Abstract

This article examines the relationship between ethnic classroom composition and students’ language-related achievement. We investigate whether minority language use among classmates accounts for effects of ethnic composition on minority students’ German reading comprehension and their proficiency in the minority languages Russian and Turkish. We employ multilevel models using cross-sectional data from a sample of ninth-grade students participating in the German National Educational Panel Study. Our findings indicate that students’ minority language background rather than their ethnic origin accounts for ethnic composition effects. We find a negative relationship between the ethno-lingual classroom composition and students’ German reading comprehension, but the association is small and limited to minority students. Moreover, the ethno-lingual classroom composition is positively correlated with minority language proficiency, specifically among Turkish-speaking students. These associations are substantially reduced after controlling for students’ minority language use with their classmates, indicating that a higher proportion of minority language students in a classroom provides additional opportunities for acquiring or maintaining higher levels of proficiency in the minority language. Overall, the ethnic classroom composition does not appear to substantially reinforce existing inequalities between minority and majority students.

中文翻译：

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同学中的族裔教室组成和少数民族语言使用：同伴关系对学生的语言成就有影响吗？

摘要

本文研究了民族课堂构成与学生语言相关成绩之间的关系。我们调查了同学中使用少数民族语言是否能解释种族构成对少数民族学生德语阅读理解的影响及其对俄语和土耳其语少数民族语言的熟练程度。我们使用来自参与德国国家教育小组研究的九年级学生样本的横截面数据采用多层次模型。我们的研究结果表明，学生的少数民族语言背景而不是其族裔是造成族裔构成影响的原因。我们发现民族语言教室的组成与学生的德语阅读理解之间存在负相关关系，但这种联系很小，并且仅限于少数族裔学生。此外，民族语言教室的组成与少数民族语言能力呈正相关，特别是在讲土耳其语的学生中。在控制了学生与同学的少数民族语言使用后，这些联系大大减少，这表明教室中较高比例的少数民族语言学生为获取或保持较高的少数民族语言水平提供了更多的机会。总体而言，种族教室的组成似乎并没有在很大程度上加剧少数民族学生和多数学生之间的不平等。这表明教室中较高比例的少数民族语言学生为获得或保持较高水平的少数民族语言提供了更多机会。总体而言，种族课堂组成似乎并未在很大程度上加剧少数族裔和多数族裔学生之间的不平等现象。这表明教室中较高比例的少数民族语言学生为获得或保持较高水平的少数民族语言提供了更多机会。总体而言，种族课堂组成似乎并未在很大程度上加剧少数族裔和多数族裔学生之间的不平等现象。