Sprachkompetenz und Sprachförderkompetenz frühpädagogischer Fachkräfte

Studies have shown positive relationships between teachers’ language proficiency and children’s language development as well as between educators language related knowledge and skills (language support competence) and children’s language development. This study is the first to investigate the relation between language proficiency and language support competences for the professional group of educators. It is hypothesized that language support competence increases with language proficiency in L1. In a cross-sectional study language-related knowledge, pedagogic skills and language proficiency of 42 educators in Germany were assessed with standardized tests. Correlation and regression analyses revealed a positive relationship between knowledge, language proficiency and educational factors, whereas pedagogic skills were explained to some extent by knowledge and the amount of professional education, but not by language proficiency. Results are discussed with respect to language support practices in early childhood education and current efforts to qualify educators lacking explicit linguistic knowledge and pedagogic skills for this task