1. ©2005 Hubert MARX, Luxembourg More Languages = More Dyslexia? Does a multilingual situation as in Luxembourg generate more dyslexic students than monolingual situations?

2. ©2005 Hubert MARX, Luxembourg INTRODUCTION More Languages = More Dyslexia? INTRODUCTION Luxembourg: a country with 3 official languages: Luxembourgish, French,German No other choice: Belgium, France and Germany are neighbors. Luxembourgish: « lesser used languages » Where is Luxembourg?

3. ©2005 Hubert MARX, Luxembourg More Languages = More Dyslexia? POPULATION Total inhabitants (2004): 450.000 38.6% belonging to another nation High immigrant rate has its effects on the school population (2003/04): - 63.6% have a Luxembourgish linguistic background - 36.84% have a different / foreign linguistic background - 52.2% of this group have a Portuguese linguistic background

4. ©2005 Hubert MARX, Luxembourg More Languages = More Dyslexia? POPULATION The official trilingual situation represents a truly existing multilingual situation This presents many challenges for children in primary school

5. ©2005 Hubert MARX, Luxembourg More Languages = Mores Dyslexia? MODEL The model of Cummins BICS: Basic Interpersonal Communicative Skills. These skill are the basic skills sufficient only to converse with peers and teachers CALP: Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency. This proficency refers to the cognitively demanding (spoken and written) language skills required to achieve school success

6. ©2005 Hubert MARX, Luxembourg

7. Languages = More Dyslexia? COMMENTS ON TABLE 1 the language learning situation is configurated more feasibly to the children with a Luxembourgish background for the other children there exist more barriers to acceed to the languages offered at school the more languages are offered, the more interferences occur

8. ©2005 Hubert MARX, Luxembourg More Languages = More Dyslexia? PSYCHOLOGICAL IMPACT Only a few recent studies in Luxembourg Identification problems Integration problems Dominant languages (f.ex. Germany vs. Luxembourg) Semi-multilingualism

9. ©2005 Hubert MARX, Luxembourg More Languages = More Dyslexia? DEFINING THE SUBJECTS Why observing children at the end of the 2nd school year (2nd grade)? End of the alphabetisation stage Students have accomplished the Luxmbourgish literacy aquisition curricula Difficulties often occur in the middle of the 3rd school year

10. ©2005 Hubert MARX, Luxembourg More Languagues = More Dyslexia? METHODS USED YearL (all numbers in %) nL Number of languages exposed to >>> 12345 200353.545.5053.541.075.30 2005356503055112 QUESTIONNAIRES TEST Teacher questionnaire 1: Number of languages exposed to: N2003=56; N2005=43

11. ©2005 Hubert MARX, Luxembourg More Languages = More Dyslexia? METHODS USED Teacher questionnaire 2 Assessment of language mastery: General oral expression in Luxembourgish Vocabulary in Luxembourgish Ability to ask correct questions in Luxembourgish Use of correct semantics in Luxembourgish Proper correspondance of phonemes and graphemes in German Ability to comment orally on a series of pictures in German

12. ©2005 Hubert MARX, Luxembourg More Languages = More Dyslexia? METHODS USED Rating12345 %0.72.36.518.671.3 Teacher questionnaire 2: Results of the rating: 1=very bad, 5=very good N2005=43

13. ©2005 Hubert MARX, Luxembourg More Languages = More Dyslexia? TESTING THE STRATEGIES OF WRITTEN LANGUAGE SKILLS Selecting the HSP2 as a test / Reasons Seven levels are measured: - correct written words - grapheme hits (Ana instead of Anna) - alphabetic strategy (neat grapheme-phoneme correspondances) - orthographic strategy (ex. word-length signs) - morphematic strategy (rules deduced from morphemes, ex. Sandkiste > d in Sand) - additional orthographic elements (students adding letters to a word : Blättern instead of Blätter) - signs are viewed (ex. a instead of ä)

14. ©2005 Hubert MARX, Luxembourg More Languages = More Dyslexia? RESULTS Test population: 18 classes = 233 children 80.68% of the students have a non- Luxembourgish background 19.31% use Luxembourgish as mother tongue The test took place in June 2005 in Luxembourg- City Centralized evaluation Examination of low results: < %ile 16, < %ile 2.3 Examination of high results: > %ile 84

15. ©2005 Hubert MARX, Luxembourg 3.19% of the nL-group and 11.11% of the L-group had maximum values !

16. ©2005 Hubert MARX, Luxembourg More Languages = More Dyslexia?RESULTS 10.21% of the nL-students are really struggling vs. only 4.07% of L-students 7.98% of the examinated group have problems, all language backgrounds together 30% of the nL-students succeed vs. 51.55% of L- students The rate of 7.98% could be seen as a first direction of a prevalence rate.

17. ©2005 Hubert MARX, Luxembourg More Languages = More Dyslexia? CONCLUSION The preceding results show that there is a large difference in the performance of children belonging either to a Luxembourgish linguistic background or not. The burden of the multilingualism in Luxembourg causes in that sense more negative colateral effects than probably in any other country. This applied research shows a clear difference between students with a Luxembourgish linguistic background and students with a non-Luxembourgish linguistic background. A second research should lead to a more closer ratio of native and non-native students representing the national situation.