Bryant and Bradlet, 1987; Sposet, 2008; Rubinson, 2010; Bowen, 2010) On the basis of such hypotheses, the present study focuses especially on three crucial issues: a) How can music help Turkish children in Germany to cope with typical language related problems? b) How can Turkish families be encouraged to incorporate music-language-exercises into their everyday life? c) How can such music-educational models improve inclusion and prevent social traumatisation?

The present qualitative case study applies various interview techniques and forms of systematic observation to generate qualitative data about the parents’ perceptions of and attitudes towards educational and developmental processes, social behaviour and self-concepts, bilingualism and flexibility in verbal expression as well as complex benefits of music education representing a main focus of interest. The participants are the Turkish immigrant parents/caregivers, who have different socio-demographic backgrounds, currently live in Munich, Germany and have children, whose age vary between three and six. Five pilot and ten main participants were included in the study, which is a small purposive sample, that helped the researcher to have an in-depth analysis of the sociological events. First findings from piloting encounters and main interviews demonstrate the high impact of cultural habits and socio-demographic backgrounds on the participants’ decisions about styles and modes of music education and language training. Comparative studies involving these present and previous investigations are expected to yield crucial insights into complex conditions of bilingual respectively bicultural learning environments.