Polish and Norwegian language and world knowledge development in mono- and multilingual children
University of Warsaw ·Poland
About this project
<p>The PolkaNorski project concerns the development of language skills and world knowledge in Polish-Norwegian multilingual children and their monolingual peers in Poland and Norway. We aim at investigating the relations between children’s language skills, their world knowledge and the features of their linguistic and educational environment. In particular, we focus on the development of vocabulary and knowledge of the living world in children aged 2;0-5;11. The study will include preschool children aged 3;0-5;11, . Raising a child in a multilingual environment can be challenging in many ways and maintaining harmonious bilingual development is crucial for a whole family's well-being. Therefore the fourth work package (WP4) focuses on evaluating the role of language-oriented intervention that starts even before the child's birth. For a sample of Polish parents expecting their children in Norway we will provide a workshop and a series of webinars concerning how they can interact with and talk to their newborns. Crucially, in a randomized controlled longitudinal design (with a general development intervention as a control) we will check whether such an intervention provided during the pregnancy may support vocabulary development of a bilingual child at the age of 12, 18 and 24 months. Overall our project will bring new knowledge on complex interplay of familial, educational and cultural in shaping language and world knowledge in children acquiring more than one language.</p>
Bilateral cooperation results
The bilateral cooperation was satisfactory. The project was well coordinated bewteen two partners' research teams. Also final conference gathered participants from many countries, which increased internalization of the project. As a result several joint application were submitted for further funding.
Project partners
- University of Oslo Donor project partner· Norway
- Oslo Metropolitan University Donor project partner· Norway