Schriftliches Erzählen in der Zweitsprache

Why do so many children from language minorities who began their primary schooling in the host country still have serious deficits in the second language, especially in writing, even at the secondary level? In order to examine the linguistic abilities of migrant children, their narrative texts were examined from the point of view of narrative structure, the establishment of referential relations and the use of typical linguistic means of narration. One important outcome of the analysis was that those migrant children who only recently arrived in the host country have a degree of textual and narrative competence which derives from the first language. Their deficits are in the area of formulation. On the other hand, children who have spent all of their school time in the host country do not have this problem. The have deficits in textual and narrative competence, especially in comparison with children from the host country.