Abstracts - Earli

theory (Strauss & Corbin, 1990).Then, these understandings were subject to different statisticaltests to describe how they clustered and differed in consistent ways. The results show threedifferent clusters that were labelled empiricist/behavioural, cognitive and multiperspectivist,representing 24, 46 and 30% of the sample. Then, the relationship of these personal theories wererelated to teachers’ practice, as reported by teachers themselves. Teachers’ way of understandingknowledge and learning were, as expected, related to different teaching practices. Being aware ofteachers’ theories and understandings of these core educational concepts and their relationship toteaching practice is important in order to start educational development activities addressed toteachers on a firm basis, so that these activities are based on their epistemological beliefs andconstruct on their perceptions. The limitations and implications of these findings are discussed.F 1729 August 2007 17:00 - 18:20Room: 0.81 OrtvayPaper SessionLanguage acquisitionChair:Erica de Vries, Universite Pierre-Mendes-France, FranceCapitalizing on multilingualism: Results of a large scale assessment study on language learning inGermanyHermann-Günter Hesse, German Institute for Int’l Educational Research, GermanyDominique Dahl, German Institute for Int’l Educational Research, GermanyThe study is part of the DESI survey (International Study of Students’ Achievements in Germanand English). Data of about 10.000 representatively sampled students’ German and Englishlanguage achievement test results have been collected in order to compare monolingual studentswith German as the first language (G), monolingual students with another language than Germanas the first one (nonG) and multilingual students with German and another language as firstlanguages (G+nonG), to evaluate the effects of the composition of the class and to test thehypothesis of the promotion of foreign language learning by multilingualism. Major Findings:G+nonG and nonG are equal or better in English than G if social background, basic cognitiveability and gender are controlled for. Multilingualism influences achievement in German languagepositively. The composition effects according to the proportional presence of nonG and G+nonGstudents on German language learning results disappear if in a two-level hierarchical model schoolform and socio-economic background are controlled for. The same composition effects with thesame control variables turn to positive ones on English learning being more salient for highpercentage of multilingual students in the classroom. Conclusion: Students who acquired a firstlanguage other than the dominant one dispose of a high capacity for foreign language learning.This supports the inter-language hypothesis. German lessons apparently do not make enough useof this capacity. The presence of nonG and G+nonG students helps to increase the learning resultsin English if social background variables are controlled for.– 351 –