Diagnostic instruments
Analysis provides the best basis for the individual language promotion of bi- and multilingual children in the classroom. In terms of diagnostics, the various state projects of the FörMig Model Programme tested and (further) developed techniques to analyse, determine and to continually diagnose language levels. It was apparent from the start of the Model Programme that the development of methods in language diagnoses of children and youth with a migration background was unsatisfactory. In particular, there was a lack of instruments designed to expose the academic language competence of multilingual students in the transition from primary to secondary levels and in the transition to training/employment, and whose findings could be used to individually plan and realise language support measures.
These two transition phases are therefore at the centre of FörMig's development work. A range of instruments have been developed, tested and evaluated by programme associates. They provide teachers with precise information on language levels, as well as valuable indicators for continuing individual language support in the classroom:
- For the transition from primary to secondary, the profile-analytical instrument "Tulip bed" (Das Tulpenbeet) in German, Turkish and Russian
- For the transition to training/employment, the profile-analytical instrument "Fast Catch Boomerang" in German, Turkish and Russian
- For secondary level (in cooperation with the inter-regional working group, Secondary Level I), the competence-oriented observational method "Diagnostics and written language development in parallel"
- For primary level (grades 1-4) and secondary level (grades 5-10), the competence-oriented observational method "Standards in German as a Second Language" (on the initiative of FÖRMIG Saxony and in cooperation with FörMig Schleswig Holstein)
As well as these new methodological developments, HAVAS 5 (= Hamburg's systematic analysis of the language levels of five year olds) (Reich and Roth, 2004) was revised by the authors in German, Turkish and Russian for use by FÖRMIG in the transition from elementary to primary levels.