Conference Book - Fryske Akademy

Title
SYMPOSIUM: How can Caretakers Influence
Children’s Multilingual Language Development?
Introduction
Dr. Alex Riemersma (discussant), Name chair: Mirjam Günthervan
der Meij
Mercator European Research Centre on Multilingualism and
Language Learning c/o Fryske Akademy
50
DATE: THU 21.6
TIME: 15.30-17.10
ROOM: BRUSSELS
BIOGRAPHICAL STATEMENT
Mirjam Günther-van der Meij completed a Bachelor‘s International Degree in English and
Education (Amsterdam Faculty of Education/University of Wolverhampton) and a Master‘s Degree
in Applied Linguistics (VU University Amsterdam). She specialised in language learning disabilities
and multilingual education. For her master thesis she looked at the oral language proficiency in
Frisian, Dutch and English of primary school pupils, comparing pupils from bilingual (Frisian-Dutch)
and trilingual (Frisian-Dutch-English) schools. She worked as a trainee in the Trilingual School
project and later as a research assistant in the F-TARSP (Frisian Language Assessment
Remediation Screening Procedure) project at the Frisian Academy. Since 2010 she is a PhD
candidate at the Mercator Research Centre of the Frisian Academy. She is involved in the FRY-
EUS project, a comparative research project of the linguistic situation in the province of Fryslân in
the Netherlands and in the Basque Autonomous Community in Spain. Within this project she
studies the English language development of beginning secondary school pupils in the two regions,
looking at pupils‘ proficiency as well as cognitive processes that are involved in English language
development. The PhD-thesis is planned to be finished in 2014.
ABSTRACT
The central question of this symposium is how caretakers can influence children‘s multilingual
language development. The symposium offers a mix of theoretical and practical information on the
topic combined with research in this area. In three presentations we will discuss and learn more
about:
1) how parents‘ beliefs on the use of several languages can change;
2) how pre-school education and parents together can contribute to children‘s language
development;
3) the influence of parents (informal setting) and the role of educators (formal setting) in
the implementation and success of bilingual kindergarten programs and language
programs.
The central theme of our symposium evolves around the cooperation between parents and
educators in the bilingual language development of pre-schoolers.
In the first presentation, Nienke Boomstra will present her research on enhancing the parental
beliefs of bilingual Antillean mothers on book reading and language development of their children.