Academic Language Demands and Listening Comprehension in Children with German and Non-German Home Language

Based on theoretical assumptions regarding the concept of academic language, the present study investigates whether the performance gap between children with German vs. non-German home language is especially pronounced when processing academic language. Within an experimental design, 1,053 primary school children from various language backgrounds answered listening comprehension tasks whose stimulus texts differed systematically with regard to specific lexical and grammatical features of academic language. Hierarchical linear models show that, regardless of the linguistic complexity of the texts, children with a non-German home language reached lower listening comprehension performance than children with German home language. However, as the lexical demands of the texts increased, listening comprehension of children with German home language was impaired as well. Yet, there were no differential effects of academic language on listening comprehension performance of students with different home languages. We discuss the relevance of these findings regarding the conceptualization and assessment of academic language.