Executive function tasks
In addition to teaching, Kwakkel, an external PhD candidate at Radboud University, also conducted research on the bilingual development of pupils in year 2 through 5. She did so at four out of 17 pilot schools (including her own), with children aged 5 to 9. “In this age group, it’s hard to measure the development of English, because it lags behind Dutch language development,” she explains. “Young pupils rarely write or read in English, and they only speak English occasionally, and not spontaneously. And yet their English language development is already in full swing. This only becomes apparent once they become a little older and master English reading and writing. I wanted to know exactly what was going on in the youngest children's minds during their bilingual development.”
Kwakkel investigated which individual and environmental factors impacted balanced bilingual development. To do so, she followed students at four pilot schools for several years, presenting them with a number of assignments each year. “In the kindergarten phase, the assignments focused on executive function tasks,” she explains. “I would instruct the children in English to touch their own heads, shoulders or toes, for example. These tasks can be varied in a playful way, by then asking the children in English: ‘When I ask you to touch your head, touch your toes.’ This makes it possible to measure behavioural inhibitory control in the youngest pupils.”
Parents and teachers
Kwakkel also took annual measurements of the pupils' vocabulary and phonological awareness, focusing on sounds. She also surveyed parents and teachers about activities they carried out at home and in the classroom to encourage the children's bilingual development. In the process, she made a striking discovery. “I found that teachers' expectations were mostly related to Dutch language development, while parents' predictions were more related to English language development. Personally, I expected it to be the other way round, as teachers use English a lot in the classroom and children speak mainly Dutch at home. A possible explanation for this is that parents have made a conscious choice for bilingual education for their children and therefore also pay a lot of attention to English language development at home.”
According to Kwakkel, another success factor for bilingual development – besides the expectations of and the home environment – is the extent to which children are able to learn minimal differenences between sounds. “Take for example the words ‘bear and ‘pear. The difference lies in the first letters, which sound almost the same. My research shows that the better young children distinguish such sound differences and word meanings, the better they are at reading comprehension later in life. And that skill applies across languages.”
Kwakkel was able to compare the results of her study at the four pilot schools with a control group, because during the pilot period those schools had a department with Dutch-only education alongside their bilingual education programme. “The children displayed no difference in Dutch language development, irrespective of whether they were offered monolingual or bilingual education,” she says. Whether and how the results of her research can be used in the future depends on whether the government passes a proposed legislative amendment to allow full bilingual primary education. If this amendment is passed, Kwakkel hopes teachers will use the outcomes of her research. “For example, it could be very helpful to devote attention to sounds and rhymes in a playful way. And for teachers to become aware of their own expectations and of those of parents, especially as parental involvement can have a positive effect. Because a rich language environment at home also affects children's bilingual development.”
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