Carina Lüke (Paderborn) Ute Ritterfeld and Annika Biewener (Dortmund) p.1-14
2020 Issue 1
Abstract
The present study examined the relation between type of bilingualism (balanced, dominance in heritage or majority language) and language favoritism in bilingual students as well as the influence of language input by parents and siblings on these two aspects of bilingualism. Systematic interviews with 926 students between 8 and 18 years of age were conducted to capture the language in- and output and the favorite language of the youth. All participants lived in Germany and grew up with German and another heritage language. Results show that 32% of the children and adolescents demonstrated a balanced bilingualism. In most of the participants, a dominant language had emerged. In general, there was a significant trend of the dominant language also being the favorite one. Siblings had an important impact on the emergence of the dominant language, but they had no influence on the favorite language.