meRLe – Promoting German reading skills via multilingual-sensitive reciprocal teaching

Project Description

Did you know how many languages the children speak in your class? With our project meRLe we aim to take up this linguistic diversity and integrate it into our programme for learning and reading strategies. Reading is a key competence for successful education. Reading and learning strategies support children’s scholastic achievement even after their transition to secondary school. A scientifically based method to acquire these strategies is “reciprocal teaching” where pupils learn and teach each other the strategies in small groups. What is special about the project meRLe? Children can use all languages in the classroom that may help them learn the strategies. This fosters a cooperative learning environment in which German and all other languages are welcome. The project meRLe addresses primary schools in NRW and Hessen. The participating teachers receive free and scientifically sound training and classroom materials to implement multilingual-sensitive reciprocal teaching into their classes. Furthermore, teachers get opportunities on how to develop the multilingual children’s German reading skills without speaking these languages themselves. The programme will be evaluated via questionnaires and video recordings to gain new insights into the support of children’s reading competence.

Funding

Cooperations

Bergische Universität Wuppertal

Project Management Wuppertal: Prof. Dr. Jasmin Decristan

Project Team Wuppertal: Valentina Reitenbach

Project Team

Project Details