This book describes a doctoral research project which aims at investigating actual practices of dialogic oriented shared book reading targeting immigrant children in German kindergartens. In this particular research project, the potential contributions of these practices to children's German as second language learning were also assessed. The participants of the study were five native German speaking kindergarten teachers (Erzieherinnen) and five groups of four to six children ages 3- 6 years old. The data sources were videotaped shared book reading sessions which were afterwards transcribed and analysed by using content analysis method. The analysis phases of the study revealed the following findings: 1) there were three different forms of interactions found during the observed shared book reading situations; 2) there were various educators' strategies and children's behaviours observed during the videotaped shared book reading situations, which to some extent were congruent; 3) there were potential contributions of different forms of interactions to children's second language learning. Eventually, the findings of this study are expected to give theoretical and methodological contributions to the field of early childhood second language learning. Moreover, it is also expected to be a solid empirical basis to support the improvement of language promotion programs for immigrant children in German kindergartens.

Although it is rarely given sufficient consideration in either scholarly or political debates, early childhood education plays a crucial role in the integration process of young immigrants in European countries, since it not only enables the children to be integrated into society, both linguistically and culturally, but it also provides their parents with the opportunity, through their children, to view the society more directly and to reflect on their own values in the encounter, or to potentially seek new orientations. The quality of young migrants’ educational achievements, which have repeatedly caused current political debates in European countries, should not be considered independently of the elementary education measures since they are very closely related. Prof. Dr. Ednan Aslan is Chair of Islamic Religious Education at the Institute for Islamic Theological Studies at the University of Vienna.

Learn how to make the most of shared reading with this practical guide, filled with strategies for creating an enriching atmosphere and actively engaging children during storybook reading.

This collection offers an in-depth study of children's peer talk and its potential impact on children's learning.

With digital screens becoming increasingly ubiquitous in the lives of children, from their homes to their classrooms, understanding the influence of these technologies on the ways children read takes on great importance. The aim of this edited volume is to examine how advances in technology are shaping children’s reading skills and development. The chapters in this volume explore the influence of various aspects of digital texts, the child’s cognitive and motivational skills, and the child’s environment on reading development in digital contexts. Each chapter draws upon the expertise of scientists and researchers across countries and disciplines to review what is currently known about the influence of technology on reading, how it is studied, and to offer new insights and research directions based on recent work.

Through innovative interdisciplinary methodologies and fresh avenues of inquiry, the nine essays collected in A Peculiar Mixture endeavor to transform how we understand the bewildering multiplicity and complexity that characterized the experience of German-speaking people in the middle colonies. They explore how the various cultural expressions of German speakers helped them bridge regional, religious, and denominational divides and eventually find a way to partake in America’s emerging national identity. Instead of thinking about early American culture and literature as evolving continuously as a singular entity, the contributions to this volume conceive of it as an ever-shifting and tangled “web of contact zones.” They present a society with a plurality of different native and colonial cultures interacting not only with one another but also with cultures and traditions from outside the colonies, in a “peculiar mixture” of Old World practices and New World influences. Aside from the editors, the contributors are Rosalind J. Beiler, Patrick M. Erben, Cynthia G. Falk, Marie Basile McDaniel, Philip Otterness, Liam Riordan, Matthias Schönhofer, and Marianne S. Wokeck.

Engaging Minds: Cultures of Education and Practices of Teaching explores the diverse beliefs and practices that define the current landscape of formal education. The 3rd edition of this introduction to interdisciplinary studies of teaching and learning to teach is restructured around four prominent historical moments in formal education: Standardized Education, Authentic Education, Democratic Citizenship Education, Systemic Sustainability Education. These moments serve as the foci of the four sections of the book, each with three chapters dealing respectively with history, epistemology, and pedagogy within the moment. This structure makes it possible to read the book in two ways – either "horizontally" through the four in-depth treatments of the moments or "vertically" through coherent threads of history, epistemology, and pedagogy. Pedagogical features include suggestions for delving deeper to get at subtleties that can’t be simply stated or appreciated through reading alone, several strategies to highlight and distinguish important vocabulary in the text, and more than 150 key theorists and researchers included among the search terms and in the Influences section rather than a formal reference list.